World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Mother Mary | brokenness | pray the rosary
"I'm just that little shepherd dog," says former radio personality Kevin Matthews, who once ruled the airwaves in Chicago. "If I can get them to God, if I can get them to Christ Jesus, He does the rest. He's the shepherd." Matthews takes a particular route to bringing people to Jesus. First, he urges them to take the hand of His mother. "If I can get all you broken people who need your mom to clean you up," he says, "if I can get them to Mary, she does the rest. And when I say, 'She does the rest,' she sends them to Christ. "We've just got a little conveyor belt happening, and eventually they all get to God, our Father in Heaven." On Oct. 7, for just one night, Fathom Entertainment presents the documentary Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story. It tells the story of just how Matthews came to be what he refers to as "Mary's Roadie."
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Catholic womanhood | peace | pray the rosary
When a friend suggested adding the Rosary to her day, Laura Vazquez Santos found a spiritual lifeline.
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Blessed Virgin Mary | Catholic Faith | pray the rosary
Meg Herriot looks back on how she has grown in praying the Rosary and the ways she and her husband have made the Rosary the center of family prayer.
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Family Rosary | Psalms | catholic devotions | pray the rosary
Here is a prayer method that combines a Psalm, a Rosary mystery, and a Canticle. This way of prayer creates a “liturgy of the present moment,” fostering emotional connection, contemplation, and praise throughout daily life. During a visit to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., I picked up a small paperback from Magnificat Press, The Abbey Psalms and Canticles. This booklet inspired me to a new way of prayer. While the Psalms and Canticles prayerfully express emotion in the movement of the human spirit, the Rosary, developed from these, is a prayer of contemplation.
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Rosary with kids | family prayer | pray the rosary
“All good giving and every perfect gift is from above.” (James 1:17) We receive countless gifts from God in our lives, from food, clothing, and shelter to the graces He gives us each day. When we count our blessings, do we remember to return blessings and adoration to God? The prayer of blessing and adoration is one of the five forms of prayer designated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise) — the form in which we worship God or invoke His grace. “Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other.” (CCC 2626) The Catechism describes the prayer of blessing as an “encounter” between God and man. What is an encounter? The dictionary definition of the word is a meeting or experience with another person. As in a visit with a good friend, an encounter is an exchange, a back-and-forth between two people. In the Rosary, we engage in an encounter with Christ and our Blessed Mother, especially through the prayerful recitation of the Our Father and the Hail Mary. As our fingers move over the Rosary beads and our lips recite the words of these prayers, we listen and respond to Jesus and Our Lady.
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catholic family life | family prayer | pray the rosary
Both my husband and I were blessed to have grown up praying the Rosary with our families. Rain or shine, no matter what was happening, when it was time for the Rosary, all activities ceased, and we gathered to pray. My parents waited until we kids were older to have us join them in praying, so there were no toddlers present causing mayhem, and it was actually a peaceful rendition of a family Rosary. I’m not saying we would be on the front page of the Faith & Family magazine, but maybe somewhere near the back. Carrying On the Family Rosary with our Toddler With our upbringing, it was an easy habit for me and my husband to continue praying the Rosary when we started our journey as a young married couple. Now with a very active 18-month-old, the tranquility of our Rosary is — how shall we say — lessened. I have a feeling that Our Lord and the Blessed Mother share an amused glance when we begin our Rosary because it’s such a comedy routine these days. After dinner, one of us cleans the kitchen from all the gunk that has accumulated in the past 12 hours. The other one entertains our toddler with dominoes so she doesn’t run through the dirt piles that are being swept together in the kitchen. Both my husband and I are brain-dead at the end of our respective long days.
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