Celebrating our Faith in February

Sherry Hayes-Peirce discusses the many ways our Church and culture offer opportunities for reflection and prayer during February.

The month of February is brimming with many things to reflect on and pray for. Our Church celebrates and honors marriage especially the Holy Family. Nationwide, we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day and culturally we honor the history of Black Americans. This month’s prayer intention from the Holy Father is for our parishes.

My parish is honoring the Holy Family by hosting a screening of the movie PRAY, chronicling the life and movement for family prayer sparked by Fr. Patrick Peyton. Fr. Peyton frequently taught, ”The Family That Prays Together Stays Together.” So many families are suffering from chronic busyness that they struggle to set aside time to pray even at meals. Hundreds of people from our parish and surrounding parishes showed up to be inspired to make family prayer a priority.

Nearly three hundred people filled the church for the screening! The audience included families, young people, seniors and ministry members. There were tears and testimonies from people in the audience about the power of prayer, from mothers who shared how prayer has helped their family to husbands who shared how prayer helped their marriage.

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The celebration of Valentine's Day helps the world to learn about our Catholic belief in the power of intercessory prayer through the Communion of Saints. I often share with friends that praying for the intercession of a patron saint of whatever you are dealing with can be so powerful. St. Valentine is the patron saint for engaged couples, good marriages and lovers. While commercially, we drive the economy by purchasing chocolate, flowers, greeting cards and other gifts of love, offering a prayer to St. Valentine is a beautiful gift.

Before my husband died, I would spend time in Adoration to pray for our marriage. Any woman who is married knows there is always some aspect of your marriage to pray about. As you both age and the stages of your life together experience an ebb and flow, seeking the intercession of St. Valentine can really help to give you a feeling of peace. My husband and I loved cooking in the kitchen together, many times my role was to do the chopping on the cutting board because he was the cook! As a contributor to Catholicmom.com I received this beautiful charcuterie board as a gift of love from this amazing community, but it also reminded me of how much I miss cooking with my husband.

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In this month we also honor St. Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of victims of human trafficking. Her faith journey began with her own liberation from slavery, that was secured by the Italian Canossian Daughters of Charity in 1889. She also joined the religious order that liberated her. She was elevated to sainthood in 2000 and made history by becoming the first Black female saint to join the Communion of Saints.

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So many of us love our parishes, but do we pray for them to grow, flourish, and create community? #CatholicMom

As a Black woman myself, knowing that there is someone who looks like me advocating for me gives me such a sense of pride. St. Josephine Bakhita's role as a religious sister was to be greeter at the door of the convent, and she was often heard saying to visitors, “Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God.” She truly exemplifies the Scripture:

All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

So many of us love our parishes, but do we pray for them to grow, flourish, and create community? Do we pray for our priests and that others will answer the call from God to join the priesthood? That is what the Holy Father is calling us to do this month. Many parishes have closed or combined with another parish and are sharing a single priest. If you see the movie PRAY, there are so many examples of the power of prayer. What the world needs today is prayer and every prayer counts, so commit to praying for your parish.

May God bless all who read this with his perfect peace, hope, and love.