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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 | Why pray?
Right around now, the last two weeks before Easter, it’s not hard to lose our focus on Lent. It’s been about four weeks since Ash Wednesday and human nature being what is it is we can start to trail off in our prayer, fasting and charitable works. So, today’s gospel from John is perfectly placed on our Lenten journey, our preparation for the great celebration of Easter; in it, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and now us about His divine origin and mission.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Many of us own a bathroom scale or use one at a gym, it gives us an indication on how we’re doing with our diet and exercise programs…even our general health. But sometimes, we need to take a deeper look, maybe a blood test, MRI or cardiac ultrasound. Lent is a special time when we take a deeper look into our hearts and souls…to see what drives us…and what we place first in our lives and why….?
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
The Gospel of John gives us a powerful encounter between Jesus and a royal official, an encounter that illustrates the transformative power of faith. It’s meant to lead us to reflect on the nature of our own faith and how we, like the official, can come to a deeper trust in the Lord's promise. In this passage, Jesus returns to Galilee and is found in Cana, where He had previously performed the miracle of turning water into wine. It’s here that a royal official from Capernaum seeks him out, his heart heavy with worry. His son is gravely ill, on the brink of death, and he’s heard of Jesus' power to heal. Driven by a father's love and desperation, he implores Jesus to come and heal his son. Initially, Jesus responds with what seems like a rebuke: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
What does the Annunciation of the Lord mean to you and me? How has it changed our lives? Today we give thanks to God and our Blessed Mother. We thank God that the Word of God took on human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We give thanks to Mary for her saying “yes” to becoming the Mother of God. Each Monday and Saturday, as we pray the Rosary, we have the chance to reflect upon the Annunciation of the Lord in the first Joyful Mystery. We enter into that incredible exchange with the angel Gabriel greeting Mary with a blessing from God, then reassuring her: to not be afraid.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
Today we remember and pray to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem. He was biblical scholar, cleric, and eventually bishop of Jerusalem in the 4th century. Saint Cyril gave this great instruction: “We proclaim the Crucified and devils quake. So don’t be ashamed of the cross of Christ. Openly seal it on your forehead that devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling away.” For those who feel like you’re up against it with our current political and secular ideology at this time, Saint Cyril had to contend with both political and doctrinal controversies following the Council of Nicaea.
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Learn more about our faith | Seasonal Reflections
We’ve probably all had times when we’ve been trying to tell a story or explain something that it goes off the rails…we might even classify it as babbling. In Jesus teaching the disciples about prayer, He makes several points. The first is don’t pray to God the way that the pagans pray by babbling on…. more words don’t equal better results. Jesus isn’t telling them or us not to pray persistently throughout the day but rather to avoid what the pagans did in praying to their gods, invoking names and formulas…trying to get the attention of the pagan gods; in a sense trying to rouse the attention of those whose attention is elsewhere.
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