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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Celebrating family life | seasonal reflection
About this time of year, when our children were young, we would drive miles into the country to a Christmas tree farm to select a tree for the season’s celebration. The process blended careful analysis and exuberant impulsivity to find the “perfect tree.” Our children scampered down the rows of evergreens through acres of trees. They would ask many times, “What about this one?”
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Holy lives of inspiration | Love thy Neighbor
Today’s first reading begins, “I am the Lord, there is no other….” In those eight words, we’re reminded of Whom we should turn to each day. As if to acknowledge our need to have this truth firmly imprinted in our hearts and minds, “I am the Lord, there is no other” is repeated several times with support for this claim.
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There was a father who called his three little children together. As they sat together in a circle on the floor, the dad placed a toy in the middle. He explained to them that he won the toy as a door prize, and he wanted to give it to one of them, but with a condition. He asked them, “Who is the most obedient?” The children just stared at him. Sensing that they probably didn’t understand his question, he then asked, “OK, who always obeys Mommy and does everything she says?”
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Love thy Neighbor | Seasonal Reflections
The great majority of people in North and South America have seen the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, including non-Catholics — thanks, particularly, to the migrations of Mexicans. Hilary Clinton expressed her appreciation of the beauty of the image when, as Secretary of State, visiting Mexico City, she was brought to the Basilica of Guadalupe and she went on to ask in all sincerity, “Who painted it!" I hope Hilary’s heart was touched to hear the story of how the image miraculously appeared and remains. I hope our hearts are touched today too as we contemplate both the intimacy and the power of what happened.
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Our Lady of Guadalupe | family
It is not by accident that two major Marian feasts fall in the middle of Advent—the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12. They draw us more deeply into the warmth, the mystery, and the power of the season. Reminiscent of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, Mary came to Guadalupe seeking a home where she could stay among us with her Son whom she carried in her womb. She invited families who did not yet know Christ to become part of His Holy Family, and, in doing so, healing the wounds of division.
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Life is full of limitations. As a mom of young children, I will not be founding a hospital in a leper colony or fasting on the Eucharist alone. Days—sometimes months—pass by without the opportunity for all those faithful devotions and Holy Hours our hallowed predecessors fulfilled. How are we to live our lives? Rather than becoming downcast at our constraints, what if we saw them as the Mercy of God? The love notes of our loving Father?
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