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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
There is a saying: 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." This seems to be Zechariah's thought in the Gospel of Luke after the angel Gabriel gives him great-sounding news: Elizabeth and he are going to have a child. Because he doubts the angel's word, Zechariah is struck mute.
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Howard Loomis was abandoned by his mother in 1918 at Father Flanagan's Home for Boys, which had just opened a year earlier. As a result of his polio, Howard wore heavy leg braces. He had trouble walking, especially up and down stairs. Soon, several of the Home’s older boys carried Howard up and down the stairs. One day, Father Flanagan asked Reuben Granger, one of those older boys, if carrying Howard was hard. Reuben replied, “He isn’t heavy, Father, he’s my brother.”
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is one of the most important solemnities about our Blessed Mother. Pope Pius IX declared in 1854 that Our Blessed Mother, through a special grace, was preserved free from original sin right from the moment she was conceived in her mother, Anna’s, womb. It is part of the reason when the angel Gabriel came to tell her that God had chosen her as the mother of Jesus, the angel called her “full of grace.” She did not have a quarter of the grace, or have half of the grace, but she was full of grace!
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St. John Damascene, priest and doctor of the church, is quoted as saying, “Prayer is the raising up of the mind to God.” It was the phrase “raising up” that caught my attention as I reflected on the reading from Isaiah, where Isaiah speaks of the Lord’s house “established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.”
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Celebrating family life | Why pray?
As I read over today’s readings and began to reflect on their meaning, asking God to help me to write this homily, I was also thinking of Mrs. Howley, the mother of my friend, Joe, who is preparing to go home to God.
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Love thy Neighbor | Return to the Church | Why pray?
I have heard this story about the committal service of a man. As the casket was about to be lowered into the grave, a mourner came forward and said, "He was a very nice man; he loaned me a hundred dollars, and I owe him that money." He took a hundred-dollar bill and placed it on the casket. Another man came forward, stating that he also owed the deceased a hundred dollars and wanted to pay him back at that very moment. He also placed a hundred-dollar bill on the casket. Then, as the undertaker was about to lower the casket into the grave, another man came forward and declared that he owed the deceased three hundred dollars.
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