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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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One of the most fascinating things when you visit the Mediterranean lands such as Greece, Italy, Egypt, and Turkey are the historical sites of castles, temples, and cities that now lie in ruins. Each of those sites tell a story of a “golden age” when these places were sites of glamor, wealth, and influence. In their current state, they tell of a past, an end, and a death. In our first reading today from the book of the Prophet Haggai, we continue reflecting on the return of the Israelites from exile in Babylon. They found their influential city and magnificent temple in Jerusalem all in ruins. Everything had fallen apart while they were in exile. Before them stood a depressing state of hopelessness when they looked at what had happened to the city and especially the temple that King Solomon had spent so much on building.
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Have you ever had a day, or maybe a week, where you work so hard, you run from one thing to the next, and at the end of it all, you still feel… empty? Unfulfilled? If you have, then the Word of God today is speaking directly to you. Through the prophet Haggai, God says to His people, “You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied.” They were busy building their own homes, managing their lives, but they were deeply restless. Why? Because they had neglected the one thing that gives meaning to everything else: their relationship with God.
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These readings from Ezra recount how the Jews returned to Judah and built a new Temple after the Persians freed them from their Babylonian conquerors. The destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the exile of the king and much of the population was undoubtedly the greatest trauma God’s people had suffered up to that point. And yet, somehow, mysteriously, this experience of defeat and exile yielded a Jewish people of far greater faith and spiritual depth. Their writings and their practices of covenant faithfulness both reveal a richer understanding of God’s nature and their relationship to Him than they ever had attained in the glory days of David and Solomon.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Jerusalem lay in ruins. For seventy years the songs of worship had fallen silent, the temple reduced to rubble. And then, of all people, a Persian king, the ruler of their former captors, signed the checks to rebuild the house of God. There’s something deliciously ironic about King Darius funding the rebuilding of a temple to a God he didn’t even worship. Yet this is precisely what unfolds in our reading today. The Persian emperor, and his successors, rulers of the known world, becomes heaven’s unlikely contractors. The temple project wasn’t just approved, it came with a blank check and royal protection.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Speaking of concealing light under a bed or a vessel, I think of a true story from World War II. In the blackout nights of London, families were ordered to cover every window so not a single candle or match lit could be seen by enemy bombers. But one evening, a single crack of light escaped from a house, and the entire neighborhood panicked; it could be a target signal for the enemy. One sliver of light in the dark sky could make all the difference. Isn’t that astonishing? Even the faintest light carries immense weight in the darkest night. Consider the curious case of Moses after his mountain-top encounter with God. When he descended Sinai, his face shone so brilliantly that the Israelites couldn't bear to look at him directly. What did Moses do? He covered his face with a veil. The veil wasn't permanent; it came off when he spoke with God and when he taught the people, but at other times the veil remained covering his face. Moses learned the delicate art of being a lighthouse, knowing when to beam at full intensity and when to provide gentle guidance.
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Catholic Motherhood | Growing with the Saints | Saint Books | catholic mom
Catholic Mom announces their Fall 2025 Book Club selection: Real Moms of Real Saints by Colleen Pressprich! Learn more about joining this unique online book club... Our Fall 2025 Book Club selection is dear to our hearts! In Real Moms of Real Saints, Colleen Pressprich gets real about every mom's need for a tribe: a community of other women whose bonds of trust run deeper than simple friendship. We need that tribe here on earth, but sometimes we forget about our heavenly tribe! We can draw on the loving motherly examples of women who were moms of saints (and saints-to-be) as diverse as Saint John Bosco, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and Blessed Stanley Rother, among others. In her endorsement of this book, Catholic Mom Book Club host Allison Gingras notes, Colleen astutely observes that a Catholic parent’s ultimate goal is guiding their children to heaven. These remarkable mothers provide tangible evidence that this noble aspiration is indeed attainable. Their stories inspire hope, demonstrating that through God’s grace, ordinary individuals can raise children of extraordinary virtue.
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