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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Once in a workshop for principals of schools in which I was part of, I heard A retired school principal share a story that has stayed with me for long. After forty years in education, he said the most difficult meeting he ever attended was not with troubled students, it was with teachers discussing their former students. Whenever someone famous appeared in the news, a scientist, an artist, a politician, teachers who had taught them years earlier would say things like, “Really? That boy? He sat in the back of my class.” Or, “That girl? she barely spoke when she was in class.” They remembered the old version of the person and struggled to reconcile it with who that person had become. The principal said something interesting: “We often freeze people in the version of them we first knew.”
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Catholic Faith | Lent activities | Spiritual Life
What are the things that hold you back from having a fruitful Lent? Catholic Mom contributor Andrea Bear provides practical tips for finishing the season strong. We are well into Lent, and the chocolate bar looks tempting; you just gulped down a roast beef sandwich, then noticed the calendar says Friday. Or on the opposite end, you’re still trying to determine what to give up — and there’s only a couple of weeks left. Does this sound familiar? What happens when we can’t commit to our Lenten promises, or we just feel unenthusiastic about Lent? Unlike the Christmas and Easter seasons of celebration, Lent often has the stigma of being a gloomy period in our Church calendar. If we don’t prepare for Lent, it can seem like a depressing time, rather than a time of renewal.
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Brief and contemporary inspiration focused on hope and family prayer will be delivered to your inbox! Articles include live video, written word, and links to resources that will lead you and your family deeper into faith.
Holy Women's History Month | Holy lives of inspiration | St. Gianna Molla | motherhood
For Holy Women's History Month, Emily Jerger highlights how God rewarded Saint Gianna Molla's humility and answered her desire.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Our readings this Friday draw a parallel between Joseph and Jesus. In the First Reading the brothers of Joseph want to kill him, and in the Gospel through the parable of the Vineyard the Pharisees sought to kill Jesus. Both Joseph and Jesus go through great agony but in the end God’s plans triumph.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Jeremiah gives us today two portraits, and they could not be more different. The first is a barren shrub in the desert — a man who trusts in human flesh, whose heart has turned from the Lord. He cannot see goodness when it comes. He stands in scorched earth, in a salt land no one inhabits. The second is a tree planted by water. Its roots reach deep toward the stream. It does not fear the heat. When drought comes, it does not wither. It yields its fruit in season, and its leaves never fade. The difference between these two men is not talent. It is not circumstance. It is the direction of their roots. One has planted himself in flesh; the other has planted himself in God. And everything — their fruitfulness, their joy, their very capacity to endure — flows from that one decision.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
The great preparatory seasons of the Church, Advent and Lent, both have multiple facets and their own rhythms and trajectories. Advent begins with an emphasis on the future coming of Christ and then it focuses on our celebration of the Incarnation, all the while fostering our spiritual preparation to receive Him in His comings. Lent, as we’ve experienced these first two weeks, begins by encouraging us to take up the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as a means toward deeper conversion and more sincere relationships with God and our neighbor. But today, we see, especially in the Gospel, the beginnings of another emphasis of Lent, its path toward the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection. These themes are related, of course, because prayer, fasting, and works of charity are disciplines that can strengthen us to embrace the Cross in our lives.
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