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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Holy lives of inspiration | Immaculate Conception | Learn more about our faith
The church celebrates our Mother Mary as a model of holiness. From the earliest times, the Church has always believed and held our Blessed Virgin Mother in high esteem as the mother of Jesus Christ. Officially, Pope Pius IX proclaimed Mary’s Immaculate Conception in 1854. Basically, highlighting that God preserved Mary from sin because of her unique privilege of being the mother of God’s son. I have some friends from other religious denominations in Uganda who always ask; Why do you (Catholics) pray to Mary, worship her statues, and put her on the same level as Jesus, yet she is human like us? You don’t need to pray through Mary; pray directly to Jesus Christ, that we need to look towards God alone. To these comments, my response is and always has been...
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Learn more about our faith | Strengthening family unity
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~Mark Twain In Matthew's Gospel, we are presented with Jesus extending his kindness to the broken and the vulnerable, restoring them to good health from all their ailments. They brought him lame, dumb, and all with other sicknesses. And because of his compassionate heart and acting with authority from his Father, he did not hesitate to work healing miracles among them. People filled with gratitude praised God for all that they were experiencing through Jesus Christ’s ministry. No one who met Jesus remained the same, they were all touched and transformed by his healing and miraculous power, more so his compassionate love. His miracles demonstrated the power of God and the magnitude of his mercy and kindness toward us humans. That is probably why the crowd never wanted to dispatch; they stayed put for three days listening to Jesus.
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Learn more about our faith | Strengthening family unity | Why pray?
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see” This is a beautiful phrase that Jesus uses to encourage his disciples and those who were listening to him that they carry a special favor in their hands. They have been blessed because they are witnessing what important figures in the past longed for but never got to. Jesus, in announcing this blessing, also highlights the special and unique relationship He shares with the Father: He states that “all things have been delivered to me by my Father” His mission is to reveal that Father to us. To make Him accessible and intelligible to us as humans.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Thomas Marton once said” “Love seeks one thing only, the good of the one loved.” What he is saying here is that true selfless love is caring, giving and putting the other person’s happiness before one’s own, without expecting anything in return.” In today’s Gospel, we have Jesus who had been observing those who were bringing their tithes into the temple basket. The rich people showed up with pride to donate from their surplus, but Jesus notices this poor widow dropping in the only coins she had left in her life. Under normal circumstances many of us would have only noticed rich people or those we consider to be important; most likely we would have missed out on recognizing the poor widow. The widow, according to Jesus, did not only donate coins, but she did it with a selfless heart. She didn’t calculate what she will be left with but gave all.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Mother St. Theresa of Calcutta once said; “God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” On my first time to visit United States thirty years ago, we had a provincial assembly at Notre Dame, the provincial at the time, what he asked me to do made me sit up straight. He invited me to give a talk to two hundred some American Holy Cross priests, about my experience as an indigenous Holy Cross living with American expatriates. Everything about me and within me was screaming, oh no, what am I going to say, will they even listen, I felt like telling him please save me from the embarrassment. One priest who realized my predicament, just told me Fulgens you can do it, try. I ended up powering through it well.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
The story before us today is one of the grateful Samaritan who was able to return and give thanks to Jesus while the other nine melted away. When we reflect on our lives, I am sure all of us have a place and moments in our lives where we have been graced by God, where we have received a great deal as a gift. It is possible, too, that just like the nine who never returned, we too fail to recognize and appreciate the gifts and graces we have received, that the ultimate source is God himself.
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