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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 commemorate the memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of Church. This comes after we just celebrated his mother Monica yesterday. St. Augustine conversion life is highly attributed to the prayers of his mother. There are many things that we take from St. Augustine given his extensive wisdom on Theology, Philosophy and Scripture. Augustine born from North Africa, Algeria today, was baptized by St. Ambrose, and later became a bishop. There is a famous saying of him that, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” This restlessness of not despair but of hope in waiting. Hope in doing all what is necessary, that we do not miss to be part of the wedding when the bridegroom comes. It is a calling to be alert, wise, and keep our lamp with oil always. The parable of ten virgins we heard was Jesus' teachings at Mt. Olive just few days before his arrest, and crucifixion. It is quite extensive, spiritually enlightening, and a warning of staying awake. In the Jewish wedding, it stretched for days. The bridegroom would come to the bride's home mostly after nightfall. The bridesmaids/virgins were required to meet the bridegroom on the road and escort him. Through the street the party would continue and so they needed lamps. Lacking a lamp and oil was a shame, failure and insult to the bridegroom.
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Every year when we remember and pray to St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine, I think of how fitting a role model she is for parents who are worried about their children of any age… Over these past weeks, I’ve been, and I’ll bet some of you have been part of conversations with parents of adult children…parents who are worried about things like addiction, mental health, and drifting away from the practice of the faith. In one conversation, I was moved as the two people listened with great compassion to each other's stories and offered spiritual encouragement, treatment resources, and an invitation to meet their family at next week's Mass.
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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.
I do believe some of us, if not all, have run into someone who becomes a friend for a while, helps you out, but all of a sudden something happens, and you realize the person you thought you knew is not actually that person at all. The saying goes; “Not all that glitters is gold” People can seem one way on the outside but are completely different underneath. For those who have experienced betrayal, it speaks to the fact that people can mask cruel ambitions behind loyal faces. In the gospel today, Jesus accuses the religious leaders of hypocrisy, comparing them to “whitewashed tombs” – outwardly beautiful, but inwardly full of decay, dead bones. How they appear to others does not correspond to reality in their lives. There is a disconnect between the outside and the inside. They care more about having presented a good image and reputation while having neglected the unclean inner life. They honor God with their pious life, yet they mask a hardened heart.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Earlier this month, I was in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. You know what those hills have seen. Ten years of civil war. A blockade with no medicine, no fuel, no way out. Villages burned. Priests evacuated. Churches empty or in ruins. The faith did not die. It did not die because ordinary people carried it. Catechists walked. Mothers gathered children under a tree and prayed the Rosary from memory. No program. No budget. Only people who had received something and refused to let it fall. And then I saw what they handed on.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
We are living in an age obsessed with authenticity. We want authentic food, genuine products, original brands, natural ingredients and we love anything that is organic. We examine labels carefully because nobody wants to discover that what they paid for as “genuine” is actually an imitation. When it comes to people, there are some people with whom you never have to wonder where you stand. They may not always say what you want to hear. They may not be polished. They may occasionally make you wish they had a small internal editing department. But they are real. What they say to your face is what they will say when you leave the room.
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Catholic YouTube | family prayer | fostering vocations
Few things in modern America are more countercultural than becoming a Catholic deacon, priest, or sister. Why would people want to give their lives and freedom and limit their own choices just to serve Christ in the Catholic Church? On Aug. 18, Family Theater Productions seeks answers to those questions in a new YouTube series titled God Calls: Catholic Vocation Stories. Producer on the series is Jay Cooney (Christopher Award-winning Special Abilities: Living Fully With Down Syndrome, Telly Award-winning Grace in Grief: Hope After Loss), with help from FTP producer-at-large Father Vince Kuna, C.S.C. Together, they gathered the vocation stories of several men and women who’ve taken this path -- a deacon, priests, and religious sisters -- and learned a few things themselves along the way.
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