This will be a short letter because I am away on vacation this week. You are all in my prayers. I have been talking about prayer for the last several months following a set of talks by Pope Benedict XVI. This was not done on accident but with a purpose for St. Lucy Parish. The last few weeks at each Mass we have sent a family home with a cross and prayer binder for our ministry “Creating a Culture of Vocations” in focussing on family and God’s call to our proper vocation in life.
Prayer and especially prayer as a family is a powerful and fruitful weapon binding the family together and helping all members to resist the temptations that surround us in our daily life. In the coming weeks we will continue to invite all families in the parish to a deeper and greater ministry of prayer within the family. Prayer in the family is a ministry because it is the work of bringing people closer to God and into a more intimate relationship with all members of the family. It’s not as if prayer will solve each and every problem, but it does help in opening our hearts to the moment of conversion that allows the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.
Venerable Patrick Peyton who popularized the phrase, “a family that prays together stays together” in his promotion of praying the Holy Rosary but there was a second phrase that is just as important where Fr. Patrick Peyton repeated again and again, “a world at prayer is a world at peace.” Both of these powerful phrases have deep meaning for us and we should pay attention.
We know how the example of the parents have deep and lasting influences on children. Children from the very beginning watch and learn how to be “people” by watching those who are in their lives, especially their parents as they grow. When children see dad and mom taking time in prayer together, using words of blessing towards each other and how they prioritize God in their lives they will be more likely to have a greater relationship with God and not leave the faith and religious practice behind. In my own experience, my family’s practice of prayer before meals, praying the rosary often as a family and Sunday Mass were foundational in my faith experience and certainly my parents practice of the faith lived daily was always an inspiration. It is also important to remember that we are not called to do all these things perfectly but rather with devotion towards God that shows that even in failing we still strive for goodness.
The second phrase of Fr. Peyton is even more important in the world today with so much breakdown in societal structures, acts of violence, drug use and human debasement that occur daily. A world where the many conflicts of war, persecution and government violence against its own citizenry has become so common we don’t even seem notice it any longer. As have written over and over again, when we unite ourself to God in prayer there will be fruitfulness because we change and are made greater and through this we then encourage the same change in our spouse, children, parents, neighbors and all whom we meet.
In a few weeks we will be asking all families in the parish to begin to go deeper in prayer for our children and for everyone when we journey with “A Parent Who Prays” written by Katie Warner. .
God Bless
Fr. Mark