Raising Children in a Visibly Catholic Home

I don’t remember the capitals of all fifty states, I could probably only name 20 or so of the 45 United States presidents, and I definitely would not be able to calculate the area of a circle. But I can tell you the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the story of St. Christopher, and the Ten Commandments.

This isn’t a weird “I’m such a great Catholic” brag. This is a testament to the fact that I was raised in a visibly (and audibly) Catholic home. Hanging in my family’s kitchen throughout my childhood (and to this day), was a ceramic plaque depicting a garden, with each of the crops accompanied by a little sign naming a fruit of the Holy Spirit. My parents’ bookshelves are filled with theology tomes, devotionals for different liturgical seasons, and stories of saints, including a children’s book about St. Christopher. And I grew up listening to CDs and cassette tapes with titles like “Glory and Praise” (our parish’s hymnal, in recorded form) and, you guessed it, “God’s Top Ten.”

My parents never sat down with me and said, “Here are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Learn them!” Instead, they created an environment in which I could see my faith in our everyday surroundings, a space where Catholic art could form my imagination and conscience. I grew up knowing that Mary is mother to us all and that sacrifice shows love at least in part because of the Madonna and child print hanging at the foot of our stairs, and the crucifixes on the walls of the bedrooms.

I give credit to my parents for their thought and intention in how they decorated and filled our home, but now that I’m on the adult side of things, I also want to point out: creating a visibly Catholic home is actually quite easy. It doesn’t take dozens of hours of work or thousands of dollars. It takes making a decision once, spending a little bit of time considering your home design and style, and then just a few moments of aggravation with nails and a hammer.

To make the process even easier, here’s a curated list of Catholic decor and ideas of how to style a visibly Catholic home.