World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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Today’s first reading is a classic. It features the inexperienced and diminutive David against the seasoned and imposing Philistine, in a battle to the death. It doesn’t seem like a fair fight; that either man would ever be forced to face the other. And yet, David is victorious against all odds.
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Robert Frost began his poem "Mending Wall" with "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall" and ends it with "Good fences make good neighbors." In today’s gospel, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees who criticize His disciples for plucking and eating some heads of grain while walking through a field.
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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.
This healing of a paralytic is a beloved and striking miracle. We can imagine the house where Jesus was staying in Capernaum packed with people; and then all the commotion when they were lowering the guy through the roof, and even more when he got up, picked up his mat, and walked out!
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It is said that one day, Bob Cousy was shooting foul shots in the Boston Garden, and making the sign of the Cross before each shot, with the coaches looking on. When the legendary former Boston Celtics Coach and General Manager, Red Auerbach, who was Jewish, leaned over to his good friend on the sidelines, Cardinal Richard Cushing, he said, "Cardinal, when your boys make the Sign of the Cross before shooting, does that help them?"
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It was a shocking moment for onlookers: a man full of leprosy comes close to Jesus and throws himself down. Jesus touches him and he is immediately cured. Leprosy was not only horrifying to people at that time, the Levitical Law even mandated that those with leprosy be declared unclean and live in isolation!
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Holy lives of inspiration | Learn more about our faith
At birth his name was Alfred. He was born on August 9, 1845 in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, Canada. Because he was sickly, he was given emergency baptism. When he was 10, his father died in an accident at work in the woods and at 12 his mother followed suit. Now an orphan, he moved from one poor relative’s home to another.
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