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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
As we come down the homestretch of Advent toward Christmas, it’s good to pause and remember why December 25th is a holy and special day. The opening prayer says it all: “O God, who seeing the human race fallen into death, willed to redeem it by the coming of your only begotten Son…” In just one line, we recognize our need for a Savior and profess that one has been sent. The prayer then turns to our response: “…grant, we pray, that those who confess his Incarnation with humble fervor may merit His company as their Redeemer.” That phrase—“confess his Incarnation with humble fervor”—is a powerful reminder of what we strive for in our faith: to proclaim that Jesus, the Son of God, took on our human nature to redeem us, and to do so both humbly and with passion. That balance is not always easy.
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Living the Faith | The Holy Family | catholic family life
Janelle Peregoy considers families' universal call to holiness, prayer, and discernment — even in the messy parts of their 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.
anxiety | family prayer | pray the rosary | self-help
If you’ve ever battled anxiety, you know it can feel like your brain is hijacked — spinning with thoughts you can’t seem to stop, flooded with emotions you didn’t invite. You may even feel like your body is working against you. But in the middle of all that chaos, the Rosary offers something astonishingly gentle and effective: peace. Not just a moment of calm, but real, neurological, heart-level peace. As a Catholic therapist, I’ve had the privilege of walking with many individuals through their struggles with anxiety. I’ve seen how combining faith and neuroscience can be powerfully healing, and the Rosary is a beautiful example of this integration. Here’s why the Rosary is not only spiritually beneficial, but also scientifically helpful for calming an anxious mind.
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Catholic Family Fun | Father Patrick Peyton | pray the rosary
Maria V. Gallagher recaps her own experience of using the new book, The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, to pray the Rosary. I’ll admit it — I had to be sold on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. I had been praying the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries since I was a child, pleading desperately that my father, an accountant, would be able to make payroll so that we could eat. I relied on that trio of Mysteries for consolation during difficult times. It was difficult for me to imagine branching off into praying a new set of Mysteries. But I realized that Pope John Paul II must have had good reason to add something to what I considered to be the perfect form of prayer. I had to trust in the Holy Father’s judgment on this. In The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C, offers an incredibly helpful guide for praying the Luminous Mysteries, along with the other Mysteries of the Rosary. It was as if he and his spiritual guide, the late Father Patrick Peyton, took me by the hand, one on each side, and led me closer to Jesus through the recitation of these Mysteries of Light.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Today's readings present a miraculous conception of two famous people in the history of the Israelite. These are Samson and John the Baptist. They carry similarity connected to their mission as announced by an Angel. They are both to be Nazirites from birth, abstaining from wine and strong drink, their mothers were barren initially and both have a mission of participating in the mission of God’s working among his people.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Immaculate Conception | Learn more about our faith
In difficult situations, dilemmas, quest between the truth and Charity sometimes we seek justification. We quickly identify the wrong, and the betrayal; we are cornered by pain. We seek relief by exposing that individual who has failed us. The world will clap for us! Pope Francis in his Apostolic letter Patris Cordis (With Father’s Love) says that often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. "Joseph set aside his ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his history." — Patris Cordis, Apostolic letter by Pope Francis (150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as patron of the universal church)
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