Tag Archives: faith

Marriage, a path to holiness


The call to holiness is lived out in all circumstances of life, one of the most important of which is marriage and family. When they see their marriage as a path to holiness, couples grow in holiness themselves and they help their children and other families to discover the beauty of their own vocation. In this meditation, we consider how:

  • The example of parents is a powerful influence on their children.
  • Parents should be open to life and to see each child as a gift from God, entrusted to them to be formed in virtues and faith and prepared for heaven.
  • Parents help their children at all stages, from infancy to adolescence to adulthood in which they will form their own family.
  • When the parents become grandparents, they have a vital role in the formation of their grandchildren.
  • The more  families there are growing in virtue and holiness, the better society will be.

The gift of faith

 

We tend to take our faith in God for granted when we find it easy to believe in God, but we should not forget that faith is a great gift that can be lost. In this meditation we use texts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and of Scripture to consider how:

  • We should accept all the truths revealed by God and taught by the Church, especially those we find difficult to believe or to practise, because God is truth himself
  • Faith is a gift that God can suddenly give someone, and that can be lost if it is not nourished and protected
  • Faith is the foundation of our whole spiritual life
  • We should ask God for the faith to “move mountains”

The hope of Heaven

A depiction of heaven

As we know from children’s catechisms, the reason why we exist is to know, love and serve God on earth in order to be happy with him forever in heaven.  We know it but we tend to forget it in the busyness and distractions of everyday life. In this meditation, we consider how we can keep this most important goal in mind in order to reach it:

  • Asking God to increase our hope of going to heaven
  • Longing for heaven in our prayer
  • Having a daily plan of spiritual activities to help us grow in love for God and speed us on toward the goal
  • Having our heart in God, not in goods
  • Doing what sports people do to win a crown that fades: having a rigorous training program, having a coach, following the rules, taking time out to consider how we are going, finishing the race

One in the Communion of Saints

One of the most consoling truths of our faith is the reality of the Communion of Saints – the Church triumphant in heaven, the Church suffering in purgatory, and the Church militant on earth, all helping one another. In this meditation we use texts from Scripture, the Catechism, St Bernard, St Therese of Lisieux and St Josemaria to consider how:

  • The saints in heaven “fix the Church more firmly in holiness” by their example and prayer for us
  • We should have as the goal of our life to be with them for all eternity
  • The souls in purgatory suffer greatly and are exceedingly happy, relying on our prayer for them and interceding for us before God
  • In the Church militant, we are helped by the prayers of all in this Communion and we should feel responsible to help the others by our struggle for holiness and our prayers and works.

Hope in the Resurrection

Th resurection of our lord Jesus Christ the principal message of Easter.

When the women went at dawn to anoint the body of Christ on Easter Sunday, they didn’t know how they would remove the huge stone that closed the tomb. To their surprise, they found the stone already removed. In this meditation we use the homily of Pope Francis in the Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica in 2024 to consider how:

  • There are many stones in our own life which may seem like insurmountable obstacles
  • Over the years these problems, by the grace of God, have been solved
  • The Resurrection of Christ fills us with hope that our present problems will also be solved

Faith and joy in the Resurrection

The Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday fills us with faith and joy. In this meditation we consider:

  • The sadness and sorrow of Christ’s disciples after his death on the Cross
  • The various accounts in the Gospels of Christ’s appearances after his Resurrection
  • The faith and joy of the holy women and the apostles when they see Christ risen from the dead
  • We too go through crosses in life and can draw strength from them, knowing that God allows them for our greater good and that we will have a resurrection to eternal life

Rechristianising society

 

With God and Christian values being pushed more and more out of our laws, culture and lives, people agree that the world is not in a good place. But what can be done to change this? In this meditation we use texts of the Second Vatican Council, St John Paul II, St Josemaria and Edmund Burke to consider how:

  • Christ sent twelve apostles out to the whole world and they transformed the Roman Empire
  • Society is transformed through man, through each person
  • God will do the work but he needs us to help him
  • We begin by struggling for holiness
  • We can help parents to bring up their children in faith and values
  • We can help politicians, journalists, teachers and others to have good values
  • We can join political parties, professional associations and pro-life groups

Prayer of the Children of God

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to pray to God our Father, giving us, among other things, the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. In this meditation we reflect on how we are to pray to our loving Father God, using texts from Scripture, St Augustine, St John Vianney and St Josemaria Escriva. We consider how:

  • Jesus himself prays to his Father
  • Our Father always hears and answers us
  • He always gives us what is best, even if it is not what we asked for
  • The benefits we receive from the very act of praying are themselves an answer to our prayer
  • We should pray with faith, confidence and perseverance

Faith in prayer

Christ and the Canaanite womanThe Canaanite woman who begged Christ to free her daughter from a demon, only to meet with apparent rejection, shows us how to pray. In this meditation we use the text of the gospel of St Matthew plus quotations of St John Chrysostom, St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St John Vianney and others to consider five lessons this woman teaches us:

  1. The need for prayer
  2. God answers the prayers of everyone
  3. The importance of faith
  4. The need for perseverance
  5. The value of humility

Calming the storm

St Matthew relates in his gospel how Christ, after multiplying the loaves and fish to feed the multitude, went up onto the hillside to pray. Before dawn the following day he walked on the water to the apostles who were in the boat and calmed the storm. In this meditation we consider how:

  • Prayer is very important in our life, especially when we are going through storms
  • Sometimes works of charity take precedence over our prayer
  • As a result of original sin, there will always be suffering in various forms
  • Christ does not abandon us; he always comes to our aid
  • We should continue praying with faith, confident that Christ always hears us