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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Catholic Family Fun | Immaculate Conception | Lectio Divina
Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., explains how Jesus took on our human nature, coming to us through the immaculately conceived Blessed Virgin Mary to show us the way to a loving friendship with God. In the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, we hear about the creation of the world and all things in it. The creation story is not a documentary that yields accurate historical or scientific data. It is a spiritual lesson in story form, telling us as much about God as it does about creation. *Please note that there are two stories of creation.
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Advent | Advent calendar | Catholic Family Fun | family life
As we approach the joyous season of Advent, it’s a time for us to prepare our hearts and homes for the coming of Christ. Advent is a season of anticipation, hope, and joy, with many ways we can immerse ourselves in the true reason for the season. This year, Catholic Mom and Family Rosary are excited to introduce several engaging activities to help you and your family make the most of this sacred time, including the SnapAdvent Instagram Photo Challenge, our new interactive Advent Calendar (with three ways to use it), an Advent Playlist on Spotify, and a collection of inspiring eBooks.
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Catholic Family Fun | family prayer | pray the rosary
Getting kids to sit down and recite a whole Rosary is not always met with cheers and delight, as much as I wish that were the case. If I am telling the truth, I am sometimes met with groans and eye rolls alike. But when you lay out a donut Rosary, suddenly your kids are rallying to lead more prayers than their siblings. There’s nothing complex about the Donut Rosary. The cross can be a construction paper cutout, or you can make a cross with donut holes. The Our Father and Glory Be prayers should be regular-sized donuts — whoever leads the longer prayers and Scripture verse for the Mystery gets a “big donut.” The Hail Marys should be donut holes — make a decade one flavor or mix them up. After you say your prayer or prayers, you get to eat the donut(s). You will be amazed at the complaints about how unfair it was that Sister 1 got to lead more prayers than Sister 2 —haha!
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Catholic Family Fun | family life | family prayer
Now that the long, slower days of summer are finally here, they bring with them the invitation to slow down a little. Hopefully, the lengthy twilights and break from school brings a sense of less urgency and more playtime to your home. Of course, the flip side of no school and more flexibility can also mean that the house seems to perpetually be half a step away from descending into complete chaos. When my kids were growing up, summer meant sleeping in and a lot of time for bedtime stories. On the other hand, it was also the season when one or another of my boys would get mad and inform us he was going to run away and we’d be sorry! So summer brings both sides of the coin. (By the way, they only ran away to the stop sign a block away. I would wander over a while later with some snacks in case they had run out of food. They usually had. One time, their dad dropped off a pillow, so they “would sleep better.” They all eventually decided home wasn’t so bad after all.) That is the great thing about summer: there’s even time for some mini-adventures.
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Ave Maria Press | Catholic Family Fun | Glorious Mysteries | pray the rosary
I have mixed emotions about praying the Rosary with my family. As children growing up in a Catholic home, we were “forced” to pray the Rosary, and I always dreaded it. The Rosary seemed to last forever, and there were a million other things I would have rather been doing. Because of this, my prayer time was never fruitful. I recited words, but never actually prayed. Today, rarely does a day go by that I don’t pray at least one decade of the Rosary. If I happen to be having a particularly sleepless night, I can get through more than one Rosary easily. My love and devotion to Mary have grown into an integral part of my faith, and I love having her as my spiritual mother.
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Catholic Family Fun | Hail Mary | family prayer
When my firstborn was a baby, I started the habit of singing the Hail Mary to her at night as a lullaby. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but soon enough she was singing along with Mama—praying without even knowing what prayer was yet. And so began our family’s tradition of starting bedtime prayers by singing the Hail Mary. I can already hear the reactions of those of you who can’t carry a tune. Guess what? Me too!
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