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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Gospel Reflection | Sunday Mass | prayer
We live in a world of rules and protocols. Everywhere we look, there are guidelines, laws that must be followed, and traffic cops hiding behind billboards to enforce them. We are comforted, and kept safe, by laws. Yet sometimes laws that seem reasonable in one moment become self-serving in another. In yesterday's Gospel (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23), the Pharisees are back in the game of trying to trap Jesus for His lack of strict adherence to Jewish law, this time as it pertains to the washing of hands and ritual purification before eating. As usual, Jesus doesn't mince His words. He calls the Pharisees hypocrites, citing Isaiah's prophecies as specific to them: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts."
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Eucharist | Gospel Reflection | Jesus heals
I have a question: “What do you need to hear from Jesus today?” Some of us could answer immediately: "I want Jesus to tell me if my loved one will get better." For others, we’d want Jesus to tell us whether to look for another job or school. Or maybe it is the perennial question: “Jesus, how do I get my life back on track?” We all experience times when we know we have things to decide or manage, but life has become so overwhelming that we either don’t have the energy to engage or don’t know where to start. This is when we need family and friends, like the Deaf man in Mark's Gospel. It says right in the beginning, “And the people brought to Jesus a deaf man with a speech impediment and begged Him to lay His hand on him.” Even if you don’t have someone to bring you to Jesus, we can always call on the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to approach Jesus with the faith of that man’s friends.
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Faith Life | Gospel Reflection | prayer
I came across a photo of me from long ago—very long ago. At that time, I was in great shape; I had what you would call six-pack abs. I worked out and ran three to four miles daily, which showed. Now, not so much. Now I fish. I try to convince myself that fishing is a sport, but I don't look like I used to, so it's difficult to convince people I'm still an athlete! Like any sport or endeavor, you must practice it if you want to advance. You must keep up with whatever is required to sustain your desired results, which, frankly, if you could see me, you would know I have not! This type of diligent workout routine is also vital for maintaining our spiritual health, bringing us to the Readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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Gospel Reflection | Parenting | family life
Families with school-age children probably more than once have had the experience of not being able to find something important — at a particularly awkward moment. When getting ready for school, an athletic event, or church service, we’ve likely all had to look for “my other shoe,” missing homework, field trip form, clean socks, and the list goes on. I remember searching under a child’s bed for the matching sock, thinking—I don’t have time for this. Anticipating what we need is a valuable skill. Do You Have Everything You Need?
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Family Activities | Gospel Reflection | family life | family prayer
Dad: "Kids, it’s time for bed." Kids: "Throw us in bed! Dad, throw us in bed!" (Dad picks a kid up in his arms.) Dad: "Did I ever tell you about the three men in the book of Daniel who were thrown into the fiery furnace?" Kids: "No!" Dad: "Their names were... Shadrach... Meshach... and ToBedYouGo!" We can sometimes feel as if we too have been cast into the furnace; just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The fiery furnace is something we all come across in our lives. Not just once, but many times.
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In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus ends His instruction to the crowd by saying: "Whoever has ears ought to hear." Later, Jesus speaks to the disciples about the crowd, saying, "…they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand."
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