Hail Mary Pass for Christians Under Fire

What if at the top of every waking hour, we each prayed a “Hail Mary” for persecuted Christians in the world? What if every waking hour we did this for those who suffer for – and with — Christ?

As we’re overwhelmed by headlines, this is something we can do. Set a reminder, do what you need to do. Could teachers do this in classrooms? Imagine if Catholic meetings — in chanceries and parishes — began this way?

Pope Francis keeps pointing us toward serious lives of prayer! It’s essential! It’s the encounter with Christ that Pope Benedict nourished with so much of his writing and preaching on Jesus of Nazareth and his friends, the saints. (Go back and read so many of his Wednesday audiences on the saints — and so many of them women. They are a treasure trove.)

There’s also the Knights of Columbus Iraq fund and Aid to the Church in Need – perhaps giving as beginning or ending a day of prayer for our brothers and sisters living the faith radically, as we are all called to.

I stress also though — if we give a check and do nothing else, we’re not responding to the blood that cries out to us and our call as Christians.