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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
In today’s gospel we have John the Baptist recognizing and declaring that Jesus comes from above, one who stands beyond all others. Just before this passage, John the Baptist declares that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He highlights that Jesus is the Son of God and calls on us to believe in Jesus if we are to receive eternal life.” None of this John knows, can be said of himself.
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Today’s readings present a striking contrast: fear and courage, darkness and light. In the first reading, the Apostles are arrested and thrown into prison. It seems like the end of their mission. But during the night, the angel of the Lord frees them and gives a clear command: “Go and tell the people everything about this life.” And what do they do? They return to the temple and continue preaching without hesitation. They are unshakable—not because of their own strength, but because they are rooted in Christ.
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Brief and contemporary inspiration focused on hope and family prayer will be delivered to your inbox! Articles include live video, written word, and links to resources that will lead you and your family deeper into faith.
William Barry and William Connolly write in their book “The Practice of Spiritual Direction” That “there is something in us that resists change and development, that wants wives or husbands, friends, companions to be the same tomorrow as they are today. At the same time, there is something in us that wants to know more about the other and is bored by sameness.”
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There is something special about conversations at night. During the day, everything runs on script. "How are you?" "I'm good." We speak about weather. Meetings happen, decisions are made, calendars are obeyed. Even in families, conversation is often logistics management, who picks up whom, what's for dinner, what's next. Its efficient, and necessary. But night changes things. A couple can spend an entire day discussing bills, groceries, and whose turn it is to call the plumber and to pick up kids, and then at 10:30 pm, lights off, room quiet, one of them says, "Can I ask you something?" You know immediately: this is not about the plumber. The real conversation has finally begun. Something carried all day has found its way out. Or college students, confident in seminars, composed in lectures, lying on a dorm room floor at midnight, staring at the ceiling, suddenly asking, "Do you ever feel like you have absolutely no idea what you're doing?" That question never surfaces at 10 a.m. But at night, it arrives uninvited and entirely welcome.
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Easter season | Learn more about our faith
I would like to invite us to briefly reflect on the First Reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles. There is a question in there that was directed at the Apostles, but it is also directed at each of us as followers of Jesus. “By what power or by what name have you done this?” Or as they say in politics, “Who paid you for this?” In the text we have today, there is a tension between the apostles Peter and John, on the one hand, and the religious leaders, on the other. After the resurrection, the apostles were went about healing the sick and preaching and they were arrested by the authorities.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
A few years ago, a father named Mark sat in his car, gripping the steering wheel, unable to walk into his own house. Inside, his teenage daughter was drifting further away, and their home had become a quiet battlefield. He whispered to himself words no parent ever wants to say: “We had hoped things would be different by now.” He felt like he had failed. Finally, he went inside… sat on the floor outside her bedroom… and said, “I don’t have the answers. But I am here. And I love you.” That moment—was not strength. It was vulnerability.
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