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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Healing the family | Why pray?
The parables Jesus used were excellent teaching tools. We may not understand them at first or second reading, but they engage our minds, are memorable, and invite us to discern meaning. They may speak to us of personality, the senses, the nature of light, the perception of things, or interpersonal relations.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Return to the Church
God has many ways of getting our attention. The angel appeared to Mary out of nowhere. Moses stumbled into a burning bush. Elijah heard whispers. Peter caught a boatload of fish. Saul of Tarsus hit the ground, stunned. Today we celebrate a knockdown.
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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.
A priest who worked in Africa told me that he had once been invited to visit the family of one of his parishioners. He had been living in Africa as a missionary for more years than he liked to remember. He was returning to India, and the family had invited him for a farewell. When I asked what had touched him most during his missionary life there, he thought for a moment and answered, “They called me their ancestor.” They told him that he was to them as their father and mother.
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Learn more about our faith | Return to the Church
In today's gospel, scribes have come from Jerusalem to see Jesus. No doubt, they want to investigate the wonders that have been attributed to Him. Their conclusion is astonishing. Despite His attention to prayer and compassion, they say that Jesus can cure illness and expel demons because He is in league with the devil, an accusation we still hear today.
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Be careful of birds landing on your head. That happened to Saint Fabian, and it was taken as a sign when a dove sat on his head, that he should be elected pope! Fabian was a Roman layman who came into the city from his farm one day as clergy and people were preparing to elect a new pope. So, he was! And he served for 14 years as a pope, until he was martyred in 250. It is an age-old argument: Do the events of history create the great (or evil) men who will change the world, or do great personalities come along at the right time to profoundly change history itself?
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Have you ever had this upsetting feeling that people are watching your every move and waiting to pounce on you when you commit even the slightest mistake? Jesus is presented to be in this sort of position in today's gospel. The time is the Sabbath. The place is the synagogue. A man is sitting there with a withered hand. Jesus is entering. The Pharisees are watching him closely to see if he will cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And sure enough, Jesus, who sees them and knows why they are there, says to the man “Come up here before us. Stretch out your hand.”
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