The world is not a great place right now. You don’t need to be reading this article to know that.

Not a day goes by, it seems, where some horrible incident does not occur.

Open a newspaper: France was attacked on their Bastille Day.

Click into an internet browser: the military in Turkey staged a coup and hundreds of people are dead.

Turn on the TV: policemen and protestors are fighting in the street (in our backyards!) and lives are being lost for hateful reasons.

Parents, children, husbands, wives, grandparent, all of these lives are being lost. Unborn babies are missing out on knowing their father.

What is happening with the world? I can’t tell you, because I don’t understand any of it. I don’t understand how or why a group of individuals decides to target another group. I don’t know how people can sleep soundly at night knowing that they are playing an active part in bringing about sorrow. I don’t know how a person can open fire on a group of people in the early hours of the morning.

I feel helpless. I feel like I cannot do anything. I feel like I’m watching the world through a fogged up window. I feel like I might wake up one morning and the current situation will be just a dream.

It’s not a dream.

Not for me; not for you; not for Mr. and Mrs. Smith who live down the road. This is our current reality. I honestly don’t know when it’s going to end.I don’t know who will be the one to call for a cease-fire. I hope and pray that it happens soon, though.

That is what gets me through these times. I know in my heart that it won’t always be like this. My brain may not always feel that way, but my heart has not lost its hope.

Every night as I pray, I offer up my small sufferings. I offer up my discomfort for those who have lost everything. I offer up my lack of sleep for those who have been attacked and no longer have a bed to sleep on. I let go of my grudges and anger because I have seen the horrors that anger can bring about.

God hears all of our prayers. It is not His “fault” that the world is the way that it currently is. However, until we turn back to Him as a whole, the world will never be at peace.

I pray for the intercession of the saints. I pray that they will guide those who breed violence towards a more loving nature. I pray for the intercession of Mary and the angels, that they will guide the world to the Heart of Jesus. I pray that my brothers and sisters will flood the depths of Heaven with their own prayers.

I pray that when I look to the news in the coming times I won’t see hatred.I pray that the news proclaims the joys of life, and the gifts that the world has received.

I pray that that day is soon.