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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. One morning, while they were having breakfast, the woman noticed her neighbor hanging laundry outside to dry. “That laundry is not very clean,” she commented. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.” Her husband looked on but remained silent. Every time the neighbor hung clothes to dry, the woman repeated her observation about the dirty laundry. One month later, the woman was surprised to see clean clothes on the line and said to her husband, “Look, she has finally learned how to wash her clothes properly. Her husband responded, “I was up early this morning and cleaned our windows! ”
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Not one of our five sons is a practicing Catholic. This is a source of great sorrow and a sense of failure for me. Where did we go wrong? If we’d continued praying the Rosary as a family, would they still love their faith? These questions haunted me. Our parish published a bulletin announcement about Adoration that helped: “It doesn’t matter how much or how little one has been raised in the Faith. Throughout life, the soul given by God at birth is constantly striving to bring together the created and the Creator.”
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
I went to St. Mary’s Dominican High School in New Orleans where every nun had a Rosary hanging from her habit. There were several beautiful Rosaries in my home, including the sparkly crystal one I received for my First Holy Communion, but it honestly was more of a prop for my picture than a tool for spiritual battle. There Had to Be More to This Beautiful Prayer As an adult, I slowly adopted the discipline of praying a Rosary thanks to friends and family who invited me to pray it with them, and I noticed a pattern. The more I prayed the Rosary, the more things fell into place. However, despite my efforts, I could not get to the point of looking forward to it. It seemed like a necessary chore like exercise or cooking dinner. I knew there had to be more to this beautiful prayer, and I felt guilty for my lack of enthusiasm.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Today is the 107th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, when many were gathered 5 months after Mary originally appeared to Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia at Fatima. She had promised to appear to them every month on the 13th, and on September 13th when the largest group had gathered to join them, she said there would be a miracle on the following month. On October 13, 1917, the rain cleared, the sun emerged, and spun around for 10 minutes as if it were dancing while 70,000 witnessed the miracle. Though I didn’t grow up in a practicing Catholic home, the Rosary truly feels like the backdrop to my faith life. As a kid, I would see images of our Blessed Mother and Rosaries strewn all over when I visited my Portuguese grandmother, whose name literally translated to Mary of Heaven. She had a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and her own parents were married in Portugal 20 years to the day of the original apparition. I know she was praying for me my whole life and I attribute my conversion in part to her prayers.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Ever since I was a child, I loved the idea of praying the Rosary. And though I always wanted to be one of those people who prayed it daily, in practice I failed. For the longest time, I struggled with it; I think it was the repetition. I would often commit to praying the Rosary, yet the habit never stayed with me. But as God so often does, He allows people and things to change our hearts. I think both He and His Blessed Mother knew that I continually encountered roadblocks in something I really wanted to succeed in, so they worked with me to break them down. I can’t say that I now pray the Rosary daily, but I can say that I pray it regularly and that, when I do, I get so much out of it.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Prayer has often been a challenge for me. There’s too much noise in the world and in my own head. Throughout most of my prayer life, I would start out with good intentions and rather simple prayers. I would try to simply speak to God, but as I did this, I would distract myself: “Oh, did I do my homework? Or what was the score of that hockey game last night? Did my brother give me my five bucks back?” Silly, simple things that really don’t matter all that much. But by the time I snapped back into focus on what I was supposed to be doing I would be frustrated and want to simply give up. Eventually, I started seeking new methods of praying and new strategies to keep my focus. I tried praying with Scripture, images, and more. While these helped, none of them really clicked for me. Soon enough, I stumbled onto the Rosary once more.
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