World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Happiness | family life | prayer
I’ve always liked to shop. The artfully arranged displays, colors folded into precise geometric shapes, and an assortment of curated merchandise make me feel hopeful. Hope that I could be more attractive. Hope that I would be enough. Hope that having something was the same as having it all together. Unlike the price tag, the promise of such things wasn’t explicit. It was in the garments hung in rainbow-colored order, the soft lighting, the scent of a lit candle, and the melodic music that lulled me into thinking I wasn’t just purchasing a shirt but an assurance of a better life.
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family life | sharing the gospel | teaching virtue
What if gossiping didn't have a negative meaning? What if it were a way to spread the Good News? I heard a phrase several weeks ago and it has stuck like glue. I’ve been taking my time trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with it and today it all came together. The phrase is: go forth and gossip the Gospel! Given the fact that gossip has a typically negative meaning and is often something Christians try to avoid, it needed some thought.
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family life | parenting teenagers | prayer time
Recently, I struggled with spiritual dryness. We all know this is part of faith formation, growth, and maturity—to weather when it is not easy to pray. Trusting in God when He feels distant, or more accurately, when we feel estranged for whatever reason (fatigue, frustration, anger, hurt), is part of the journey we see over and over again in Scripture. We are not called to be successful, but to be faithful, and anything else is a Gospel of good feelings and prosperity.
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family life | power of prayer | pray the rosary
I sat down on the sofa with my mug of coffee to start the day with prayer. The house was quiet apart from the pitter-patter of rain and the song of birds that reached my ears through cracked open windows. I’d slept fine but I was tired. Tired from long hours, packed into days, stacked into weeks, and collected into months. Do you feel that way too, at times?
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family life | family prayer | pray the rosary
Week after week my teenage son and I drove the same 22 miles to the chemotherapy infusion clinic. The last few miles were on a main road in a nearby city. When we turned onto this road, we passed by the big box stores and the fast-food restaurants before driving through the old downtown area, which now houses rundown homes and quirky local businesses. The last stretch of road runs through the gentrified area: the theater, cute shops, and the most highly regarded restaurants in town. Just beyond lies the hospital which was our destination (and beyond that, a university). I thought I knew this road.
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