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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Almsgiving | Christmas Season | Feast of St. Stephen | rosary
If you are someone who lends your favorite books to family members or friends only to find that the loan has become permanent, or sends thank you notes and birthday cards only to realize with a heart that sits somewhere between resignation and a slight ache that not everyone remembers your birthday or sends you messages of thanks, then the Church’s teaching on almsgiving and charity will be a source of much consolation—for in essence it is that only what is given away will be ours to keep. St Augustine places this teaching in the mouth of Christ as Augustine speaks of this to his congregation: “…on earth, my members were suffering, my members were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head….I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury.” Then Christ laments to those who have not given to the poor and suffering, “But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence” (Sermon 18, 4.).
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First Reading Reflection (Titus 2:1-8, 11-14) Beloved: You must say what is consistent with sound doctrine, namely, that older men should be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, and endurance. Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers, under the control of their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. Urge the younger men, similarly, to control themselves, showing yourself as a model of good deeds in every respect, with integrity in your teaching, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be criticized, so that the opponent will be put to shame without anything bad to say about us. For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
During my freshman year of college, I was thinking about joining a particular household. At the Franciscan University of Steubenville, “households” are like Catholic fraternities and sororities. One of the regular commitments of this household was a Sunday evening Rosary. Let me paint the picture for you. Twenty college-age guys sitting comfortably on couches and chairs in a nice warm room praying a very repetitive devotion late at night. Someone was bound to fall asleep. On this occasion, someone did. Somewhere around the third Glorious Mystery, a good friend of mine started to nod and snap back. Nod and snap back. And then, after a valiant struggle, just nod. Everyone else in the room seemed to silently acknowledge that our friend was, shall we say, no longer with us.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Growing up in a small village in Ireland, it was from my Grandmother Hannah, whom we called Nanny, that I observed and learned the power that prayer holds to ground and shape our lives through joy and struggle. She was the first person I saw praying the Rosary. Never far from her gnarled, arthritic hands, the beads moved between her fingers in a fluid rhythm as her lips murmured the familiar words.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
When I first started dating my wife, Anna, I quickly learned about her devotion to our Blessed Mother and her commitment to praying a daily Rosary. For some reason, praying the Rosary did not interest me. It seemed boring, and I felt that other forms of prayer were more fruitful. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our Blessed Mother and understood her role in the life of the Church. I often talked about her with others, and some would say I was Mary’s biggest fan. But a whole Rosary, five decades, was reserved for when I couldn’t fall asleep. In fact, during different seasons of my life, I kept a Rosary on my nightstand. As soon as I lay in bed, I would grab it, usually not making it to the end of the Creed, before waking up the next morning with the Rosary on my face.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
I’m so thrilled to be writing to you on this feast of Saint John Paul II. From the time I was born and up through college, Pope John Paul II was the only pope I knew. Looking back, he was the reason I started to have a love for the Rosary. Pope John Paul II’s last World Youth Day was in Toronto in 2002. As a thank-you to our parish for all the fundraising to go, I was inspired one day to write the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary into short scripts. I created a production where the young adults and youth at my parish performed each Mystery, and the audience would pray the decade’s prayers in between each one. It was a “Living Rosary,” and it was beautiful. All this came about because of attending World Youth Day. After World Youth Day, in October of the same year, Pope John Paul II released the Luminous Mysteries with the start of the Year of the Rosary. I fell in love with these new mysteries and inspiration struck! This time, my brother wrote music to go along with the scripts I wrote for the Luminous Mysteries. I cast a small group of young adults and high school students from across the diocese to take part in what I called a “prayformance.” It was an incredible experience as my cast, the audience, and I became completely immersed in the Rosary. I was the director and producer, and also played the woman who washes the feet of Jesus in the Third Luminous Mystery, “The Conversion of Sinners and the Proclamation of the Kingdom.”
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