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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
“Search Me O Lord and Try Me, Test My Soul and My Heart.” Today’s Saint, Junipero Serra certainly heard, prayed, and lived out this prayer. For he began his professional life as a Spanish university professor teaching philosophy, and after ordination to the priesthood, also taught theology. But despite his academic giftedness and successes, he felt called to become a missionary. This led to his being sent to the Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico City in 1749. Beginning the next year and for the following six years Father Junipero would oversee five missions to the Pame Indians in the Sierra Gorde mountains.
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During World War II, a small team of British cryptanalysts worked day and night to decode the German military’s encrypted messages. Most people have heard of Alan Turing. But fewer know that Turing once brought in a young mathematician named Joan Clarke, brilliant, reserved, and not officially part of the war cabinet. When someone asked Turing why he shared classified details with someone not “on the list,” he reportedly answered, “Because some minds are not just clever, they are trustworthy.”
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today's reading from 2nd Corinthians presents us with a seemingly paradoxical message. St. Paul, in his letter, speaks of boasting, not in his strengths, but in his weaknesses. In a world that values power and success, how can weakness be a source of pride or a testament to faith?
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today’s Gospel offers a simple, yet deeply challenging truth. Jesus tells us, “If you forgive others their wrongs, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you.” Forgiveness is not optional in the Christian life—it is essential. It is the heart of the Our Father, the prayer we repeat often, but perhaps too easily. And yet, how hard it is to live those words: “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
I have a question for you: can you remember the last time that you gave praise to God like the psalmist that we have just heard? A time when you couldn’t help but praising God’s goodness and mercy, maybe even going beyond prayer with God and telling others…. As I reflected on this question, I thought about what it takes to get us out of normal dialogue with God whether in our formal prayers or in times of exasperation or fear when we simply call out to God for help. It’s then that I remembered the Air India plane crash that tragically killed 241 souls but somehow one man not only survived but walked out of the plane. That man and everyone involved used the same word to describe his beating the odds: miraculous.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Saint Paul addressed his letter to the Corinthians with a heartfelt appeal. Paul says, “As brothers and sisters in Christ, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Immediately, this made me ponder the questions: How are we receiving the grace of God? Are we letting this great gift help us fulfill our mission each day, or do we sometimes fail to use this gift from God to help us? Paul reminds the people of his time and ours of God’s message: “In an acceptable time, I heard you, and on the day of salvation, I helped you.” In every Sacrament…we receive the grace of God, and we know that we also receive His grace in moments of prayer and even in moments we cannot even find a way to ask for His help. In this spirit, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that God has heard them and helped them throughout their lives in various ways.
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