“Yes, I’d be happy to meet you. Why don’t you come over for tea tomorrow afternoon?” the email stated simply. It was the summer of 2007, and I read the email aloud incredulously to Ever. We were on vacation with our three kids, ages 4 and under, staying with family in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
The invitation was from Tom Howard, scholar and author of Hallowed Be This House and numerous other books. Last Thursday, he entered eternity at the age of 85, and his passing brought this cherished memory and his remarkable witness to the fore.
Just one day before receiving that email, I had realized that this writer, whom I had long admired, lived just down the road from Gloucester. What if? I thought. After a brief search, I found his email address online and reached out to him out of the blue, not expecting to hear back.
Besides the unexpected invitation, it was Howard’s challenge in Hallowed Be This House—”to recover the sense of the hallowed as being all around us”—that drew me to his enchanted home in Manchester that memorable afternoon. Ever and I had been inspired by the book’s call to sanctify the home, to “see the holy in the ordinary,” but all I could see that bleary-eyed summer was diapers, bottles, and strollers.
I knocked. And I will always remember Tom Howard welcoming me like a friend and leading me through beautiful rooms into the hush of his study. It was a feast for the senses—here I was, suddenly sitting, tea in hand, surrounded by his vast library, across from this gentle and understated intellect.
I wish I had taken notes of our conversation that Saturday afternoon. I wish I had snapped a photo. The words which passed between us now seem irretrievable, lost to time. But to see the study of this writer, the place where the work of his household economy played out each day, and feel the sacredness of the space, was perhaps enough.
In fact, I left Tom’s study that day with a gift that surpasses any written record or memento. Recalling the adage that “the medium is the message,” I experienced the message Tom had for me that Saturday afternoon through the medium of his home, his study, his hospitality, and that cup of tea. To a young dad—striving to interpret the call of Jesus in the context of the never-ending needs of a household—Tom offered a way forward: “splendor in the ordinary.”
As Tom wrote and as his Christian witness attested, our homes can truly be hallowed, a “dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit.” Hallowed Be This House offers a sweeping guide, chapter by chapter, to discovering holiness at the doors and entryway, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and the bedroom. Each page invites the reader to see that the rooms of our home can in fact “open out onto vistas that stretch beyond our seeing, into the realm of mystery.”
“Within these four walls,” he wrote, “under this roof, the lamps are lighted. The offering is here, the vigil is here, the feast is here, the faithful are here. All the eating and drinking, and the working and playing, and the discipline and serving and loving that go on here—they are all holy.”
In the years that followed that afternoon tea, Ever and I found ourselves trying to arrange the workings of our everyday household economy in a sacred key, ever more drawn to the idea of heaven in the home, of families coming to dwell in God and He in them. It was still seven years before we would be able to invite people into dwelling with God at Trinity House Cafe, but my time with Tom Howard was a significant moment on the journey.
Thank you, Tom, for hosting us and so many with your words and witness and life. Thank you for showing us that “within these four walls,” the Lord invites us to a heavenly banquet and feast.
“Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your master.”
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
Here’s Tom Howard’s Hallowed Be This House on Amazon ($14.95).
“Thomas Howard and the Wonder of our Earthly and Heavenly Homes” is a remembrance written by Noelle Merring, who housesat for the Howards. She writes, “Tom’s study was regal and comfortable, filled with his books, a welcoming sofa, an old desk, and his wooden kneeler for prayer.” Here’s another article providing an overview of his life, at Aleteia.
In this video about his book, The Chance or the Dance, Tom Howard is interviewed in his own home by Eric Metaxas for his Socrates in the City series.
A house blessing is a good place to start building a Trinity House! As the prayer for “Blessing When Moving to a New Home” states, “The Son of God, Lord of heaven and earth, made his home among us…By your life with Mary and Joseph you sanctified the life of the home; dwell with us in our home, so that we may have you as our guest and honor you as our Head. In you, every dwelling grows into a holy temple; grant that those who live in this house may be built up together into the dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit.” (Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers)
“Why Saints Louis and Zelie are Role Models for Today’s Parents” at Aleteia offers some great food for thought, including, “Louis and Zelie are not ‘buddy’ parents…Zelie clearly described their goal: ‘To raise [our children] for Heaven.’ Their priority is not that their daughters ‘succeed’ or be ‘well-balanced’; their priority is to set them on the path to holiness.”
Congrats (!) to Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering, and Kim Baile, who are out with Theology of Home II: The Spiritual Art of Homemaking.
Dr. John Cuddeback continues to challenge men to discover God’s call for them within the household. “The household is the most natural context, for everything you are as a man is drawn out, and is challenged and called into its fullness…into what God is calling you to be,” he said in a recent interview on “The Role of a Man in the Household” for the Diocese of Arlington’s Searching for More video-podcast.
Enjoying the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter in your inbox? Share it with a friend and encourage them to sign up to receive this weekly boost of inspiration and practical tools! Signing up takes just a few seconds at www.trinityhousecommunity.org.
Coming This Weekend and Next Week…
This Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10am-3pm, we’ll both be at Trinity House Café as we celebrate the cafe’s 6th anniversary since opening! Join us and other friends of the cafe by stopping by anytime to say hi, enjoy a drink, tasty meal, or a slice of cake which we’ll enjoy for the Cafe’s 6th. Want to step back in time? Here’s the local Leesburg paper’s story on “Trinity House Ribbon Cutting” from late October, 2014.
Haven’t had the chance yet to participate in our Heaven in Your Home Workshop? Or are you in need of a refresh? Sign up here for our next livestream workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8-9:30 p.m. (EST), streamed live from Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“I’m a married father of two young and energetic boys, living in Sweden. My wife and I long for and are grateful for the friendly, auspicious voice of the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter popping into my inbox and LinkedIn feed, for the guidance, sense of worldwide community, and helpful realization that most young families face similar challenges and opportunities and crave scripturally sound encouragement.” – Jason Francis
Please Join Us In Prayer
The invitation was from Tom Howard, scholar and author of Hallowed Be This House and numerous other books. Last Thursday, he entered eternity at the age of 85, and his passing brought this cherished memory and his remarkable witness to the fore.
Just one day before receiving that email, I had realized that this writer, whom I had long admired, lived just down the road from Gloucester. What if? I thought. After a brief search, I found his email address online and reached out to him out of the blue, not expecting to hear back.
Besides the unexpected invitation, it was Howard’s challenge in Hallowed Be This House—”to recover the sense of the hallowed as being all around us”—that drew me to his enchanted home in Manchester that memorable afternoon. Ever and I had been inspired by the book’s call to sanctify the home, to “see the holy in the ordinary,” but all I could see that bleary-eyed summer was diapers, bottles, and strollers.
I knocked. And I will always remember Tom Howard welcoming me like a friend and leading me through beautiful rooms into the hush of his study. It was a feast for the senses—here I was, suddenly sitting, tea in hand, surrounded by his vast library, across from this gentle and understated intellect.
I wish I had taken notes of our conversation that Saturday afternoon. I wish I had snapped a photo. The words which passed between us now seem irretrievable, lost to time. But to see the study of this writer, the place where the work of his household economy played out each day, and feel the sacredness of the space, was perhaps enough.
In fact, I left Tom’s study that day with a gift that surpasses any written record or memento. Recalling the adage that “the medium is the message,” I experienced the message Tom had for me that Saturday afternoon through the medium of his home, his study, his hospitality, and that cup of tea. To a young dad—striving to interpret the call of Jesus in the context of the never-ending needs of a household—Tom offered a way forward: “splendor in the ordinary.”
As Tom wrote and as his Christian witness attested, our homes can truly be hallowed, a “dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit.” Hallowed Be This House offers a sweeping guide, chapter by chapter, to discovering holiness at the doors and entryway, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and the bedroom. Each page invites the reader to see that the rooms of our home can in fact “open out onto vistas that stretch beyond our seeing, into the realm of mystery.”
“Within these four walls,” he wrote, “under this roof, the lamps are lighted. The offering is here, the vigil is here, the feast is here, the faithful are here. All the eating and drinking, and the working and playing, and the discipline and serving and loving that go on here—they are all holy.”
In the years that followed that afternoon tea, Ever and I found ourselves trying to arrange the workings of our everyday household economy in a sacred key, ever more drawn to the idea of heaven in the home, of families coming to dwell in God and He in them. It was still seven years before we would be able to invite people into dwelling with God at Trinity House Cafe, but my time with Tom Howard was a significant moment on the journey.
Thank you, Tom, for hosting us and so many with your words and witness and life. Thank you for showing us that “within these four walls,” the Lord invites us to a heavenly banquet and feast.
“Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your master.”
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
Here’s Tom Howard’s Hallowed Be This House on Amazon ($14.95).
“Thomas Howard and the Wonder of our Earthly and Heavenly Homes” is a remembrance written by Noelle Merring, who housesat for the Howards. She writes, “Tom’s study was regal and comfortable, filled with his books, a welcoming sofa, an old desk, and his wooden kneeler for prayer.” Here’s another article providing an overview of his life, at Aleteia.
In this video about his book, The Chance or the Dance, Tom Howard is interviewed in his own home by Eric Metaxas for his Socrates in the City series.
A house blessing is a good place to start building a Trinity House! As the prayer for “Blessing When Moving to a New Home” states, “The Son of God, Lord of heaven and earth, made his home among us…By your life with Mary and Joseph you sanctified the life of the home; dwell with us in our home, so that we may have you as our guest and honor you as our Head. In you, every dwelling grows into a holy temple; grant that those who live in this house may be built up together into the dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit.” (Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers)
“Why Saints Louis and Zelie are Role Models for Today’s Parents” at Aleteia offers some great food for thought, including, “Louis and Zelie are not ‘buddy’ parents…Zelie clearly described their goal: ‘To raise [our children] for Heaven.’ Their priority is not that their daughters ‘succeed’ or be ‘well-balanced’; their priority is to set them on the path to holiness.”
Congrats (!) to Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering, and Kim Baile, who are out with Theology of Home II: The Spiritual Art of Homemaking.
Dr. John Cuddeback continues to challenge men to discover God’s call for them within the household. “The household is the most natural context, for everything you are as a man is drawn out, and is challenged and called into its fullness…into what God is calling you to be,” he said in a recent interview on “The Role of a Man in the Household” for the Diocese of Arlington’s Searching for More video-podcast.
Enjoying the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter in your inbox? Share it with a friend and encourage them to sign up to receive this weekly boost of inspiration and practical tools! Signing up takes just a few seconds at www.trinityhousecommunity.org.
Coming This Weekend and Next Week…
This Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10am-3pm, we’ll both be at Trinity House Café as we celebrate the cafe’s 6th anniversary since opening! Join us and other friends of the cafe by stopping by anytime to say hi, enjoy a drink, tasty meal, or a slice of cake which we’ll enjoy for the Cafe’s 6th. Want to step back in time? Here’s the local Leesburg paper’s story on “Trinity House Ribbon Cutting” from late October, 2014.
Haven’t had the chance yet to participate in our Heaven in Your Home Workshop? Or are you in need of a refresh? Sign up here for our next livestream workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8-9:30 p.m. (EST), streamed live from Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“I’m a married father of two young and energetic boys, living in Sweden. My wife and I long for and are grateful for the friendly, auspicious voice of the weekly Heaven in Your Home Letter popping into my inbox and LinkedIn feed, for the guidance, sense of worldwide community, and helpful realization that most young families face similar challenges and opportunities and crave scripturally sound encouragement.” – Jason Francis
Please Join Us In Prayer
- For healing for those struggling with COVID-19, and for strength and safety for all medical personnel;
- For forgiveness for the times when we have failed to love and respect one another, and for healing from racism;
- For all students, that they might grow in wisdom, age and grace in this academic year;
- For the staff and ministry of Trinity House Cafe, and all Heaven in Your Home Workshop participants;
- For unity and healing in our nation, and for wisdom for all public officials;
- For all parents, that they may be refreshed and renewed on a daily basis by the Lord in prayer, as they seek to lead their families through the uncertainties of this time.
In Christ,Soren & Ever Johnson
Founders & Directors
Trinity House Community
Making Home a Little Taste of Heaven
