Another school shooting, war in the Ukraine, and gas prices are up to $8 a gallon in California. That’s just a small selection of the front page news of the day. It all seems so bleak, doesn’t it? Let us all be praying for world peace.
Have you ever heard of the story of Fatima? In the newspaper it was called The Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Spain. The three children in this photo met with the Virgin Mary on a hillside in 1917 over a period of a few months. These three children would go to a field to listen and talk to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus on the 17th of each month. You’d think after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mother they’d seem a little happier, wouldn’t you? But these children were hounded by the media, made fun of by friends and family and interrogated by the church, and local officials.
Mary would talk to them about how we could avoid war and gain world peace through prayer. She told them to tell all of us that praying the rosary daily would avert a great war and many evils.
What if that was all it took to avoid the pain and suffering of the world today? Just twenty minutes a day praying the rosary to attain world peace? Would you do it?
Prayer
In our parish, we have a small group of people who pray the Fatima Rosary every Thursday afternoon. What if praying the rosary daily would keep your children safe in their school?
If you aren’t Catholic, all this mumbo-jumbo means is that we all need to get on our knees and pray daily for the hearts of people around the world to change. Ask God to intervene. Ask the Virgin Mary to intercede and bring peace. Invite God to protect the children of our schools. Pray for politicians who want the best for the people of their countries, and citizens who respect all stages of life and an end to violence and greed. Pray for world peace. We all just want to live in peace, don’t we?
Keeping Peace
What is so hard about keeping peace? We must learn to live together, to get along and yes, sometimes to be selfless and even loving in tough situations. There’s always a solution to a problem if we talk about it. But we have to talk about it and be able to talk about the hard things. Learn to let go of small, petty things.
So many times, we walk away from relationships with people over ridiculous, petty stuff, don’t we? Families are torn apart by money, hurt feelings and the lack of forgiveness. We need to learn to forgive in the small as well as the big stuff. We need to pray for peace daily. Our world is a hurting mess. As many times as is necessary, forgive, forget and pray.
Action Steps
If you are curious about the rosary and how to pray it, here is a link to a great website and app I have on my phone. It’s called School of Faith and they lead the rosary daily. Their tag line is “Leading people to Jesus through friendship, good conversation and praying the rosary.”
Just start praying. Do whatever you can. Ask Jesus to lead you. I pray the rosary daily. It gives me a sense of peace. I hope it will do the same for you. We must do something, because doing nothing isn’t working for anyone.
May God bless your day and give you peace. Pray for the peace of the world. I appreciate you. –Barb