As I sit here writing today it is very cold outside and it seems that there has been snow on the ground forever. It has been a long and very cold winter. Most everyone would agree that it has been a very typical Ohio winter. It is just that we are not used to those any more since many of our winters recently have been somewhat mild.

I hope that by the time you read this things will be looking up and not just concerning the weather. I am talking about the situation between the United States and Iraq. The world can change so fast these days it is really hard to grasp all that is going on in our country, let alone the world.

Now there is nothing that you or I can do to improve the situation in the Middle East except, of course, pray. That is a very important piece in this whole situation. Sometimes we feel that our prayers just are not enough. It is very easy to underestimate the power of prayer. How many times have we been told that prayer is a very powerful weapon at our disposal to combat the trials and tribulations of the world and of our own lives.

We often do not grasp the whole purpose of prayer. We get into the mind set that when we pray we are to pray for someone or something. Most of our prayer tends to be that of petitioning God for some blessing or favor. Then, if our prayer is answered we might say a prayer of thanksgiving. Then there is the occasional prayer asking God to forgive us when we do something wrong. These are all aspects of prayer and all of them are important, but there is something missing.

Prayer is traditionally defined as a lifting of the mind and heart to God. This would mean that the real purpose of prayer is to unite our minds and heart to God. Prayer is the means by which we experience a union or relationship with God. Prayer could be defined as simply spending time with God with the intention of becoming more aware of Him in all that we do on any given day.

In the midst of our busyness it is very easy to become distracted by the world and all the things we have to do day in and day out. When we are distracted we tend to forget about God and all that He has done for us. We fforget that God is very close to us at all times. He never leaves us no matter what we do. God always loves us and He is always with us. We are the ones who forget Him. We are the ones who pull away from Him and convince ourselves that we can do this all by ourselves. What a joke! Who of us can live in this world all by ourselves. We need other people and we need to have God in our lives in a very big way. We do not need God just on the sidelines; we need Him in all that we do. We need Him to be the center of our lives. This brings us again to the real purpose of prayer. Prayer helps us to remember that God is indeed with us all the time. That is why prayer needs to be a part of every day. That is why we need to come to church every Sunday. Prayer is how we can always be mindful of God’s presence and love in our lives.

When we come right down to it prayer is an essential part of our life just like eating, drinking and sleeping. We only fool ourselves when we convince ourselves that we are too busy to pray or go to church. And that is exactly what many people today have done. It is amazing that most people do not go to church, in fact most Catholics don’t go to Mass every Sunday. Now we can come up with all sorts of reasons for this, but no real excuses. The fact of the matter is people have convinced themselves that they do not need God in the ordinary things of life. When something big or tragic happens, that’s another story. Then it is time to pray. That’s kind of like talking to your loved ones only when you really need something from them.

We do need God every day and we need to spend time with Him every day. We need to remember that God is ALWAYS with us and the ONLY way we can do that is to pray.

So as we live with the threat of war or the reality of a war or terrorist attacks or the variety of troubles we encounter in our personal lives, let us remember the need to pray. Prayer can make all the difference in the world just because it helps us to remember that God is with us. We are not alone. God loves us and will see us through every time and circumstance.

Pray for one another, pray for peace in the world, and pray for our President and all world leaders that all may know the love and presence of God. A good prayer to say is the Rosary. Pray the Rosary with your family or with your friends, the more the better. Our Blessed Mother is the Queen of Peace and she has asked us herself many times to pray for peace and for the conversion of sinners. Let us heed her words so that we can truly be at peace.