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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
How do we do our best to listen to Jesus and to follow Him? Today’s saint, Damien de Veuster, known by many as St. Damien of Molokai, might help us with this question. Saint Damien of Molokai was born in Belgium in 1840, and was sent to the Hawaiian Islands after joining the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Today, most people would consider this an excellent assignment … and it was as he served as a parish priest for nine years. But the course of his life and countless others would forever change when he volunteered to become a chaplain, serving people on the remote island of Molokai, which was home to a leper colony.
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A man was boarding an airplane one day. As he came on board, he happened to notice that the head of the plane’s cockpit flight crew was a woman. That was no problem. Still, it was a new experience for him. As he found his seat, he noticed three persons sitting immediately behind him. One was a young boy about six or seven years of age. Next to him was a man in his early thirties. And next to the man was a woman in her early sixties.
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Brief and contemporary inspiration focused on hope and family prayer will be delivered to your inbox! Articles include live video, written word, and links to resources that will lead you and your family deeper into faith.
Modernity largely ignores the mother who wishes to answer the summons to heroic charity her vocation makes upon her. Instead of offering her saintly examples, our culture presents her with a host of feminine role models whose many achievements are not necessarily bad in themselves, but which are only truly good if they orient women, their husbands, and their children to Heaven.
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Some people listening to Saint Paul’s conversion story might be inclined to think that those things just do not happen anymore. Wrong. They happen every day. Every day people are falling to the ground and like Paul are helpless. They were powerless. Some unfortunately never get up. Like Paul, those who fell to the ground were able to get up with the help of someone else. For many that someone else was God, Jesus.
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"Hard work builds character!" I heard this phrase from my father growing up as a begrudging teenager complaining about chores. I can bet that your father may have said the same at least once or twice.
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Today’s gospel reminds me of an experience I had a couple of years ago while serving as a missionary in Northeast India. I was assigned to a remote parish in Tuikarmaw, south of Tripura. It was my first mission as a priest. This parish had 25 sub-centers located in villages over about 400 square kilometers. We moved from village to village, bringing the sacraments, spending time with the villagers and catechizing them.
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