I have been building toward this week for a long time. Today I want to tell you what's arriving at Domus, all at once, in a coordinated launch we are calling Domus 2.0.
Domus was always intended to be more than a daily reflection service. It was intended to be infrastructure for the domestic church. This week is when the app finally becomes what it was designed to be.
Household sharing arrives
Until now, when a family joined Domus on a household plan, each family member subscribed to their own prayer paths in parallel. Real formation happening, but individually.
Starting this week, if you're on a household plan, your family can share formation together in ways that are genuinely new for a Catholic prayer app:
- See when other household members have engaged with today's prayer. A warm awareness, not surveillance. Mom sees that Dad opened Iron this morning. Dad sees that the teens opened Young Disciples. Simple, present, together.
- Plan and observe feast days together. When a feast day arrives, your household can decide together to observe it - light a candle, place a flower on the family altar, cook a specific food. Mark it in the app. Build a family record over time.
- Share prayer intentions within your family. A parent asks that the household pray for a friend. A teen asks for prayers before an exam. Dad asks for prayers about a work decision. Family members see and pray these intentions. Contained to the household. Never shared beyond.
- Keep a family formation record. Over months and years, your household accumulates a record of what you observed, when, how. A family memory of Catholic formation that your children will remember when they are grown. These features are what the domestic church actually needs. Not another content platform. Not another notification. Infrastructure for the shared life of faith at your table.
Meet your patron saint
The second major addition arriving this week: each Domus prayer path is now paired with a specific patron saint who walks with you as an intercessor.
- Hearth & Altar: Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, the first married couple canonized together in Church history
- Hogar y Altar: Our Lady of Guadalupe with Saint Juan Diego
- Iron & Altar: Saint Joseph the Worker, foster father of Jesus
- Vessel & Altar: Saint Elizabeth of the Visitation, mother of John the Baptist
- Eventide & Altar: Saint Anna the Prophetess, the elderly widow of the temple
- Ocaso y Altar: Saint Simeon, the elder who held the infant Christ
- Ostium Catholic: Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized in 2025
- Young Disciples: Saint Carlo Acutis, canonized in 2025 Every time you open your path in the & Altar app, a beautiful holy card image of your patron will fade in for a brief contemplative moment. Their invocation ("Saint Joseph, pray for us") will appear, and then the card will fade to reveal the day's content. This ancient Catholic devotional practice - carrying a holy card, speaking an invocation before prayer - is now built into the app in a way that honors it.
The saints are not a marketing device. They are real intercessors. Catholic doctrine teaches that the communion of saints is a genuine relationship, that the saints in heaven pray for us in real time, that they are available to those who ask. Domus is now designed to honor this reality every day.
The monthly patronal letter
Beginning next month, on the first day of each month, you will receive a personal letter from me that includes:
- A monthly greeting and reflection
- Introduction to the Church's monthly devotion (August, for instance, is traditionally devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary)
- A list of upcoming feasts to observe
- A block from each of your patron saints, speaking into the coming month If you're subscribed to multiple paths, you'll receive blocks from each of your patron saints. Your monthly email becomes a warm letter from friends in heaven, calibrated to your actual practice.
Your first letter arrives on August 1st.
A refreshed app design
The & Altar app has been refined throughout to feel more contemplative and less utilitarian. Warmer typography. More generous whitespace. Softer transitions. A design that feels like opening a book of hours rather than an email client. This is not just polish - it is theological. The app that carries daily prayer should invite reverence, not demand attention.
Two new Spanish paths
Hogar y Altar (for Spanish-speaking Catholic families) and Ocaso y Altar (for Spanish-speaking elders) are now available. Same daily rhythm, shaped for the specific texture of Hispanic Catholic devotional life, in the language subscribers actually pray in.
What you don't need to do
Your subscription continues as it is. When you next open the & Altar app or visit WeAreDomus.com, you'll see the new features and can try them if you want.
If you're on a household subscription and haven't yet invited your family members, this is the moment. Open the app, find the household section, and invite the people you love.
What we ask
If Domus has been a gift to you, please consider inviting one other family into it this month. Send this post to a friend. Share the & Altar app with a Catholic parent you know. The domestic church grows one household at a time, and we grow best when our subscribers introduce us to their friends.
You can start a 7-day free trial today.
Thank you for walking with Domus.
Consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In fieri. Ad alta. Deacon Michael Halbrook Founder, Domus Formation