World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Advent | Christmas Season | Holy lives of inspiration | patron saints
Every culture seems to have manifested its own celebration of Saint Nicholas’ popular feast day on December 6th. From presents to persecution for sins, the evolution of the feast has changed from a day of homage paid a holy man to a secular rabbit hole of pagan and mythical traditions.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Today we celebrate the Feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle. As ordinarily happens on days such as feast days or memorials of saints, we try to learn something about such a saint and find out how the life of that saint can inspire us in our journey of discipleship. Not much has been highlighted about Andrew in today’s Gospel, but there is a lot written about Andrew throughout the Gospels that we can reflect on. Andrew did not write any letters or deliver any sermons, but we have a few words he said and gestures he performed that are loaded with a lot of meaning for our benefit.
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“The writing is on the wall” is a popular phrase to indicate that a message is clear. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ message to believers is super clear, “they will seize and persecute you.” This warning does not set off alarms for most of us. However, in many lands around the world, Catholics encounter persecution daily. Listen to the true account of 20-year-old Servant of God Akash Bashir martyred standing guard at his parish church of Saint John in Lahore, Pakistan. Born in 1994, Akash was an active member of his family’s parish church of Saint John, often helping the needy.
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St. Cecilia is the patroness of musicians, poets, and singers. Some of you may have heard of, or even visited, St. Cecilia church in Boston. It is truly beautiful, located near the Berkeley School of Music and, not surprisingly, blessed with incredible musicians and singers.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
Yesterday, after our groundbreaking at the Father Peyton Center in Easton, we had a wonderful reception for our guests and our Holy Cross Family Ministries team. Later that evening, I thought about the conversation at our table and the topic of the first reading: wisdom. I thought about the expression "that with age comes wisdom." I certainly hope so!
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Holy lives of inspiration | Return to the Church
Scott and Kimberly Hahn are an American couple who converted to the Catholic Church and who, in 1993, published a moving account of their spiritual odyssey in a book entitled Rome Sweet Home—Our Journey to Catholicism. Before converting, they were both active in the ministry as evangelicals, meaning they both had taken academic degrees in theology and were very committed Christians. Slowly they began to question the foundations of the Protestant creed. Scott was the first to convert to Catholicism, with Kimberly following suit sometime afterward. And during that interval, when the husband was a Catholic, they suffered tremendously from their division.
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