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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Learn more about our faith | Seasonal Reflections
A few years ago, a bus driver in Seattle named Marcus made headlines—not for any heroics, but for noticing people. Every day, he would watch passengers board his bus, many were his regular passengers, and most of them eyes glued to phones, avoided an older woman who was also his regular passenger in a frayed coat muttering to herself. One icy morning, Marcus saw this elderly woman shivering and he handed her his own thermos of coffee. She stared at him, then whispered, “You’re the first person who has looked at me in weeks.” Turns out, she wasn’t “crazy”—just a widow grieving her son, quietly unraveling. Marcus didn’t fix her life. He just saw her. And in that moment, he glimpsed eternity. That’s the scandal of today’s Gospel. Jesus says the final exam of faith isn’t theology or piety—it’s whether we recognize Him hiding in plain sight, disguised as the people we have trained ourselves not to see.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
A few years ago, a hospice nurse shared a story about a patient named Margaret. Margaret had no family, no accolades, no social media presence. But in her final days, she handed the nurse a worn-out journal. Inside were close to a thousand names—people she had prayed for daily, strangers she had read about in news clippings, neighbors she had silently helped. “I wanted my life to be a quiet, silent song,” she wrote, “not a noisy performance.” When she died, the nurse said the room felt holy, as if “the walls had absorbed decades of whispers to God.” Margaret’s journal is what Ash Wednesday looks like when it bleeds into real life: secret and sacred but surprisingly alive. Today, Jesus warns us not to turn faith into a theater act. “When you pray, go into your room. When you fast, wash your face. When you give, don’t let your left hand know what your right is doing.” In other words—Hide your holiness. Not because God is stingy with His grace but because love grows best in the dark, like seeds in the soil.
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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.
In an old film named Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we follow the adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones as he embarks on a quest to find his father, Henry Jones Sr., who has disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail. This journey is fraught with peril, including encounters with Nazis and treacherous traps. Ultimately, Indiana reaches the Grail's chamber, where he faces a critical choice: select the true Grail from a collection of ornate golden cups. Choosing incorrectly means death; choosing wisely grants life. Indiana selects a humble, unadorned wooden cup—the cup of a carpenter—and is rewarded with the true Grail. This cinematic narrative mirrors a profound spiritual truth found in the Gospel of today.
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Let’s talk about espionage, double agents and spying. In the 2010 movie, Salt, Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent accused of being a Russian double agent. To prove her loyalty, she goes rogue, dodges bullets, and stops a nuclear war; she does all this while questioning which side she is really on. The movie’s tagline is, “Who is Salt?”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
Imagine you’re at a family dinner. Everyone’s talking about their jobs, their promotions, their new cars. Your uncle brags about his new vacation home. Your cousin mentions her fancy job title. Then your little niece of 4 years tugs your sleeve and says, “Look! I drew you a picture!” Suddenly, the room becomes quiet. No one knows what to do with her crayon scribbles. But you take the drawing, tape it to the fridge, and say, “This is my favorite thing here.”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Strengthening family unity
Ever been in a group project where everyone is shouting ideas, but no one is really listening? You have got the overachiever bulldozing the agenda, the philosopher questioning the meaning of a PowerPoint slide, and a cool guy just hoping someone brings some snacks to the meeting and another looking at the clock for the meeting to be over. It’s chaos. And yet, somehow, it’s how most of humanity operates. Which brings us to the Tower of Babel—the Bible’s version of a group project gone hilariously off the rails.
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