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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
In these past few days Jesus is presented in the gospel as giving last instructions before he departs from the disciples. Back at home, the schools that are run by Congregation of Holy Cross are private boarding schools. When parents drop off their children at the beginning of the term, you hear words like, take care of yourself, mind your behaviors, work hard, be careful, always talk to the warden if you need something from us. These are the kind of things people say when they are leaving or departing from school. Those words are always full of love for the child being left behind. What the parents are doing out of love is entrusting the future well-being of that child to himself or herself.
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I have a question for you…how does your family handle goodbyes? My family seems to have adopted the procrastination technique of being the last to leave a cookout or party, or even on phone calls, having one more story that rekindles the conversation…but parting and farewells, as much as we might want to avoid them, are a part of life.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today’s readings give us two emotional farewell moments. In the first reading, Paul gathers the elders of Ephesus, knowing suffering awaits him. Yet he says with remarkable peace: “I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord.” In the Gospel, Jesus prays to the Father on the night before His Passion: “I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.” Both Paul and Jesus speak about one thing: finishing the work God entrusted to them.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Imagine being a devoted fan of a football team. You know every player's name, you wear the jersey, you have the mug and the car sticker, and you never miss a match, you scream at the television, and you even try to coach the team from your couch telling them how they should play. But one day someone asks you, perfectly casually, "Did you catch the championship final last month?" And you say, with complete confidence, "What championship? What is it about? That is roughly the situation Paul walks into when he meets those twelve men in Ephesus.
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Annunciation | Family Rosary | anxiety
Meg Herriot meditates on how anxiety and the desire to control can be parenting pitfalls, butwe have a model in our Holy Mother. Praying the Mysteries of the Rosary: a Meandering Path I’ve written before about the gift of praying the Rosary, and how it has been a meandering path of Our Lady leading my family closer to her and our Lord. There have been some Mysteries of the Rosary that have been easier to enter into, to meditate on, and understand. I would say the Mystery of the Annunciation has always been more of a mystery to me. I was fortunate enough to take a trip to the place in the Holy Land where this mystery has been understood to have occurred. But obviously, I’ve never had anything similar to that situation happen, nor would I ever be worthy of it. So it seems harder to enter into, that is, until the other day.
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Catholic Family Fun | catholic parenting | family entertainment
For far too long, the terms "Christian media" and "children’s shows" were synonymous with "cheesy" and "fluffy." But that’s not necessarily the case anymore, especially on the Catholic platform called Formed. There seems to be a deep-seated desire to bring beauty, truth, and goodness back into art, especially in filmmaking. Formed — a streaming service created by practicing Catholics — has aimed to rebrand the landscape of Christian programming by curating a collection of top-notch content.
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