In the type of warfare we are engaged in, there are two fronts, so to speak, that we must be attentive to. The first is the spiritual struggle and the second is the temporal. By temporal, I mean all the political things that we do in our culture to try to overcome the injustice of government-subsidized abortion providers as well as the cultural evil of legal abortion. I will go more into this front later; today I will talk about the first front, which is the spiritual front. I like to think of it as a “pillar of victory”, just as the Creed is a pillar of Faith. To bring about victory in the struggle against the culture of death, we must cling tightly to this pillar; it is the most important aspect of social change.

The spiritual battle is one of constant prayer; we should pray every day. Pray by yourself, pray with your family, pray with others in your church, whoever you can. Prayer is the greatest weapon we have, bar none. The Epistle of James says that the prayer of a righteous man is of great power. The Gospel of Matthew states that when two or three are gathered in prayer, Christ is in their midst and whatever they ask in faith will be granted. I could enumerate countless other examples of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, which rise before the throne of God like holy incense, according to Revelations. At Fatima, Our Lady asked us to pray the rosary daily. It is time now like never before to take those words to heart; pray the rosary every day, with your family, with your church, etc! It is prayer more than anything else that will bring victory, because it is through the prayers of the faithful that God sends grace and repentance. We can argue with someone all day about ethics and morality, but if God does not send grace to their mind and enlighten their heart, they will not see the truth. So pray for them; pray for those who do not see the consequences of their thinking. Pray especially for those who have never thought about the issue, which I suspect is a considerably higher number in our nation. Pray that God will pour out His grace and His truth-breathing Spirit to invigorate the message of the Church and enlighten the minds of our nation and our leaders. Unite your prayer with fasting; sincere fasting is very pleasing to God. The great wicked city of Nineveh was instantly saved from horrible judgement because they turned to prayer and fasting. Now is the time of Lent; there is no better time than now! God promised to spare the town of Sodom if ten righteous men could be found there, but they were not found. Let that not be said of us in our day! Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving: these three are world-changing powers in the hands of faithful Christians. When you give alms, consider where they can be most needed. Give to your local Crisis Pregnancy Center, give to respectable pro-life organizations like Human Life International and the Thomas More Law Center.

The Bible describes our interaction with the world as spiritual warfare. While we are engaged temporally against injustice and immorality in culture and legislation, the behind-the-scenes battle is against the demonic powers that vie for control of this earth. So, like a military element that suppresses a target with steady firepower from the front, while another element secretly flanks and take the enemy by surprise on their undefended flank, we must continue to engage in our social and political efforts to “suppress” the front, while the real victory will come from a spiritual flanking maneouver. It is God’s grace and His Spirit that will convert hearts and change minds in our culture. This will bring victory, but it will not come from our political action. The gifts of God come when His children ask for them. So ask! Pray every day with sincerity and personal sacrifice that God will send His merciful gifts and bring about change in the very heart of our culture. Pray with faith and hope. Do you truly believe that God will bring about change in our land? He is longing to! Pray with complete hope, do not doubt that His Will will be done on the earth. He has sworn by Himself that if we knock, seek and ask diligently enough, He will open the heavenly floodgates of blessing and we will find righteousness. Then our social and political action will be blessed and we will progress to create a more just and life-honoring society.