The world needs to
pray as never

Our society faces troubled times in which intolerance, violence and corruption have reached alarming levels. The recent presidential debates this year were a small sample of this. However, this is not our privilege, as we see it happen in other countries too.

"Today, more than ever, prayer is essential in our lives. The world is at the verge of ruin due to our lack of faith."

The above words were written over 70 years ago, and they are updated. Curiously, they were not written by a priest or a theologian, but by a doctor, a Nobel Prize in Medicine 1912 - Dr. Alexis Carrel, who was known by his tissue graft experiments, and organs and their surviving outside the body, as well as his philosophical works, among which is Man, the Unknown, a bestseller in North America in 1935.

His warning about the need of praying was published in the Reader's Digest on February 1942.

Here are some topics of the above mentioned article:

• Prayer has a long lasting influence in our actions and behavior.

• Prayer has a force as real as gravity force. The influence of prayer on the body and spirit can be proved as we prove, for instance, the existence of the secreting glands.

• Many sick people have been cured and become free from their illness due to prayers. When we pray, we connect ourselves to the unfailing force, which drives the Universe and, when we ask through prayer, human deficiencies are addressed and we rise strengthened and restored.

• We should not, however, invoke God merely to satisfy our desires. We reap greater strength when we pray and ask Him to give us wisdom so that we can become like Him.

• Whenever we address God, we improve our body and soul. However, it makes no sense to pray in the morning and live the rest of the day like a barbarian.

• Today, more than ever, prayer is essential in our lives. The world is at the verge of ruin due to our lack of faith.

According to the report of Neio Lucius in his book Jesus in the Home, a psychographed work by Chico Xavier, it is said that Jesus temporarily living at Peter's house, asked his disciple:

- Simon, what does the fisherman do when he takes his daily fish to the market?

The Apostle thought for a moment and replied with hesitation:

- Master, of course, he chooses the best fish. Everybody wants to buy the best. Nobody wants the remains.

Jesus smiled and asked again:

- And the potter? What does he do?

- Certainly, Master, he models the clay giving it the shape he wishes.

His friend from Heaven, with a compassionate and dazzling look, insisted:

- And the carpenter, what does he do to accomplish his job?

Simon answered, now without hesitation: 

- He will till the wood, and will use the adz and the saw, the hammer and the chisel. Otherwise, he will not be able to better and finish the raw material.

Jesus was silent for a moment, and then He added:

- So is the home in this world. The cradle is the first school and the first temple of the soul. Man's home is the origin of our character. If the merchant selects the goods, if the carpenter cannot make a boat without molding the timber for this purpose, how can we expect a safe and peaceful community, if we do not improve our home? World peace belongs under the ceiling that welcomes us. If we are not able to live in peace in our home, between four walls, how can we expect peace among nations? If we do not make a habit to love our siblings, in our daily struggle, how can we respect our Eternal Father, who seems so distant?

Jesus glanced around the modest room, He was quite for a while, and then went on:

- Peter let us begin here a new enlightenment, a new light for those who come to us for fraternal assistance. The table in your home is the home of your bread. God puts on your table the food of day to day. Why not sow around your home happiness and peace in conversation and thought? The Father, who fills our barns with wheat, by our working the soil, sends us the Light from Heaven. If this Light is the expansion of the rays that form it, then abundance starts with the simple grain. That is why the Gospel did not begin among crowds, but it started in the humble homes of shepherds and among the animals.

Simon Peter stared at the humble and intelligent eyes of his Master, and not finding appropriate words, he murmured shyly:

- Master, let it be done, as You wish.

Then Jesus invited the Apostle's relatives to be part of the enlightening lecture. He then unfolded the writings of wisdom and began on this Earth, the first Christian worship in the home.

Indeed, centuries have passed and today, based on innumerable examples, we can say that the Gospel at home and the constant practice of prayer can, indeed, strongly contribute for us to pursue different paths in accordance with what God expects from His children.