Wednesday, July 23, 2008

How to Preserve the Home & Achieve Family Peace


There is one way to have peace at home and in one's family - and ONLY one way. It is this:

"There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings upon the family....than the daily recitation of the rosary." -Pope Pius XII

"If families will listen to my message and give Our Lady ten minutes of their twenty-four hours by reciting the daily family rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful, prayerful places - little heavens, which God the Author of home life has intended they should be!" -Father Peyton

(source: The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort. Opening inside cover quote)

My family prays the rosary together, not every night, but most nights. Generally it takes about 25-30 minutes rather than the above stated 10. This is a blessed time for us and I often picture Mary there with us, standing before us as Our Lady of Grace showering us and our home with graces. I can tell you that this promise is true - for family who recite the rosary, however faultily and with distractions, peace and love with permeate your home. I have found that friends of our children, many of whom are not Catholic, will join us and after some initial resistance, they will on subsequent visits LOOK FORWARD to this time of prayer together. When I say resistance I do not mean that we coerce anyone to pray with us, nor do we demand anything. Its more like this "Ok everyone, its time for the rosary!" and the kids all gather together in various kneeling/sitting positions on pillows on the floor of our prayer room. No other activity is offered for guests, they are simply and without words invited to join us. We keep extra rosaries around for all the various friends who frequent the home.

We have gone to some lengths to assure that this room of our whole house is the most inviting, most beautiful and attractive place; warm soothing colors, rich woodwork, statues, candles, blessed incense - the works. We are not rich, but we placed our greatest efforts into this small, converted porch in order to be the center, the heart of our home.

If you make the Lord the more important person in your life and family, He will shower all of you with His abundant graces. I tell you this from my own experience.

May Mary's prayers go with you always. Amen+

No comments: