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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Today we hear Jesus in the Gospel journeying from town to town and from village to village preaching and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. With Him, He had companions – the twelve apostles who helped Him in the work of preaching and proclaiming the good news; and He also had an army of women like, Mary Magdala, Joanna, Susanna who attended to all the needs of Jesus and His disciples out of their resources. The preaching and the proclamation of the Gospel requires resources. Today we are being introduced to a group of women who provided for Jesus and His disciples so that they could continue to preach and proclaim the Gospel. They provided food, water, lodging, and if someone on the team didn’t have any money to pay for Caesar’s taxes, they put together some resources to take care of that.
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Most often people who are overly critical of others have a lot going on in their personal lives. By shining some light on the brokenness in the lives of other people, they hope they can deflect attention on the inadequacies in their own lives. It also makes them feel much better about their own situation. Friends, we don’t get any points by making someone else look so horrible. Our situation does not improve by putting down someone else. The Lord tells us in the gospel that we need to carefully address what is going on in our lives first before we shift our gaze to what is happening in other people’s lives. “Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
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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.
Catholic Faith | Marian devotion | Nativity of Mary
Last year, the staff at the Father Peyton Center organized and celebrated a small and beautiful surprise birthday party for me. We were all together in the same space. It was a wonderful time—there was cake, donuts, and drinks; everyone was relaxing and laughing. In addition, I got all sorts of messages from around the world. When we celebrate birthdays, we offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift of the life of the person whose birthday we celebrate. We tell God that we don't take the gift of that person's life lightly, that we are grateful for it, and that we deeply value it.
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Have you ever lived with someone who thinks there is only one way, one style, one method of doing something - and that one method is what they are familiar with? Jesus in our gospel today is dealing with a similar situation. The Pharisees and Scribes confronted him about why his disciples didn’t follow the devotional practices that everyone else followed. To them, there was one road to holiness and his disciples weren’t following that path, and that was a huge problem!
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The book of the Prophet Ezekiel was written during a time of extreme moral, spiritual, and political decay in the land of Israel. The most famous image in the book of the Prophet Ezekiel is the image of “the valley of dry bones.” The prophet saw a valley full of dead people, and the dead were not the kind whose skeletons were still intact; it was all human bones thrown everywhere! It is one of the most dramatic paintings of extreme hopelessness, yet the Lord in the book of Ezekiel promises to give life to all the dead who the Prophet Ezekiel saw in the vision.
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Today we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne who were the grandparents of Jesus. Yes, Jesus had grandparents too! These were the parents of Mary. Today we remember all our grandparents both living and deceased, that God blesses them and gives them good rest. There is actually a global Catholic Grandparents’ Association with proposed activities and prayers that they can use in fulfilling their role as ‘grandpa’ and ‘grandma.’
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