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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
In Luke's Gospel, we witness the transformative power of trust and faith. Weary from a fruitless night of fishing, Simon Peter encounters Jesus and, despite his exhaustion, chooses to obey. He lowers his nets once more, and the miraculous catch that follows changes his life forever. Like Simon Peter, we, too, experience moments of weariness and discouragement in our family lives. We strive to nurture strong relationships, guide our children, and maintain love in our marriages, yet sometimes it feels like we are casting our nets into an empty sea.
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Monica was unhappily married to Patrick, a pagan who only converted on his deathbed. Her son Augustine abandoned the Catholic faith for a cult, engaged in a life of promiscuity, fathered a son out of wedlock, and resisted the pull of her tearful prayers and relentless entreaties to abandon his dissolute life and return to the Church. Monica herself became addicted to wine and only recovered by God’s grace. The great Saint Ambrose of Milan’s preaching proved irresistible to Augustine, and he reverted to the Church, proving that a mother’s persistent prayers can overcome all resistance by God’s grace.
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Quite a few years ago, I walked into the restaurant's bar section to pick up a takeout meal. Several guys older than I was were sitting at the bar, and I said hello. I got a lukewarm response, but undaunted, I introduced myself and asked if they went to the nearby church. One of the guys said, “No way, Father.” I asked him why, and he responded, “Well, my brother, who is one of your ushers, is one of the biggest hypocrites I know, and he and I don’t get along.” …Being a new priest at the time, this was a new one. So I simply said, “I’m sorry to hear about your brother, but maybe you could come to a different Mass. Besides, we’re all works in progress.”
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Pompeii was an ancient Roman town city located near modern Naples, Italy. In 79 AD, the city was greatly devastated by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed it and buried it under nearly 13-20 feet of ash and lava. I think Netflix has a series of documentaries about this. The eruption killed the city's inhabitants and buried it under tons of ash. Plaster was used during the excavation to fill the voids in the ash layers, revealing the exact position of the victims. Several years later, while construction workers were laying the foundation for a building outside the city of Pompeii, they made a very strange discovery.
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Depending on the day, hour, and amount of coffee we have—we’re all subject to forgetting things and even people. But as we know, there are different levels. For instance, getting out of your car without your umbrella, forgetting where you put your keys, or being unable to recall an elementary classmate's name when you run into them at the coffee shop! Then there are the bigger items, like remembering your husband or wife’s or other loved ones' birthdays or your wedding anniversary. These situations have something in common—distraction and a focus on something (or someone) else.
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Strengthening family unity | Why pray?
I am delighted to be here today at the Father Peyton Center in North Easton, Massachusetts — the Global headquarters for Holy Cross Family Ministries. I was blessed to grow up in a family. Families are found everywhere, and their challenges are pretty much the same. I come from India, the Diocese of Agartala, where I have been Bishop for the last 28 years. Today, I am also the Chairman of the Health Commission of the Bishops’ Conference in India. We have 171 Dioceses in India, and traveling through some of them, I find that a major health issue is mental health. Mental health affects families at all levels: divorced families, faithful families, hurting families, and dysfunctional families.
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