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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Marriage | St. Valentine's Day | catholic family life
Catholic Mom contributor, Laura Vazquez Santos, reflects on how small acts of respect, sacrifice, and tenderness teach children what real, Christ-centered love looks like. February always arrives dressed in red and pink, with Cupid’s arrow carrying heart-shaped chocolates and the gentle pressure to make one day in the year especially romantic. The world tells us that Valentine’s Day is the height of love and that flowers, dinner reservations, perfectly filtered photos, and grand gestures meant to sweep someone off their feet are the epitome of love. And while those gestures can be sweet and absolutely part of a healthy marriage, they are only the faintest echo of what Christian love is meant to look like. For Catholic spouses, Valentine’s Day is not a single calendar event. It is a vocation lived moment by moment, a daily choice. It is the quiet, unglamorous work of two people trying to lead each other to heaven. In our homes, in the chaos of raising children, and in the unpredictable rhythms of family life, we have the opportunity not only to celebrate our marriages but to model for our children what real love actually looks like.
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Marriage | New Year's Resolutions | family prayer | sacrament of marriage
2025: The Year of the Marriage? We are just beginning 2025, so many people are still thinking about resolutions they might make for this new year. Have you made one yet? If not, consider choosing a resolution that will strengthen your most important relationship this side of heaven: your marriage. Our marriages are covenants: sacred contracts that bond the two spouses into a family. The Catholic Church provides a comprehensive and truly beautiful list of vows to seal the marital covenant. The more I study these vows, the more grateful I am to the Church for them! Here they are, in simplest terms: I have vowed to love my husband freely, fully, faithfully, and fruitfully; for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death parts us.
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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.
Marriage | family life | family prayer
Spring is my favorite season of the year. After a long, cold winter, I appreciate every warm ray of sunshine so much more! I love watching buds appear on the trees, wearing floral dresses, and celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection at Easter. I’m also a big fan of spring cleaning. Junk has accumulated in certain places in my home throughout the last few months: a particular drawer in the kitchen, the bottom of my closet, and a messy shelf in the garage. The arrival of spring has triggered a desire to finally address those areas and get rid of the junk! As I started listing physical items in my home that I need to donate or trash, I realized I might be able to do some “spring cleaning” in my marriage, too. If you’d like to join me, here are a few things I came up with!
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Marriage | family life | love
It’s one thing to marry, it’s another to keep the love alive over decades. Longtime-married couples have much to teach other couples, married or not, but perhaps even more to teach people starting on their marriage journey. Family Theater Productions, which brought you Catholic Central, PRAY: THE STORY OF PATRICK PEYTON and The Dating Project debuts a new YouTube series that visits with long-term spouses offering advice and encouragement on keeping their vows truly “until death do us part.”
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Marriage | Valentine | catholic family
You and your spouse are cordially invited to a faith-filled Valentine night out on Saturday, February 10. Come celebrate the blessings of married life in the Lord! Set aside time together as a couple to experience a joyful and memorable evening.
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Healing the family | Marriage | catholic family
Marriage is a covenant that is particularly vulnerable to the cunning ways of the evil one. He can sneak in when you least expect it, slowly eating away at the union that threatens his plans the most. My husband and I have been focusing on our marriage more lately. Our children are getting older and we realized the daily grind of life over the last 20 years has caused some of the habits of our early years as a couple to go by the wayside. However, it is these very habits that ward off the unseen force
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