Fr Patrick Peyton and family prayer
By Mark Griffin
Fr Patrick Peyton was born into a devout Catholic family in 1909, in Ireland. His family’s devotion to the faith, and in particular to the Rosary, made a great impression on him. These were the catalyst for his priestly focus on prayer life within the family.
It was not unusual to see him even interacting with some of the biggest celebrities of his day, including Bing Crosby and Lucille Ball, to help spread the message of the power of family prayer.
His two famous catchphrases are well known across the globe: “The family that prays together stays together” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace”.
His cause for canonisation was opened in 2001 and he is currently named as ‘Venerable’.
The model of family prayer promoted by Fr Peyton is a simple one. It draws to mind the words of Our Lord from the Gospel of Matthew, where He says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
The month of October is recognised in the Church as a month of particular devotion to Our Lady and her Rosary. If we have not been regularly praying together in our families, there is no better time than now to make a commitment to fostering a meaningful prayer life together.
Some families may initially be daunted by the idea of praying the full Rosary together each day. It might be a good start to pray one decade each day for the first week or two, then add another one for the next couple of weeks and so on.
Before long, it will be something that becomes as essential to each day as it is to eat, drink and sleep. All it takes to slip prayer into the daily routine is to make a plan and faithfully keep to it!
The Rosary is just one of many devotions within our Church. In an attempt to be extra-pious, we could be tempted to take on so many devotions that we lose focus on the intention of each one.
A useful suggestion that was once made to me was that it is better to faithfully keep to two or three devotions in our life than to take on so many that we don’t keep to any of them.
In this month of the Holy Rosary, let us commit to daily quality time in prayer within our families, in whatever form it takes, remembering what Fr Patrick Peyton taught us, “The family that prays together stays together”.
Our Lady of the Rosary… pray for us!