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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 celebrate the Feast Day of St. Matthias the Apostle. He was not among the first twelve Apostles of Jesus, but was a substitute for Judas Iscariot who committed suicide after betraying Jesus, decreasing the number of Apostles to eleven. The number twelve was important in Israel because it symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve divisions of the priestly order, and the twelve doors of the temple in Jerusalem. The number twelve symbolized completeness and perfection.
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Today we begin the month of May, a month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. Today also happens to be the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, a day designated by Mother Church as Religious Brother Day. If you know of a religious brother, please wish them a good feast day!
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Our reflection today is taken from the Gospel of John. Today we hear some of the most reassuring words come from the mouth of Jesus. He tells his disciples that do not let your heart be troubled; trust in God, and trust in me too. These words are words that need to become a sort of a mantra for us, a repeated prayer for us. These are words that need to be engraved on our heart so that we can keep returning to them and keep reminding ourselves under different circumstances what the Lord’s take is on what is going on in our life. “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, and believe also in me.”
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Healing the family | Holy lives of inspiration
In the year 1994 in the month of April, in the country of Rwanda, over a million people were killed in a mass genocide. Tensions between two ethnic groups or economic classes exploded into a mass massacre and mass destruction of property. The country was reduced to an ugly shell of its former self and the survivors of the genocide reduced to zombies, walking around without knowing who they were, where they were, what had happened to them, and why so few people were walking around.
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The feeding of the 5000+ is one of my favorite Biblical stories. It mirrors earlier years when God fed the Israelites in the desert with Manna, and it also mirrors the Eucharist we celebrate where the Lord feeds us and satisfies our deepest "hungers."
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We are still in the Easter Octave—the eight days that extend the celebration of Easter Sunday. The Octave starts on Easter Day itself and ends on Divine Mercy Sunday. The six days between Easter and Divine Mercy, from Monday to Saturday, all have the title “Easter” attached to them. So, we celebrate Easter Monday all the way to Easter Saturday.
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