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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
“What about naming him John?” My husband had privately asked me this once or twice before, and I had vetoed it both times. Over the course of nine months, we debated and battled and strived and searched to find a name for our son and continued to come up empty. His name was a big, fat mystery. Might as well name him Question Mark. And now, in the throes of a 20-hour labor with this unnamed, transverse baby, I was feeling even less inclined to cooperate. “John sounds like an old man’s name,” I said, wincing through another contraction. “What about Anthony? Or Nicholas?” My husband didn’t have time to answer. The baby’s heart rate plummeted on the monitors, setting off a cacophony of alarms. Nurses rushed into my room, flipped my bloated body around, and pumped me with fluids to help soothe the baby and get his heart beating properly again. I knew the drill. We’d been doing this little song and dance every 2 to 3 minutes for half a day. My husband walked to the whiteboard that was hanging on the wall and wrote down two names. Nicholas Anthony Those were pretty solid names. Maybe they could even go together. Nicholas Anthony or Anthony Nicholas. Yeah, that sounded okay.
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"A real friend walks in when the rest of the world walks out." We all cherish friends who make life more exciting and joyful with their presence. With friends around, life becomes easier and more exciting. Our spiritual journey also follows this concept. God, the author of life, has blessed us with a friend in His all-powerful wisdom. This friend, known as our Guardian Angel, accompanies us and strengthens us.
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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.
The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Louise stood at the foot of their staircase, not knowing how to put one foot in front of the other. She had only moments ago sent her husband out the door with his lunchbox and a kiss on that regular Monday morning. Now she had to make it to the top of those stairs to tell their six children that their dad would never come home. A heart attack ended his 42-year-old life and with that catastrophic news, her life as she knew it. Our Lady Gave Her the Courage My beautiful Nana always professed it was Our Lady herself who carried her up that staircase and gave her the courage to deliver that unspeakable news. And it was Our Lady, through the power of the Rosary, who supported her every day for the rest of her 48 years as a widow and single mother.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus whose feast day we celebrate today is one of the most beloved saints. But like most future saints, her life was not easy, and her plan to live it was different than God’s. After death of Therese’s mother when she was only four, she received a maternal care and faith formation from her sister, Pauline. However, Pauline felt the call to religious life and entered the Carmelite convent. Therese would recount how this caused her to want to follow in her sister’s footsteps. When Therese was fourteen, her sister, Mary, would enter the same convent as Pauline.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
In my life, I haven’t always been close to Our Lady. In fact, even though I was usually all in for pretty much every youth group event, when they began the Consecration to Mary during my junior year of high school, I just sort of hung back … I didn’t get it. I couldn’t understand the need for a Mother in Heaven who lived a life so incredibly different from mine. I had a great relationship with my earthly mother and with Jesus, so I just didn’t feel a need to embrace a spiritual one. I had this image of her in my mind … you probably know the one I’m talking about; it’s usually the one we see on Christmas cards. The beautiful 20-something woman with perfect hair, flawless skin, looking so quiet and peaceful, hands delicately folded in prayer. Perfect. It was so far removed from the mess I saw when I looked in the mirror.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
The Book of Job (1:6-22) offers us a profound perspective on life’s fleeting nature. Job, in his suffering, reflects, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return” (Job 1:21). His words remind us that everything we accumulate and achieve in this life will ultimately be left behind when we depart from this world. We often hear people speak of a “bucket list”—a list of things they wish to experience before they die. "I am reminded of a film titled ‘The Bucket List’ which is a heartwarming film that explores life’s deeper meaning through the unexpected friendship of two terminally ill men, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. As they embark on a journey to complete a list of dreams and adventures, the movie delves into themes of mortality, forgiveness, and self-discovery. With humor and poignancy, it reminds us that life’s true richness lies not in the number of days we have but in how we choose to live them—making each moment count, embracing the joy of connection, relationship and daring to pursue the dreams we’ve put on hold."
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