Articles & Newsletters

The human heart cannot be satisfied without love, without union with the beloved. As in the Eucharist, so also in the family, we cannot experience the joy of communion unless there is first presence, a presence that is real and abiding. It is no secret that the family faces many serious challenges today...

"Family prayer can move the world,” Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput writes in the foreword to a new book, A Short Guide to Praying as a Family: Growing Together in Faith and Love Each Day.

This is not your usual prayer book. Earlier this year—on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, to be exact—the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia released a new prayer book entitled A Short Guide to Praying as a Family. This book compiles prayers familiar to most Catholics and brings them together in a way that is intelligent, beautiful, and timeless. Let me tell you how.

Prayer nurtures the life of the family. It opens hearts, melts away resentments, fosters gratitude, and becomes a fount of grace, peace, and joy for the entire family. A Short Guide to Praying as a Family, written by our sisters as an aid for families who desire to grow in their lives of prayer, is illustrated with photographs of stained-glass windows from many different areas in the world. In simple and engaging language, the book directs families step-by-step in beginning to pray together and in deepening their prayer. Families who have used this book say that they have found especially helpful the sections on how to begin family bedtime prayers, the monthly family meeting, and praying with one’s spouse...