Je Prie Pour Paris

                When I first heard that there was an attack in Paris, I didn’t turn on the news to find out what was going on.  To be honest, I couldn’t bear the thought of another terrorist attack.  I said a quick prayer that it would be an isolated incident and another for potential victims, then I went back to what I was doing.  As evening faded into night, I knew that I’d have to face reality at some point, so I checked the news.  To my horror, it wasn’t just one attack, it was several, with 118 people dead.  The number may be higher by now.  I felt a tremendous sense of solidarity with the people of France and profound sadness for the suffering that they were enduring, so I decided to do the best thing I can do in times like these:  Je prie pour Paris – I’m praying for Paris.

                In times of deep sadness, I often hear, “Why do we pray?  It doesn’t seem to do us any good anyway.  If God can’t change, then we can’t change the mind of God, so why bother praying?”  Such feelings have to be handled gently because they’re most often spoken by people who are at their lowest – at times when they really don’t feel that God is with them at all.  I understand the feeling; I’ve been there myself.  I’m sure we all have.  Perhaps ironically, these are the times when we need to pray the most.

                Prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God, an act of spiritual communion by which we unite ourselves, our concerns and needs with God and with each other.  Through prayer we step into the transcendent, spiritual world to fill ourselves with God’s eternal love and share it with others.  It’s true that we can’t change the mind of God, but we don’t need to.  God’s mind is perfect.  In it we find perfect truth, justice and love.  We certainly don’t need to change that.  We need to unite ourselves with it so that we can have perfect truth, justice and love on earth as it is in heaven.  We do that through prayer, and it’s always effective.  Every act of prayer is an act of love, so with every prayer we bring a share of God’s love into the world. And love always triumphs over evil.

                Think for a moment about how many people around the globe are uniting themselves with the people of Paris through prayer.  Think about all of the religious services that will add special prayer intentions for the people of Paris this weekend; think about the prayer groups that will join hands in loving solidarity with all who died and all who suffer their loss; think about the countless rosaries that will rattle for the intercession of Our Lady of Paris; think about the small child, the little old lady, the soldier, the soccer Mom, the police officer and every individual who will pause for a moment to offer a prayer for peace, security and an end to terrorist attacks.  That’s a lot of love coming into the world, and if you thought about it for just that moment, you, too, joined the multitudes around the world in prayer. 

           Together, let’s post, share, tweet, and hashtag these simple words to bring a lot of love into a world that needs it:  Je prie pour Paris – I’m praying for Paris.