Our seven strategies for Building the Civilization of Love are Prayer, Premarital Chastity, Fertility Appreciation, Openness to Children, Natural Family Planning, Marital Faithfulness, and Dignity of the body. We will examine each one to see how they can be used to answer the cry, “What can we do!?” which rises in our hearts as we face the culture of death. The simple answer is Lots of things, but none of them will work without prayer.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders accomplish nothing.” (Ps. 127:1)
Some of us are expert pray-ers, and others are unsure about it. Simply put, prayer means lifting our hearts and minds to God to receive His clarity of thought about what needs to be done and His strength to do it. What makes this so important in the current struggle is that none of us is wise enough to know exactly what needs to be done, and none of us is strong enough to do it by ourselves. We all need help, especially when we are going up against all the power of the world, of the devil, and of our own twisted ideas and inclinations. There is really only one source of the Civilization of Love and that is God, who is Love. Any other approach dances around the issue and wastes our time.
So, how do we pray? There are more ways of praying than anyone can count: from pondering the Scriptures in God’s presence to rosaries, from songs in a great congregation to solitary thoughts in a hermitage. There are more books of advice about prayer than anybody’s garage could hold, and most of them are pretty helpful. What matters, however, is whether our prayer does or does not draw us into the wisdom and strength of God so that we do God’s will in love. So, whatever type of prayer you know, start now, and don’t give up.
Remember that the purpose of prayer is not to change God, but to change us. You know that prayer is doing its job when you notice yourself thinking the thoughts God would think and doing things God would do. The goal here is for each one of us to work hand-in-glove with God. With that kind of setup, we can’t lose!
Ways to get started praying
Get up a few minutes earlier in the morning, and spend the extra time with God. Tell Him about your life: your hopes, plans, and struggles. Listen for His response – it may be hard to hear at first, but the more you listen the more you’ll learn to recognize His voice.
Read the Bible – a little bit each day. Try to apply what you’ve read to your own life.
Play praise and worship music, or other Christian music, while you’re driving your car. Sing along, and lift your heart up to God through the music. If you don’t drive, listen to the music on headphones.
Every time you pass an abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood office, pornography store, or other places where people are led astray, say a short prayer for the conversion of everyone connected with that place.
Set your watch to go off at a certain time. When it does, stop wherever you are and say a simple prayer for all those who are suffering because of the sexual confusion in our culture.