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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 hear the Lord heal a man who was possessed by a demon and his adversaries right away claimed that he must be in cahoots with Beelzebul the Prince of the Devil. To his adversaries, there is no way he could act so powerfully against the demons without permission or power from the Devil himself. The response of Jesus was that if the Devil was fighting the Devil, then the days of the Devil and his kingdom were numbered. The Devil was on a self-destructive path. Simply said, the Lord argued that the allegations levelled against Him were illogical, absurd, and downright laughable.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Prayer has often been a challenge for me. There’s too much noise in the world and in my own head. Throughout most of my prayer life, I would start out with good intentions and rather simple prayers. I would try to simply speak to God, but as I did this, I would distract myself: “Oh, did I do my homework? Or what was the score of that hockey game last night? Did my brother give me my five bucks back?” Silly, simple things that really don’t matter all that much. But by the time I snapped back into focus on what I was supposed to be doing I would be frustrated and want to simply give up. Eventually, I started seeking new methods of praying and new strategies to keep my focus. I tried praying with Scripture, images, and more. While these helped, none of them really clicked for me. Soon enough, I stumbled onto the Rosary once more.
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I’ve always been attracted to the writings of Saint Paul, and yet, I don’t remember the reading from Galatians making an impression like it did yesterday as I read and prayed over it. How can you miss the way he starts his letter: “O stupid Galatians!” Imagine opening up the letter from Saint Paul and reading that; and then needing to read it aloud to the others with you. Obviously, Saint Paul has had it; but we shouldn’t confuse tough love language with an ad hominin attack.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Waking yet again with a tear-stained pillow and used tissues on my nightstand, I rolled out of bed to begin another day of homeschooling my three young boys. My marriage had been very rocky for two months and I didn’t know WHY, but I knew I felt abandoned. I began praying the Rosary religiously every single day because I knew only an act from Heaven could save us. My husband’s heart was hardened toward me ... and he would not reveal why. Somehow, seven years in, I had suddenly woken up one day and we were only roommates.
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"I'll pray for you; keep me in your prayers." So often, those phrases are tossed out during a casual goodbye or especially when trouble is on the loose, or when some worry hovers in the air. They are perhaps forgotten as soon as the next person or crisis pops into our minds.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
I grew up on a Lakota reservation in northeast Montana, worshipping at a mission church in the 1970s and 80s when the Catholic Church was in flux. Our family didn’t recite the Rosary, and I’d never seen this practiced by any of my peers. The Rosary, with its many mysteries, was itself a mystery to me. But I did have a love for Mary, and as I pondered that she shared a name with my paternal grandmother, Mary Beauclair, who died before I was born, I felt a connection to Grandma through Our Blessed Mother. Being asked one May, as a child, to crown Mary on the grounds outside our parish further pulled me in. And when we watched The Song of Bernadette together one afternoon, I began to yearn to seek a life of holiness through Mary’s help. I only once recall my mother bringing out her Rosary beads, however. I’d experienced my first heartbreak as a teenager — and seeing my sadness, Mom led me through the Rosary on the living-room couch. I realized the Rosary can be a comfort when words fail.
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