x Close
World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
Picture this: a family road trip. The GPS fails, the kids fight over snacks, and Dad misses the exit—again. Mom finally snaps, “Whose idea was this?!” Silence follows until one child mumbles, “I lost the map.” Another adds, “I hid the snacks.” Dad sighs, “I ignored the signs.” Mom laughs, “And I didn’t pack patience.” Suddenly, blame turns into confession, the tension lifts, and they pull over for ice cream, ready to start over. That’s the heart of Daniel’s prayer in today’s reading. Exiled in Babylon, he gathers his people and says, “We have messed up—all of us” (v. 5-6). There’s no finger-pointing, just raw, family-style honesty. Lent invites us to do the same: ditch the blame game and clean up together.
Share
Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
In 1943, German industrialist Oskar Schindler faced a moment that would etch his name into history. Initially motivated by profit, he employed Jewish workers in his factory to exploit cheap labor. But as the Holocaust’s horrors escalated, he began to see his workers not as pawns, but as people. Risking everything—his wealth, reputation, and life—he pivoted, spending his fortune bribing Nazi soldiers to save over 1,200 lives. When asked why, he confessed, “I could not just stand aside.”
Share
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.
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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?”
Share
