World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
A busload of politicians was driving down a country road near Galway when suddenly a tire blew. The bus ran off the road and crashed into an old farmer's barn. The old farmer got off his tractor and went to investigate the accident. Soon he dug a large hole and buried the entire busload. Several days later, the sheriff came out, saw the crashed bus, but no bodies, and asked the farmer where all the politicians had gone. “Sure, and I buried ‘em.” The sheriff said, “Lordy! Were they all dead?” Said the old farmer, “Well, some said they weren’t, but you know how them crooked politicians lie.”
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Monica was unhappily married to Patrick, a pagan who only converted on his deathbed. Her son Augustine abandoned the Catholic faith for a cult, engaged in a life of promiscuity, fathered a son out of wedlock, and resisted the pull of her tearful prayers and relentless entreaties to abandon his dissolute life and return to the Church. Monica herself became addicted to wine and only recovered by God’s grace. The great Saint Ambrose of Milan’s preaching proved irresistible to Augustine, and he reverted to the Church, proving that a mother’s persistent prayers can overcome all resistance by God’s grace.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today’s powerful Gospel verse raises two questions, one about the tail end of the Our Father and the other about not babbling like the pagans when we pray.
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Learn more about our faith | Return to the Church
The disciples said to Jesus, “Now You are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that You know everything and that You do not need to have anyone question You. Because of this we believe that You came from God.” (John 16:29-30) This reminded me of the reaction of so many people who have heard Father Jonathan Meyer, an Indiana priest, one of fifty commissioned with preaching on Eucharistic Revival themes of Presence, Communion, and Sacrifice.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Jesus came down from heaven to unite divinity with humanity, and He returned to heaven to seat humanity at the Father’s right hand. This is breathtaking, no more than that; it is the grandest surprise of all. God has astonished us with this revelation; He wants us to share in His very life through Christ our Lord, His only begotten Son.
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Return to the Church | Strengthening family unity
“Lord, we have sinned, done evil, rebelled, and departed from your laws. We have not obeyed your servants, the prophets.” - Daniel 9:5 Behold Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, a rebellious, sinful young man, whose wife, by God’s grace, helped him to repent and become a model husband, father, and heroic disciple of Christ, putting God first even before family, friends and country.
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