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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Catholic Faith | family prayer
I have never attempted the St. Andrew Novena until this Advent season. The novena, traditionally started on St. Andrew’s feast day which is Nov. 30, actually runs for 25 days - Nov. 30-Dec. 24. Not only is this a longer than usual novena (novenas are usually nine days long), it is also a rather demanding novena. You pray the same prayer 15 times each day. I really wanted to spread the 15 times throughout the day, filling my whole day with prayer, rather than sitting down and saying the same prayer 15 times in one sitting. To accomplish this, I found a simple version of the prayer to put on my phone as a lock screen and had a counter widget that I could click to keep track of where I was during the day.
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Father Patrick Peyton | family prayer | rosary novena
There is no better way to start off the New Year than in prayer—as a family and for your family. As our ministry founder and sainthood candidate, Father Patrick Peyton, used to remind the world, "The family that prays together stays together." Take that to heart this year and what an amazing year it will be!
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Christmas Season | family prayer | how to pray the rosary
During the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, prayer often loses the place of priority we place on it in the rest of the year. Our to-do lists bloom and we feel ever more the pinch of the shortness of time in the Advent and Christmas seasons. Families rush the Advent season to hasten in Christmas long before our calendars reach the 24th of December. Advent and Christmas, like the season of Lent, are profound moments in our Liturgical year where the first movement of our hearts should be toward our Lord, especially how we encounter Him through prayer.
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Being a Christian doesn’t mean life is easy and nothing bad ever happens. In these difficult moments, we often question Jesus. Our faith can become rattled. We can feel abandoned. Jesus shows up and we are too busy being scared, angry, or sad to notice. If we take a second to look around, we can see His hand in everything. We can see that He was always there. Sometimes, in the kindness of others.
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Advent plans | family prayer | family tradition
It took most of my adult life, but I finally bought four sets of Advent candles at once. This decision saves me the inevitable post-Thanksgiving scramble to find candles. The previous last-minute candle frenzy mirrored too much of the secular holiday season … go go go. Here is my proposition for this upcoming Advent season: let’s reclaim this time for our families, our sanity, and mostly for our deepening relationship with Jesus. Here are some of my suggestions for doing so this year.
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family prayer | how to pray the rosary
One October, the month of the Holy Rosary, I felt particularly ambitious about getting my kiddos, ages five and fifteen, to pray the Rosary more. At first, I haven’t had much success. The “rap rosary” was a total fail, my teen informed me. The Rosary podcasts had “too much opera” or “the people talk like they need a nap,” reported the little guy. I enjoy saying my Rosary in the morning on my back patio, beads in one hand and coffee in the other, but that wasn’t appealing to my family.
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