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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Catholic | Catholic Central | Catholic Church | Catholic Faith
Pope Francis had a huge impact on the world during his papacy, but the effect continues after his death. One result may be swelling the ranks of the Church he led. On April 21, 2025, one day after Easter Sunday, Pope Francis passed away, ending an era of Catholic history that began on March 13, 2013. The papacy of Argentinean-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio was perhaps one of the most (if not the most) Googled pontificates ever. So, it's fitting that, in the wake of the pope's passing, many people turned to the Internet with one burning question. So, What Did People Search the Internet for When Pope Francis Died?
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Catholic Dad | catholic family life | family prayer
The hectic schedule of his older kids leads CatholicMom.com contributor Jake Frost to consider the power of choice and how to teach them to decide between competing good things. One of the hardest things in life is choosing among many competing good things. As my kids are getting older and starting into high school, lots of new opportunities are opening up for them. There are sports and speech competitions and Science Olympiads and Future Farmers of America and all sorts of things. Good things. And winning in these competitions and moving on to state, or even nationals, means trips with the team across the state and even across the country, staying in hotels, meeting new people, having new experiences. All great stuff.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings speak to something every family wrestles with: how to find true contentment in a world that constantly insists we need more. The Trap of “More” St. Paul, writing to Timothy, warns us about the desire for riches. He doesn’t condemn wealth itself, but the restless hunger for more—a hunger that never satisfies. How true this is today. Our culture whispers: “You need a bigger house… a newer car… the latest gadget.” Social media makes it worse. We see perfect posts, and suddenly our own blessings feel too small. Parents push themselves to exhaustion, not only to provide, but to keep up. Children begin to measure their worth by what they own, instead of who they are. But Paul tells us something different: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
As a child growing up, were you ever at a special family dinner where an important guest was invited and other high-level guests were to be in attendance? Do you remember the level of preparation that went into the dinner? Do you recall the type of cleaning that was done prior to the visit, the careful choice of food and drink, and the thoughtful setting up of the space? Do you remember the kind of talk at the dinner and the decorum in behavior that was expected of all the family members given the kind of guest who was being hosted? Now imagine in the middle of such an important dinner an uncle with a drinking problem and who didn’t keep himself so neat burst into the room, at the top of his voice greeted everyone, and straight away went and gave a big hug to the guest of honor! Imagine the discomfort or restlessness that took over the room.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray? | rosary rally
If you were to ask a bunch of Christians what the oldest heresy faced by the Church is, I’d bet that most would guess Arianism, an early 4th-century heresy that said Jesus wasn’t really divine. In fact, the threat of Arianism led to the great councils and the Nicene Creed. But the first major heresy goes back centuries earlier, almost to the beginning of Christianity itself. That heresy was Gnosticism, which said -- among many things -- that Jesus wasn’t really human, but only appeared so. And, interestingly, if we meditate on today’s Gospel passage, we can see how Gnosticism itself is a kind of wrongheaded, misguided defense of Jesus from criticisms that Our Lord faced in His own lifetime. Is Jesus Too Human Today, we hear Jesus lamenting how His critics simply can’t accept that a true prophet, especially the Messiah, could eat and drink freely and socialize with sinners. This is all too ordinary and human! A figure from God should be more other-worldly, separated, and inaccessible. And the Gnostics, accepting these kinds of premises, said, “You’re right; the Son of God could not actually be so lowly. That’s why all this human stuff was just an act.”
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Learn more about our faith | Our Lady of Sorrows
How fitting it is that today’s Gospel follows directly after yesterday’s celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows. For in the passage we just heard, Jesus responds with tremendous compassion for a sorrowful mother, a widow who has lost her only son, a widow whom Christ recognizes as a pre-figuring of His own Mother at the Cross and at His tomb. And in his miracle at Nain of raising her son, Jesus, of course, also pre-figures His own Resurrection.
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