Strengthening the World’s Families Through Eucharistic Adoration

If you want to know what it’s like to run a marathon, ask a runner.

If you want to know what it’s like to be considered brilliant, ask a Rhodes Scholar.

If you want to know what it’s like to be a Hollywood superstar, ask a well-known actress.

If you want to know what it’s like to win a million bucks, ask someone who’s won the lottery.

If you want to know what it’s like to go to war, ask a Veteran.

If you want to know what it’s like, ask…

It doesn’t matter who you ask or how often or even how well you listen. Hearing the stories and having actually been there, done that are totally different things.

Those who have been abandoned or betrayed within the marital relationship, those who have been divorced or who have been given little choice but to divorce know there is no description that can put the experience into words. The agony, the rejection, the despair, the loneliness, and the defeat are too intense for mere words.

And for this reason, some of those who have survived divorce have a greater understanding of the phrase,

I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

Divorce is something I would not wish on anyone – anyone!

There are some who have found healing in the annulment process and in the annulment decision, but those seem to be few and far between. Far more seem to be jaded and looking for reasons to leave the Catholic church in search of a more accommodating Christian denomination.

The breakdown of the family leaves wounds that cut across generations, and it takes a big person to stop the bleeding.

Or maybe it takes a big prayer –  A LOT OF BIG PRAYER!

Today begins the Novena of Eucharistic Adoration for the Family. The Synod on the Family was called for by Pope Francis last fall to look at some of the issues facing today’s families and the forces weakening family bonds and spousal commitments. It will also investigate some harsh criticism dolled out by Germany’s Cardinal Kasper who favors allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist.

In response to Pope Francis’ request for prayer for the Family, the Eucharistic Adoration Society has devoted the first Thursday of each month to prayer for the Family. This Eucharistic Adoration Novena began today with the feast day of Saint Agatha and will continue for the first Thursday of nine consecutive months until the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux on the first Thursday of October, only a few days before the Synod is set to begin. If you missed the first day, please do not let that keep you from joining us in this worthy cause!

No one knows how much our families need prayer and strengthening, Faith and Hope, Healing and Love better than the divorced. No one knows how deep the pain runs or how scarring the blows can better than the abandoned. No one knows how hard seemingly insignificant little acts can be day in and day out better than one from a broken home.

But neither does one knows how all encompassing the Lord’s Goodness truly is. No one feels His Strength, Forgiveness, Mercy, Love, Hope, Faith, and Joy are better than the divorced who has found her faith.

It is for this reason, I took my boys to our first Eucharistic Adoration tonight. It is for this reason, that we prayed our own silent prayers, that we prayed together, and that we splurged by going out to eat as a family after. It is for this reason, I am asking my children to think now about what kind of man they will become, about what kind of woman they want to attract, about who their influences are, about what Family means to them and about what it is meant to mean.

We must put an end to the betrayal and loss associated with weak marriages and broken families. No one knows this better than those who have been through it – and come out the other side!

If you want to know what it’s like to be divorced, ask someone who has been through it.

And thank God if you will never know the full story.

Wouldn’t it be great if the generation of divorce ended with us!

Wouldn’t it be great if our children had a hard time finding peers who had been through divorce because marriages for their generation relied on God the way ours did not?

Miracles do occur when we pray.

Please join me and people all over the globe as we pray for a strengthening of the family and a focus on the Lord, and let me know if you will be joining this movement and how you will be celebrating and praying. I Hope you do!

photo credit

God Bless…