A home altar or family altar is a shrine kept in the home of a Western Christian family used for Christian prayer and family worship. Home altars often contain a cross or crucifix, a copy of the Bible, a breviary and/or other prayer book, a daily devotional, a headcovering, icons of Jesus Christ and prayer beads, among other religious articles specific to the individual's Christian denomination, for example, the images of the saints for Catholics, the Small Catechism for Lutherans, and the Anglican prayer beads for Anglicans.
A home altar in a Methodist household, fixed on the eastern wall of the house
A homemade attached altar made from wood in a Traditional Catholic home. It combines devotional pictures and statues, as well as relics and candles.
Believers have historically hung a Christian cross on the eastern wall of their homes to indicate the eastward direction towards which they focused their prayers.
A Catholic home altar, with a set of candlesticks and crucifix, and a homemade altar frontal and tabernacle containing not the Blessed Sacrament, but a devotional object passed down as an heirloom instead
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice.
A prie-dieu, which is used for private Christian prayer, situated in the room of a historic house.
Many devout Christians have a home altar at which they (and their family members) pray and read Christian devotional literature, sometimes while kneeling at a prie-dieu.
A page of Matthew, from Papyrus 1, c. 250
Priest reading from Holy Scripture in preparation for meditation and contemplative prayer