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MY<\/strong> wife turned to me and said, “You’re under siege. You should ask your readers to pray for you.” <\/p>\n Some of you will remember that our farm was hit by a storm in June of 2018. We’re still cleaning up that mess. But this year,\u00a0almost to the day,\u00a0<\/em>another storm hit us, this time financially. We have had one after another of serious breakdowns in our vehicles and farm machinery. It has been relentless now for a month and a half. It’s easy to blame the devil, and I tend not to go there. But it’s hard to ignore how this new storm is trying to break my spirit.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n So, I’m dedicating this email to asking you to say a little pray for us, a prayer of protection from these seemingly ungodly crises. One Hail Mary, one little whisper… that’s all (because I know you are suffering too). All of this is a reminder of my total dependence on God, but also, my need to keep close to Our Mother.<\/p>\n Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0[cf. John 19:27] She intercedes, aware that as a mother she can, indeed, must, make present to the Son the needs of men, especially the weakest and most disadvantaged.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014POPE FRANCIS, Feast of Mary, Mother of God; January 1, 2018; Catholic News Agency<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The temptation in all of this is to stop praying, to become terribly active, running to and fro, and to cave in to anger. I’ve had to “run” as a matter of necessity, but also to fight to keep prayer as part of my daily routine and maintain composure in the midst of relentless crises. And so, maybe this little note today is a nudge to you also to resist the temptation to give up on prayer; to think that other matters are more important. There is nothing more important that God, than keeping Heaven in your sights, than “seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”<\/em> The more you are tempted to stop praying the more you ought to pray. It means the enemy sees you as a genuine threat; it means he sees how your growth in the Lord is beginning to encroach on his evil kingdom. Good. That’s the Lord’s plan: that Christ’s Kingdom reign throughout the entire earth until His will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf.\u00a0The Coming New and Divine Holiness<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span>\n