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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
There is something interesting about how we remember things. When I was a child, we had a steel trunk under the bed, packed with old clothes, letters, books, old silverware, and photographs. On some days, my mother would open it, sit on the floor, and start pulling things out: a yellowed shirt, a broken pair of spectacles, a letter written in ink so faded it looked like fog. Every time she opened it, we kids would groan, “Not again!” because we knew we were about to sit through another episode of The Dusty Chronicles, staring at silverware from 1972. But she’d sit on the floor like a museum curator, holding up the silverware, “Shhh… This is who we are.” She wasn’t preserving junk. She was preserving meaning.
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Blessed Virgin Mary | Catholic Faith | pray the rosary
Meg Herriot looks back on how she has grown in praying the Rosary and the ways she and her husband have made the Rosary the center of family prayer.
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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.
Catholic Faith | family prayer | parish culture
When Patrick Peyton first arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, from Ireland, he searched for work for weeks without success. Monsignor Kelly tracked him down and offered him a job as a sexton (janitor) in the cathedral—he accepted. Finally, while working in the cathedral, with the silence, peace, and joy of talking to Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother, Patrick experiences a sense of being at home and a place of happiness. Patrick’s dream of becoming a missionary priest is awakened in a new land. ~FatherPeyton.org Today, guest contributor, Mary Kreger, shares her moving experience as a church custodian. Help Wanted In the spring of 2022, our pastor announced after Sunday Mass that the church sacristan and groundskeeper would be leaving the parish for a new job. “On behalf of our church, I want to thank Chuck for his 27 years of faithful service,” our pastor said, adding, “Chuck’s full-time position will now be divided into three part-time jobs, including a church custodian role.” My ears perked up at this last announcement. They needed someone to clean the church? I could do that. “Unless we find someone willing to do these part-time jobs, the parish can’t go on,” the pastor continued. “Please consider applying.”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
“I will follow you…wherever you go.” As Luke's Gospel says, those words were spoken to Jesus by an unnamed “…someone.” The fact that the person isn’t named allows us to see ourselves as that person. Each of us, whether using those words or simply by our actions, such as being at this Mass, has communicated our willingness to follow Jesus. As we know, this is a lot easier in a church, a seminary, or a retreat than once we walk out into the other realities and responsibilities of the world. Jesus intimates this when He says, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” But He doesn’t stop there, He says to another person present, “Follow me.”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
Jesus is both God and Man. God is both One and Three. These theological mysteries of our faith, where seemingly impossible things go together, continue a pattern of more immediate, personal mysteries that many of the heroes in our Scriptures were asked to embrace. Before the burning bush, Moses asked the Lord, “Why send me to convince Pharaoh, when I am such a poor speaker?” At the Annunciation, Mary replied to the angel, “How can I give birth to the Messiah since I am a virgin?”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
A sunrise or a sunset over still water. The silence before a symphony begins. A child laughing in sleep. A blessing whispered from the deathbed. These are moments that do not ask to be explained. Only received. These are not events to be intervened, but mysteries to be knelt before. The Transfiguration is one such moment. The mountain is where the veil thins, where the ordinary gives way. “Mountains in Scripture are never destinations, they are thresholds. From Sinai to Tabor, they are where God speaks so we can descend changed. The climb is not about escape, but a preparation for everything waiting below.”
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