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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Faith Reflection | Hope-2025 | Jubilee of Hope | power of prayer
There are moments when we recognize God’s subtle but sure action in our lives. It may be an encouraging sign unexpectedly received, a word of encouragement at just the right time, or a long-awaited answer to prayer. Sometimes, it can be sensed in a gentle whispering in our hearts — an inner prompting from the Holy Spirit that challenges or convicts us. At these moments, we often clearly recognize the hand of God instructing and encouraging us. A Moment of Reckoning Among many such experiences in my own life, one memory stands out as a turning point in my life. It was a Sunday evening, and I was attending Mass as a college student at our campus church. Distracted by football games, parties, and social events, I thankfully managed to continue to go to Mass every weekend, though my faith and devotion were lukewarm.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
It’s another ordinary day. Moses is doing what he’s done for the last forty years, herding sheep in the wilderness. There’s nothing exceptional. Just a man, a stick, and some wooly animals. And then, a bush catches fire but doesn’t burn up. And with it, everything changes. Now pause for a second. Isn’t that how God works? Not with trumpets and fireworks, but in the middle of your Tuesday afternoon laundry, or your commute, or in the ache of an unresolved prayer. Moses wasn’t looking for God; he was looking for a lost sheep. But the burning bush found him.
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Faith Reflection | Hope-2025 | Jubilee of Hope | power of prayer
According to FIFA, the organization that sponsors the World Cup, the 2022 final in Qatar when Argentina beat France had 1.5 billion viewers. In comparison, Super Bowl LVI had less than 200 million viewers worldwide. Full disclosure: I love soccer. Watching Liverpool with my sons is my idea of a great morning, so those numbers don’t surprise me. They do cause me to wonder, though. Why has the beautiful sport not taken off more in America? Why do we choose to spend three hours and 12 minutes on average watching 60 minutes of play in football when we can watch 90 to 100 minutes of play in soccer in under two hours? People tell me soccer is boring. There may only be one or two goals in a game. But here’s what they are missing. Soccer is a game of hope.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Let me introduce you to Jochebed, mother of Moses from the first reading. No burning bush, no Red Sea yet. Just a woman, in a time of terror, doing what mothers do best: protecting life in the face of death. Pharaoh, in all his regal might, had issued a royal decree: every Hebrew baby boy must be drowned in the Nile. And what does Jochebed do? She looks at her newborn son, sees something “special” in him, and let’s be honest, what mother doesn’t think her child is special? But Jochebed’s faith isn’t just sentimental, it’s strategic. She hides him for three months, then weaves a basket, like a tiny ark, places him in it, and lets him go into the very river meant for his death. That’s not fear. That’s Trust You know what strikes me most? Jochebed never hears a voice from heaven. No angel appears with a five-point plan. She has no assurance this will work. All she has is maternal instinct and mustard-seed faith. And sometimes, that’s more than enough.
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Faith Reflection | Hope-2025 | Jubilee of Hope | power of prayer
Praying the Rosary was not something I grew up with in my family. Today, I would like to share how I came to learn and pray the Rosary and how praying with our Blessed Mother always brings me great hope! Early in 2020, our lives were all turned upside-down. My husband’s uncle, whom we were both close to, suddenly passed away. I also had to accept not seeing my parents in Florida for quite a while due to lockdowns. This was not an easy time for anyone. During this time, I also felt a strong and loving nudge to pray the Rosary. I know that this was our Blessed Mother guiding me to the protection of her mantle. It was a time when I was very much in need of hope.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.” “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother…[so that] one’s enemies will be the members of one’s household.” ~ Matthew 10:34—11:1 These proclamations from our Lord can strike us particularly harshly here at Holy Cross Family Ministries, because Venerable Patrick Peyton dedicated his life to family unity through prayer and proclaimed that prayer brings peace. What do we make of this? First, we must understand that when Jesus speaks of peace in this passage, He means freedom from conflict, particularly oppression from one’s enemies. There was, in fact, an expectation that the Messiah would usher in an era where nations no longer engaged in conflict, and God’s people, especially, no longer suffered oppression. Jesus, instead, makes no such promises, at least not for His first coming upon the earth.
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