Long dormant volcanoes are now becoming active around the world, the worst earthquakes in history are occurring more frequently, with tsunamis and nuclear disasters adding to the dangers…more tornadoes, more hurricanes, more floods are happening on every continent! Add to the natural disasters an economic crisis with worldly repercussions… major flu epidemics and some long-forgotten serious illnesses making a return…countless graduates from college with hard-earned degrees in the professions working as waiters or out of work, because no one will hire them….the cost of a college education so great that many prospective intellectual and professional people will never enrich our society, because students are unable to continue their studies…revolutions on a wide-spread scale in the Mid East… the U.S.’s never-ending involvement in wars that history has proven cannot be won, while young people die in the name of a “freedom” that will never come to those they protect… a return of piracy that no one seems to be able to control, endangering commerce and people simply out to enjoy a vacation voyage… and everywhere, people are on “high alert” from terrorism, with our privacy being invaded on all sides by the controls imposed on us for “our safety”! Did I leave anything out?

That’s today’s world.

So, I go about my daily life with a few visits to the market, preparing meals, doing the dishes, keeping the house clean, working where I can, while watching my income diminish monthly from fewer student enrollments and serious cutbacks in my retirement check – because the government doesn’t have enough money to keep paying me. Yet money freely comes off the printing presses in great quantities to “fix” the economic upheaval created by a greedy few CEO’s, who made their millions on our backs and continue to earn millions while the rest of us go in the hole. The U.S. is so far in debt to other countries, including those who are our proclaimed enemies that it is not hard to imagine what will happen when those who hate us decide to pull the rug. I’m careful with my money, spend only what I have, and never go beyond the necessities when I do. Suddenly I find that I cannot pay my few basic creditors

All these things were running around inside my head bumping into each other for the past few months and arguing over who should have the right of way! …and I found myself becoming seriously depressed!

Are you tired of hearing this? So am I! Can we fix any of this? No we can’t. It’s out of our control.

Well, I have a solution: sack cloth and ashes! What in heaven’s name am I talking about? Indeed, in Heaven’s name, I’m talking about what works. Through all of man’s history, prayer and sacrifice have always brought God’s grace to mankind. We cannot do a thing without God! Yet He can do ALL. He loves his children and He wishes our welfare at all times. We create our problems: He doesn’t. This is a timely thought. This editorial was written in Lent, a time of sacrifice preceding the greatest feast in history, and the promise it represents for our very happiness. In all of Christian civilization, it has always been so: sacrifice before grace. Confront the pain with valor because the healing will come! Sacrifice with a well-intentioned heart brings miracles. And more than ever before in history we need a miracle!

There are numerous historical events to prove the value of prayer and sacrifice, among them: The salvation of Nineveh, the victory of Lepanto, King Henry V’s victory at Agincourt, all won against overwhelming odds – in the name of God….and the most sublime of all, Christ’s sacrifice through his Passion and Cross, where God the Son, in his nature as man – alone - opened the door to eternal life to every human being who ever lived or ever will, as long as time exists!

We are not above our God. If prayer and sacrifice move God’s heart to compassion, I see the solution! It’s a simple one…and changing the world is within our hands without any doubt. God moves the waters and the earth. He can still them. God allows evil men to rule. He can overcome them. God values sacrifice and answers prayers.

You finish the last sentence…