{"id":96,"date":"2012-07-09T18:24:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T18:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/theroadyoureon\/?p=96"},"modified":"2012-07-09T18:24:29","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T18:24:29","slug":"beauty-and-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/07\/beauty-and-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Beauty and Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou possess a rare beauty, my love, in here,\u201d Snow White\u2019s mother tells her as she touches Snow White\u2019s heart. \u201cNever lose it.\u201d The new film Snow White and the Huntsman<\/a> captivates the audience with a dramatic retelling of the old fairy tale.\u00a0 The key themes are beauty, power, and the desire to avoid growing old.<\/p>\n

The film relies on beautiful scenery and costumes to transport the viewer to a time of medieval knights and French ambiance.\u00a0 In this world, Snow White is a threat to the power hungry queen, Ravenna, who fights the ravages of time by sucking out the life of young countryside maidens.<\/p>\n

Snow White\u2019s strength comes not only from her physical beauty, but also her childlike purity.\u00a0 She makes dolls and plays with girls much younger than she is.\u00a0 She remains kind and faithful, even praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer as she spends years locked in solitude in a dark and fetid prison cell.<\/p>\n

Her character reminded me of St. Joan of Arc.\u00a0 St. Joan was a young French girl who led forces in battle, in obedience to the voice of God.\u00a0 A deep prayer life sustained Joan as she faced many challenges, including a trial for heresy.<\/p>\n

Modern Christians also need a deep prayer life to sustain them through the trials we each face.\u00a0\u00a0 Monsignor Peter J. Vaghi\u2019s fourth book in his Pillars of Faith series, The Prayer We Offer: A Catholic Guide to Communion with God<\/a>, calls us each to a deeper understanding of prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristian life, \u201c Vaghi explains, \u201cis marked by much outward activity and a corresponding need for regular inner retreat.\u201d\u00a0 Even Jesus had a hard time escaping his followers to find a quite place to reconnect with his father in prayer.<\/p>\n

To imitate Christ in his dialogue with his father, we employ the prayer known as the Our Father or the Lord\u2019s Prayer. \u00a0Vaghi explains how this prayer is \u201cthe<\/em> fundamental Christian prayer,\u201d and he encourages us to make it central to our prayer lives.<\/p>\n

While most of us will not have to face a supernaturally powerful and evil queen aiming to suck the very life out of us, most of us face problems that seem as dark and inescapable.<\/p>\n

When we remember that prayer can give us supernatural strength for the journey, we will have a rare beauty, in our hearts, that can never be lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou possess a rare beauty, my love, in here,\u201d Snow White\u2019s mother tells her as she touches Snow White\u2019s heart. \u201cNever lose it.\u201d The new film Snow White and the Huntsman captivates the audience with a dramatic retelling of the old fairy tale.\u00a0 The key themes are beauty, power, and the desire to avoid growing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,70,68],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hunstman","tag-peter-j-vaghi","tag-snow-white"],"yoast_head":"\nBeauty and Prayer - The Road You're On<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/07\/beauty-and-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beauty and Prayer - The Road You're On\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cYou possess a rare beauty, my love, in here,\u201d Snow White\u2019s mother tells her as she touches Snow White\u2019s heart. \u201cNever lose it.\u201d The new film Snow White and the Huntsman captivates the audience with a dramatic retelling of the old fairy tale.\u00a0 The key themes are beauty, power, and the desire to avoid growing…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/07\/beauty-and-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Road You're On\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-09T18:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gayle Trotter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beauty and Prayer - The Road You're On","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2012\/07\/beauty-and-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beauty and Prayer - 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