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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Parenthood | Summer Vacation | catholic family life | summer activities
Wondering how to keep the kids busy this summer without being overwhelmed? Catholic Mom writer Holly Dodd shares the joy of creating an intentional, simple summer with your family. Summers can be packed full of camps, lessons, sports games, and lots of fun family extras. But if you cram too much into your summer plans, it starts to not feel like a summer break at all. Whether you have some plans for traveling or you are just staying home, try to stay focused on having a simple summer.
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Catholic Family Fun | Summer Vacation | childhood memories | family life
Looking for practical tips for making summer travel memorable through connection, faith, flexibility, and realistic expectations? Catholic Mom writerShelly Henley Kelly has discovered several practical tips for meaningful family travel that foster connection, deepen faith, and embrace flexibility for unforgettable summer adventures. Summer lies just around the corner, and our family is no stranger to summer travel. We’ve turned work-related trips into mini-vacations, approached summer sports tournaments with the mindset of exploring new places, and even embarked on a multi-generational family trip overseas. In time, we’ve become more purposeful in seeking our faith and making our travel meaningful and memorable. We want trips that strengthen our family connection, deepen our faith, and include experiences everyone can enjoy. These are a few practical tips we’ve discovered over the years. Let us learn how to take a break, turn off the mobile phone to gaze into the eyes of others, cultivate silence, contemplate nature and regenerate ourselves in dialogue with God. (Pope Francis, Angelus 18 July 2021)
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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.
Summer Vacation | catholic family life | family prayer
Wondering how to integrate faith into your family travel plans this summer? Catholic Mom writer Megan Cottam explores five ways to incorporate faith into your family's summer travels, enriching your vacation experiences and deepening spiritual connections. The sun is finally shining. The onslaught of spirit day memos, special projects due, lunch duties, and awards assemblies slowly fades into the background. The time has finally come for a change in pacing, and with that comes the exciting prospect of family vacations. Whether it’s a spontaneous getaway or a multiple-families-involved, years-in-the-making event, vacations can knock us out of our routines. This can benefit our family connections, restore our souls, and give us some much-needed grounding in our lives. However, this routine-breaking can also cause a slip in some of our faith practices. While it makes sense to tell our work emails and house to-do lists to take a back seat, do we really want to tell God, “See ya later” during what we hope will become joyful and life-long memories? On the contrary, vacations are fertile soil for developing faith traditions in our families.
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Catholic Family Fun | Summer Vacation | summer activities
Does your family make a Summer Bucket List? Megan Swaim has 20 ideas for families who want to celebrate their Catholic faith all summer long. We’re coming down the final stretch: summer break is almost here! Memorial Day is here! My children are looking forward to lazy summer days and endless hours of riding bikes and playing in the water, and I’m looking forward to being able to get into better chore routines. And also spending time together—I promise I’m not forgetting that! In the past few years, I’ve seen these great “Summer Bucket Lists” passed around the internet, full of fun ideas for making the most of school breaks and warm weather. You print your list, add some of your own ideas, and then spend the summer checking off the boxes—make s’mores, visit a museum, catch fireflies, read in a hammock … these lists can be quite comprehensive! But beyond the usual fun-in-the-sun activities, our family also really wants to prioritize living our faith together this summer. We know firsthand how easy it is to have good intentions but little follow-through, so putting prayer and service on our Bucket List will remind us of our goals and help keep us accountable. If, at the end of the summer, we’ve been to the pool every week, but the Adoration chapel only sparingly, the list will tell us. I’m hoping it will help us make prayer and service a high priority and get us excited to do these things together. If you’re making a Summer Bucket List for your family, here are 20+ ideas to help you live your Catholic faith together and have fun all summer!
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