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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Easter season | Grandparenting | family prayer
With our youngest grandson preparing for First Communion, we recently had a three-generation conversation about Sacraments. The conversation included discussing what name the parents took for their Confirmation name. Everyone had a meaningful explanation of why they chose their particular name. The youngest asked what was Confirmation. The eldest explained that Confirmation confirms a mature choice to live in the light of faith in God, revealed by Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. The seven-year-old immediately exclaimed, “I believe in God!”
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Holy Week | family Lenten activities | family prayer
As we enter into the Most Holy Week on the worldwide Christian calendar, I cannot help but be drawn to one of the most dramatic scenes in the suffering of Jesus for our cause. The powerfully emotive scene that has been offered to us for centuries as the Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary is the Scourging at the Pillar. The Prophet Isaiah wrote many years before the arrival of Christ on earth about the “faithful servant” whose “wounds heal us.” In the Scourging at the Pillar, we see an innocent man get physically and emotionally abused for no crime he committed. Underlying his abuse was a desire to save the guilty, so that they may have life and have it to the fullest.
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Holy Week | The Way of the Cross | family prayer | mercy
"Ready, Set…Bang!" My arms pumped with high energy, my feet pounded confidently across the field and my legs steadily pulled me forward. I started the race and felt so great and alive! This time would be different. I would run with endurance, control, and speed. By the time I got to the halfway mark, however, my thoughts had turned sour. My chest tightened as my lungs cried out in anguish with each erratic breath and I began to wonder if my feet were still attached to my burning legs. The clear blue sky gave me no hope of a sudden tornado or lightning storm to whisk me away from my misery. I pathetically kept trudging along, feeling like my shins would rip apart any minute. I yearned to drop to the ground and crawl into a ditch somewhere until after the medals were passed out and everyone had packed up and gone home. In much the same way, the Lenten journey starts with a bang of grand resolutions and lively hopes.
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Family Activities | Saint Patrick | Venerable Patrick Peyton | family prayer
I have to tell you; there was quite a competition about who would have the honor of celebrating the Mass at the Father Peyton Center last year on St. Patrick’s Day. It was only settled by a DNA test showing I had the closest connection to Saint Patrick, but not how you might think.
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Lent activities | Special Needs Parenting | family prayer
I remember struggling as a college student to start a life of prayer, but by the time I graduated, I had disciplined myself to pray daily and constantly. Years later, when I became a new mom, I knew I should teach my children to pray from the early days of their lives. I am a mom to three kids with various sensory, learning, and physical needs, and with gifts given by the Holy Spirit since their Baptism. That is something I encourage you to keep in mind about your child(ren) as they might have additional needs. They, too, have been given the Holy Spirit, the Giver of gifts.
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Celebrating family life | Lenten Reflections | family prayer
When our children were toddlers, we would socialize with other young families and try to shape how the kids played together, sharing, cooperating, taking turns, and being polite. It was a developmental challenge. When the little ones aren’t ready to share, forcing the issue can be counter-productive. It takes creative coaching and then waiting for development to take its course.
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