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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Books | Family Rosary | Father Patrick Peyton | Fr. Willy Raymond, C.S.C. | family prayer
Growing up my mom always told me, “The family that prays together stays together.” This was usually when I had something that I would much rather be doing or when I thought that I was “too cool” for nightly family prayers or felt that there wasn’t enough time in the day to stop and pray. But, as I have found about most things my mom taught me, she is right. Praying as a family is so, so important. In my own life the families that are close to their faith and practice it together are so much more peaceful, stable, and content in their lives than those that don’t. When I received a copy of the book The Family that Prays Together Stays Together: Discover the Promise and Power of the Rosary with Father Patrick Peyton edited by Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., I knew that it would be something that would resonate with me—and I was not disappointed.
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Marriage | family life | family prayer
Spring is my favorite season of the year. After a long, cold winter, I appreciate every warm ray of sunshine so much more! I love watching buds appear on the trees, wearing floral dresses, and celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection at Easter. I’m also a big fan of spring cleaning. Junk has accumulated in certain places in my home throughout the last few months: a particular drawer in the kitchen, the bottom of my closet, and a messy shelf in the garage. The arrival of spring has triggered a desire to finally address those areas and get rid of the junk! As I started listing physical items in my home that I need to donate or trash, I realized I might be able to do some “spring cleaning” in my marriage, too. If you’d like to join me, here are a few things I came up with!
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Divine Mercy Sunday | family prayer | mercy
Caught in Providence is a beloved local show where I live because of the fair Judge Frank Caprio. In a recent episode, a priest visited the judge with a special message and donation. Both priest and judge shared stories of witnessing mercy and the importance of the unity of family. The priest shared that the meaning of the Hebrew word chesed can be translated as mercy or to “journey with someone, to pull them out of the depths of their despair.” I have a devotion to the Divine Mercy and yes, praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet is indeed a journey.
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Easter season | Light of Christ | family prayer
Not too long ago, our seven-year-old grandson was looking through some 1950s family photo albums. We explained to him how he was related to the various family members in the pictures. At one point, he asked why wasn’t there color back then. We assured him that the mid-twentieth-century world was full of color. We then described how technology had changed photography over the last seventy years.
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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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