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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
This week, the Church gave us the opportunity to reflect on the lives of different holy men and women. We had the memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr; we celebrated St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church; we celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle; and today is the Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus, close collaborators in mission with St. Paul the Apostle.
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Advent | Christmas Season | family prayer
In this month of December, we have the Advent and Christmas seasons. In this same month, the Board of Holy Cross Family Ministries will sit to reflect on the work that we do, and plan. At every Board sitting we have a theme that sets the tone for the Board meeting. As the President of the organization, I am given the privilege of choosing the theme and offering a reflection about it. I chose the theme “Emmanuel: God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14,8:8; Matthew 1:23) that speaks to the Advent and Christmas seasons yet is deeply rooted in the Third Joyful Mystery of the Rosary about The Nativity of the Lord.
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Return to the Church | Strengthening family unity
In our gospel today, the Lord responds to some of the criticism He faced from the Scribes and the Pharisees. He uses the example of children’s behavior to illustrate His point. He said that his critics seemed like children playing in a village market. One group invited the other, ‘Come let us play weddings!’ and the other said ‘We don’t feel today like playing happiness.’ The first group said, ‘Alright, come on, let us play funerals!’ The second group said, ‘We don’t feel like playing sadness today.’ No matter what was suggested, the second group did not want to do it; and no matter what was offered, they found fault with it.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is one of the most important solemnities about our Blessed Mother. Pope Pius IX declared in 1854 that Our Blessed Mother, through a special grace, was preserved free from original sin right from the moment she was conceived in her mother, Anna’s, womb. It is part of the reason when the angel Gabriel came to tell her that God had chosen her as the mother of Jesus, the angel called her “full of grace.” She did not have a quarter of the grace, or have half of the grace, but she was full of grace!
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Advent | family prayer | pray the rosary
In 2021, a Filipino-American family, the Asidors, produced a song that came to be known globally as the “Family Prayer Song.” The song has so far garnered 5.2 million views on YouTube. The Asidors family comprised of the Dad-Winner Asidors, the Mom-Shen Asidors, and their four children Zian, Ashia, Westin, and Elle combine the message of Venerable Patrick Peyton, The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, and the words of Joshua in the Bible “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15), to drive home the importance of families committing themselves to the Lord through the practice of family prayer.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Today we celebrate the Feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle. As ordinarily happens on days such as feast days or memorials of saints, we try to learn something about such a saint and find out how the life of that saint can inspire us in our journey of discipleship. Not much has been highlighted about Andrew in today’s Gospel, but there is a lot written about Andrew throughout the Gospels that we can reflect on. Andrew did not write any letters or deliver any sermons, but we have a few words he said and gestures he performed that are loaded with a lot of meaning for our benefit.
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