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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Death and Dying | Family Rosary | family dysfunction
My mother lay dying. My siblings and I stood around her bed, praying the Rosary as she lay unconscious. The Rosary reminds me that Mary, our Blessed Mother, is always near. I felt her presence with us then, as I did years ago when we prayed the Rosary as a family. We had prayed it together for years. We didn’t always come willingly. We were distracted, sometimes even arguing just before it began. We came in from different moods—half-paying attention, sometimes reluctant, sometimes restless. Yet once we started, something changed…
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Self Improvement | Thanksgiving
Denise Jelinek offers a two-step plan to ensure that holidays revolve around relationships and not simply food. Do you want to trade in the cultural stressed-out, food frenzy and instead experience Thanksgiving (and the surrounding days) as God intended? If so, I invite you to try out the two steps I use to create a simple yet celebratory Thanksgiving! Below, I’ve outlined my own Thanksgiving plan (which includes a 3-day stay at my parents’ home with my husband and two teenage sons) that you can use to create the kind of holiday you actually look forward to.
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Advent | Family Activities | Sacred Heart enthronement
Jesus calls us to an inner transformation, urging us to unite our hearts with His—a change that goes beyond surface alterations, reaching the core of our being. As 2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." Through the virtues of meekness, humility, and charity, Jesus guides us on this transformative journey.
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Charles Borromeo | Homily Video | Learn more about our faith | family unity
Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel can be a bit challenging even to understand, because they at least touch on aspects of the end-times, known by the fancier word of “eschatology.” And part of Jesus’ consistent teaching about the end is that we shouldn’t try too much to figure out times and places, signs, and chronologies. And so, in some sense, delving into the details about precisely what Jesus’ comments and images could mean about the end times not only misses the point, but even kind of goes against His instructions.
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Gospel Readings | Learn more about our faith | catholic family life
Sometimes we ask someone, “How is your family?” They smile and say, “We are fine.” But behind those words may be a painful story: a marriage growing distant, a betrayal too difficult to discuss, a child caught between parents, or someone lying awake wondering, “What will happen to us?” Some homes are filled with arguments; others have grown painfully quiet. Silence does not always mean peace. Sometimes it means someone no longer feels safe enough to speak. Into these homes, Jesus says today: “The Kingdom of God is among you.” We might ask, “Lord, if you are among us, why do I feel so alone?” Jesus does not promise a life without sorrow. He promises His presence within it. Your suffering has not placed you beyond God’s reach. You do not have to put your life in order before approaching Him. Come with your questions, your exhaustion, even your anger. Begin with this simple prayer: “Lord, this is where I am. Meet me here.”
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Catholic Faith | Homily Video | Learn more about our faith | saints
On this Veterans Day in the United States, we remember and give thanks to those men and women of our military…who have served, sacrificed, and contributed to our nation. We pray for them as they have sought to protect our nation while maintaining moral and ethical standards—a high bar in a complex and dangerous world. Today’s Saint, Martin of Tours, was also a soldier who lived long before us in the 4th century, but his transformation from Roman soldier to priest and bishop came as the result of the grace of Baptism that we’ve all received. St. Martin’s adult baptism caused him to rethink what it meant to be a Roman soldier in light of his Christian faith. That led him to be open to answering the call to the priesthood. For Martin, it was realizing he was called to be a soldier for Christ, not for Caesar.
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