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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Today we celebrate what can seem like a paradox. After Jesus leaves His disciples, the Gospel tells us they return to Jerusalem with “great joy.” Normally, when someone we love leaves us, we experience sadness and loss. But the Ascension is different because it is not about Jesus becoming absent; it is about His presence taking on a new form. If Jesus had remained on earth in His physical body, He would still be limited by time and space—present in one village, one home, one gathering at a time. Through the Ascension, however, Jesus is no longer beside us in the same physical way as He was over 2,000 years ago, but He is now present to all people everywhere and at every moment; 24/7.
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In my many years doing marriage counseling, I have run into couples who have been together for twenty and plus years, now mentioning how complicated relationships are. Partners discover stuff about the other that make them conclude that they have been fooled all these years. Comments like; “this is not the person I married twenty some years back, I have been living with a stranger, a monster or a beast!” come up after betrayal, domestic violence, and dysfunctional behaviors that crushes marriage relationships. This goes on to tell us how limited our capacity to understand all there is about the other person's details of life. As human beings, we are constantly in the process of becoming aware, growing in understanding of situations in our lives.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
There is a fascinating detail about earthquakes that engineers often mention. During a serious tremor, people rarely run in straight lines to the nearest exit. Even when the exit is obvious, panic makes human beings irrational. Some freeze. Some scream. Some grab the wrong things. In the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, rescue workers said that many people came out carrying absurd objects in panic: lampshades, television remotes, frying pans, even grocery bags, while leaving behind passports, money, and valuables including toddlers. Fear rearranges the brain.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
In John’s Gospel, Jesus says something very honest and deeply encouraging: “I have told you this so that you may not fall away.” Jesus knew that His disciples would face difficult moments—rejection, suffering, confusion, and challenges to their faith. So before those struggles came, He prepared their hearts. And that is how God works in our lives too. Very often, God prepares us long before we understand what He is doing.
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Mother's Day | motherhood | seasons of motherhood
As Mother's Day approaches, Christi Braschler grapples with the difficult emotions involved in preserving healthy boundaries and breaking the cycle of past abuse. Mother's Day used to be a difficult day for me. Not because I don't have a mom: I do, but one who is alive and isn’t in my life. This is something that is often very difficult to explain to people.
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catholic family life | family prayer | liturgical year
What is liturgical living? Sarah Damm explores simple ways to allow the rhythm of the Church calendar to shape our hearts and homes. A simple search for “liturgical living ideas” often showcases perfectly decorated home altars, elaborate crafts for saint days, and decadent recipes for feast days. While beautiful, these images and posts can also feel intimidating for a busy mom. How am I going to do all of this when I barely have time to get dinner on the table? Years ago, as a young mom, I wanted to find ways to incorporate faith into our family life. But I knew I needed ideas that were simple to execute.
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