World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Parenting | family life | prayer
What subjects does your school of love do well, and where can your school of love improve? “The family is a school of love,” Saint John Paul II once said. I wish I had seen this phrase early enough to have taped it to my fridge when our five young adult children were little. It might have empowered me to see more clearly the sublime dignity in my role as a mother in the most intense hands-on years. As I meditate on this phrase now, and on the section of The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) where the virtues of the family are laid out, it’s clear my chances have not vanished entirely: not in my role as a mother nor as a daughter. Not yet, anyway.
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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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Parenting | family conflict | family life
Earlier this week, the arrows began flying. It was words that got me in trouble, and a failure to be precise enough. But I think it was more than that. In hindsight, I see it was a failure to undertake a translation I didn't know was necessary, and may possibly be impossible to carry out; a need to bridge the gap between the language of the believer and non-believer, and perhaps their hearts as well.
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Catholic Faith | Parenting | family life
My green thumb was recently activated when a friend offered me a punnet of tomato seedlings. I got to work preparing the garden bed, setting up a fence to deter my vegetarian dog, and buying some mulch to help with the weeds. I spaced out the little green shoots, then gave them a good watering and let them be. A few weeks later my friend asked how they were going and how often I had been watering them. “Once a week,” I replied, as a quick Google search had instructed. “No, mate, they need a drink every second day if you want big juicy tomatoes.”
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Parenting | family prayer | pray the rosary
Over the years our family has done many special things to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in our family, especially with our younger children — Mary crowning, Mary altar, reading about Mary, making a Mary peg doll ... and this year we are going to try a Marian terrarium, only because we do not have a place for a garden. Most importantly, we've celebrated Mother Mary by attempting to pray the Rosary daily together as a family.
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