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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Catholic Motherhood | Confession | Life Lessons | Sacrament of Reconciliation
"I hate you. I hate you!” my daughter screams from behind her door. Her words cut me, but this is hardly the first tantrum that we’ve weathered. I stand outside, deaf to the sound of kicks and screams. They used to break me inside; familiarity has numbed their sting. “Let. Me. Out!” She punctuates every word with a pound of her fist against the door. This is her mantra, her fit of rage. I listen, but I don’t respond. In her anger, she has forgotten the truth: I am waiting for her outside. The door isn’t locked. If she chose, she could walk back into my arms at any time. Instead, my prodigal daughter sits and stews in the fumes of her own fury. Justice, Mercy, and Fear This is where I vacillate as a parent. I waver between wanting to toe the hard line of justice and wanting to embrace her with arms of mercy. I want her to learn her lesson, to have the discipline to calm down and sort through her feelings and transgressions in a productive way. I want her to seek reconciliation. At the same time, I feel for her. I know the paralysis of the fear of rejection, even as an adult woman. I want to reach in, salve her pain, and help her breathe again.
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Blessed Virgin Mary | Catholic Motherhood | everyday miracles | rosary
Some people believe the scent of roses when no flowers are present is thought to be a sign that God’s presence is with us or that a blessing from God is imminent. This same occurrence with the smell of roses has often been associated with miracles and encounters with Marian apparitions. Mary is sometimes referred to as “Our Lady of the Roses,” perhaps because the name Rosary means “a garland of roses,” or perhaps she is pictured surrounded by these beautiful flowers. St. Juan Diego, in the 1530s, was asked by Mary to gather roses to prove her presence to the bishop since it was in the middle of winter when no roses would be in bloom. He climbed a hilltop and found them blooming abundantly and when opening his coat to show the roses to the bishop, the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe was present.
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Catholic Motherhood | Faith Life | Saint Monica
Saint Monica was a mother who prayed with such patient tenacity that we are still admiring her motherhood over 1500 years later. She prayed for some fifteen years for her son (Saint) Augustine and even longer for her husband and mother-in-law. All three came into the Church before their deaths. Of her three children, Saint Monica worried the most about Augustine. When Augustine left his mother in search of truth among philosophies far from her devout Christian faith, she never ceased to weep and to pray until her son gladdened her heart with his conversion to ardent faith and became one of the princes among the Church’s theologians. (Magnificat August 2024, p. 381) As we know, Augustine became a great saint and a Doctor of the Church. His mother’s prayers were answered most generously. God is good.
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Catholic Motherhood | Celebrating family life
'Tis the night before Christmas, and throughout the domain, while the children are sleeping, Mom’s going insane. The stockings, still empty, are strewn on the floor; Her husband, still absent, has gone to the store. Dreaming of presents, kids sprawl on their beds; Mom hopes their good fortune won't go to their heads. As she decorates cookies, Mom hears the clock chime, She gulps down cold coffee and frowns at the time.
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Catholic Motherhood | St. Therese | family life
Like so many other women and mothers, I’ve been deeply inspired by St. Thérèse’s Little Way, a posture of approaching daily life in a way that imbues ordinary tasks with deep love. St. Thérèse’s influence has become a model for so many women—both those who work outside the home and those who focus full time on homemaking—on faithful dedication to the day’s tasks, no matter how grand or how modest.
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