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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 | 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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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 Momcast | Catholic books | Lenten season
Author Samantha Stephens discusses her new book, The Bellbind Letters (based on C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters), written to address the challenges and temptations Catholic mothers face.
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Holy Women's History Month | Holy lives of inspiration | Old Testament
For Holy Women's History Month, Karen Estep discusses Ruth, an Old Testament woman who still inspires modern women. Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. (Ruth 1:16) These words were read at my wedding. At the time, I meant for it to be part of our family motto because my husband was a football coach, and I wanted to support the teams he would coach. When you’re a football coach and a football coach’s wife, the teams eventually become your family, no matter which team it happens to be. I had no idea what Ruth would ultimately mean to me as a woman in a modern age.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
In 1980, a retired NYPD detective, Frank Bolz pioneered something that transformed law enforcement forever, especially hostage negotiation. His radical, counterintuitive insight was breathtakingly simple: he said, don't storm the building. Talk first. Because the moment genuine conversation begins, something irreversible happens. When you talk, a relationship is established. The standoff becomes a relationship. And relationships, real ones, change people. God, it turns out, invented this long before Frank. What Isaiah records in the first reading is a divine hostage negotiation situation. And here's the twist; we are simultaneously the hostage and the hostage-taker. We have taken ourselves captive, barricaded inside our own comfortable habits, our carefully curated religion, our elaborate self-justifications. And God, rather than sending in the SWAT team, simply picks up the phone. "Come now. Let us talk this over." He doesn't kick the door in. He calls. He begins a conversation and that distinction is everything.
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A World at Prayer is a World at Peace | pray the rosary | rosary novena
Beginning Tuesday, March 3, Holy Cross Family Ministries will launch a Rosary novena for peace during our daily 11:30 a.m. EST Rosary livestream on Facebook and YouTube—lifting together our prayers for peace in our world. As we begin this Rosary novena, we unite our hearts with the vision of Venerable Father Patrick Peyton, who passionately believed the world, “The family that prays together stays together,” and proclaimed with hope, “A world at prayer is a world at peace.” Over these nine days, may our prayer draw us closer to Christ, strengthen our families, and open our hearts to the peace only God can give. With the Blessed Virgin Mary as our gentle guide, we entrust this novena to her loving care and to the transforming grace of the Holy Rosary.
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