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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
“Search Me O Lord and Try Me, Test My Soul and My Heart.” Today’s Saint, Junipero Serra certainly heard, prayed, and lived out this prayer. For he began his professional life as a Spanish university professor teaching philosophy, and after ordination to the priesthood, also taught theology. But despite his academic giftedness and successes, he felt called to become a missionary. This led to his being sent to the Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico City in 1749. Beginning the next year and for the following six years Father Junipero would oversee five missions to the Pame Indians in the Sierra Gorde mountains.
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Today’s readings, particularly, the gospel can lead us to ask ourselves, “what are we building our lives upon…is it our 401k plans, educational degrees, whatever makes us happy, or something else…? Compounding this question but related is the fact that life is complex and with lots of twists and turns. Anyone who has been on this earth for more than eighteen years or maybe even less knows this from experience….just consider the two couples: Elizabeth and Zechariah and Abram and Sarai and their stories that we have heard about this week.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Recently, I was talking with several priests, and the question of whether they could stay in their current parish or have to begin at a new parish came up. Two of the priests are in their mid-to-late sixties, and they reasoned that beginning anew would not be easy or perhaps good for the parishes involved. Only God knows how their or any of our stories will emerge. However, this conversation added context to our first reading where the Lord sends Abram to a new land, leaving the land of his people and the family home, and needing to convince his wife, his brother’s son, all the people in their household, and pack up their possessions too. Whether you are a priest, married, or single, preparing and moving to a new place, in this case to one that Abram has never seen, is never easy, and to compound things—Abram is seventy-five years old!
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today's reading from 2nd Corinthians presents us with a seemingly paradoxical message. St. Paul, in his letter, speaks of boasting, not in his strengths, but in his weaknesses. In a world that values power and success, how can weakness be a source of pride or a testament to faith?
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
I have a question for you: can you remember the last time that you gave praise to God like the psalmist that we have just heard? A time when you couldn’t help but praising God’s goodness and mercy, maybe even going beyond prayer with God and telling others…. As I reflected on this question, I thought about what it takes to get us out of normal dialogue with God whether in our formal prayers or in times of exasperation or fear when we simply call out to God for help. It’s then that I remembered the Air India plane crash that tragically killed 241 souls but somehow one man not only survived but walked out of the plane. That man and everyone involved used the same word to describe his beating the odds: miraculous.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Saint Paul addressed his letter to the Corinthians with a heartfelt appeal. Paul says, “As brothers and sisters in Christ, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Immediately, this made me ponder the questions: How are we receiving the grace of God? Are we letting this great gift help us fulfill our mission each day, or do we sometimes fail to use this gift from God to help us? Paul reminds the people of his time and ours of God’s message: “In an acceptable time, I heard you, and on the day of salvation, I helped you.” In every Sacrament…we receive the grace of God, and we know that we also receive His grace in moments of prayer and even in moments we cannot even find a way to ask for His help. In this spirit, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that God has heard them and helped them throughout their lives in various ways.
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