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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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As the director of the Formation program for seminarians of the Congregation of Holy Cross, there is a term I used frequently as I cautioned the young men in formation. “Please don’t jump ahead of oneself.” Some with an ambitious mind wanted to act like deacons already. They were focusing too much on future outcomes even before completing the current stages of training. Of course, the dangers of becoming overly confident and unrealistic can be significant. No growth takes place then. Why am I saying all this, we just celebrated the birth of Jesus a few days ago and here we are with today’s Gospel already highlighting the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry after John the Baptist’s arrest. It might sound like jumping ahead of oneself.
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Learn more about our faith | Strengthening family unity | Why pray?
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see” This is a beautiful phrase that Jesus uses to encourage his disciples and those who were listening to him that they carry a special favor in their hands. They have been blessed because they are witnessing what important figures in the past longed for but never got to. Jesus, in announcing this blessing, also highlights the special and unique relationship He shares with the Father: He states that “all things have been delivered to me by my Father” His mission is to reveal that Father to us. To make Him accessible and intelligible to us as humans.
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Learn more about our faith | Strengthening family unity | Why pray?
Good morning, beloved friends, and a blessed welcome to this first week of Advent! The Church invites us to prepare our hearts for Christ's coming—both celebrating His birth at Christmas and anticipating His return in glory.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
I’d like you to imagine you’re on a dusty road near Jericho, or perhaps a road near where you live, and you encounter a man who is blind and forced to beg, sitting in the shadows, ignored or maybe even forgotten by those around him. Suddenly, a crowd stirs—Jesus of Nazareth is passing by! This man, though isolated by his blindness, doesn't hesitate or overthink the situation. Instead, he cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Despite the crowd's rebukes to him, he shouts louder; his faith is unyielding. Jesus stops, calls him near, and asks, "What do you want me to do for you?"
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This chapter from Saint Luke’s Gospel is perhaps one of the most well-known and beloved in all of Scripture. Here, in response to the Pharisees’ judgment of Jesus for welcoming sinners, our Lord tells three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (better known as the prodigal son). We hear only the first two of these parables, because the Church’s cycle of readings saves the greatest and the longest, the prodigal son, for the season of Lent.
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When climbers set out to conquer a great mountain, say, Everest or Kilimanjaro, they begin with backpacks overflowing. Food for every possibility, extra clothes, comforts from home, maybe even a favorite book. But the higher they climb, the heavier every ounce feels. Oxygen thins. Steps slow. At the base, you own your things; halfway up, they own you. So at every camp, they leave something behind: a pan, a sweater, a photo. The mountain strips them down to the essentials. Because the only way to reach the summit is to travel light.
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