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I am going to pray the Rosary every night, I promised several Lents in a row. Every night, I crawled into bed, rosary in hand, ready to go. Every morning, I woke up with bead indentations on my face, unaware of how or when I fell asleep. I had designated spots in my room for everything from doing my makeup to putting on my socks, but I had no designated spot to pray. After many failed Lents, I knew I needed my own prayer spot. With the college budget of $20 and the modest space of a dorm room, I put together what I could: a prayer corner.
Despite having a Perpetual Adoration chapel on my college campus, the majority of Catholic students have their own devotions in their dorm rooms. Some have chairs or altars lined up next to desks or end tables, but I have a 2-foot table and a 3-foot rug, both purchased from the local dollar store. While it may not be the most elegant presentation, it has completely transformed my prayer life.
Before creating a prayer space in my room, I felt I could only ever pray in front of Jesus Himself exposed in Adoration. As I prepared to move across the country where I wouldn’t have daily access to Adoration, I expressed these concerns to my spiritual director. “The Adoration chapel is your privileged place,” he explained. “Jesus is present there, but He is also present within you. You don’t need a privileged place to pray, but you can create one wherever you go.”
I created the prayer spot to be my at-home privileged place. Like the Adoration chapel, my corner is used for only one purpose: prayer. I can sit on the rug and light the candles and simply pray.
My prayer corner is a sacred haven away from the busyness of life. No matter where I’m living, the tiny table travels with me, and so do all of its additions: a lifetime supply of rosaries, prayer cards, holy water, relics, crucifixes, icons — you name it. It’s not perfectly organized, but that’s what makes it so beautiful.
We are all tabernacles. The Holy Spirit lives within us, allowing us to pray in the presence of Jesus whenever, wherever. No matter what your prayer space looks like, even if it’s assembled from the dollar store, its power lies in the fact that Jesus is there.
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This is part of the series called “The Human Being Fully Alive” found here.
