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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Intercessory Prayer | Venerable Patrick Peyton | pray the rosary
In 2013, my oldest son, Ian, and I traveled with the Deaf Apostolate of Boston to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day. Just four years earlier, our family had adopted a sweet little girl from China, who is Deaf. This trip offered an opportunity to not only become more acquainted with the Catholic Deaf community but also allowed further instruction in interpreting the Mass in American Sign Language. The most remarkable blessing came from learning the ASL for the Liturgy from Father Shawn Carey, himself Deaf. This alone already brimmed with God's Divine Providence; little did I know, God was only warming up!
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Ave Maria Press | Catholic Family Fun | Glorious Mysteries | pray the rosary
I have mixed emotions about praying the Rosary with my family. As children growing up in a Catholic home, we were “forced” to pray the Rosary, and I always dreaded it. The Rosary seemed to last forever, and there were a million other things I would have rather been doing. Because of this, my prayer time was never fruitful. I recited words, but never actually prayed. Today, rarely does a day go by that I don’t pray at least one decade of the Rosary. If I happen to be having a particularly sleepless night, I can get through more than one Rosary easily. My love and devotion to Mary have grown into an integral part of my faith, and I love having her as my spiritual mother.
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Ave Maria Press | Fr. Willy Raymond, C.S.C. | Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary | power of prayer | pray the rosary
Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., in his book, The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, encourages us to pray the Rosary a little bit at a time. As we stretch those muscles and create new habits, he invites us to pray a decade a night. The goal of this book is to help you establish a habit of daily prayer rooted in devotion to our Blessed Mother. To that end, each day’s prayerful reflection is built around the rhythm of the Rosary.
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family life | power of prayer | pray the rosary
It is spring in this part of the world, and we’ve been working in the garden. We recently replaced a wooden fence that had seen better days. Taking down the panels was a challenge, trying to prevent the whole thing from falling into the neighbor’s yard. At one end, a vine’s branches had grown and woven into the trellis and attached to the pickets. It took some time to dismantle, as I wasn’t sure if the fence supported the vine or the vine held up the fence. I had a lot of family help installing the new fence. I could not have done it alone.
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Luminous Mysteries | The Family That Prays Together Stays Together | pray the rosary
I’ll admit it—I had to be sold on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. I had been praying the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries since I was a child, pleading desperately that my father, an accountant, would be able to make payroll so that we could eat. I relied on that trio of Mysteries for consolation during difficult times. It was difficult for me to imagine branching off into praying a new set of Mysteries. But I realized that Pope John Paul II must have had good reason to add something to what I considered to be the perfect form of prayer. I had to trust in the Holy Father’s judgment on this.
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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 are counting our blessings, do we remember to return blessing 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.
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