Dearly Beloved in Christ,

Christian faith is not for the faint of heart for we are in the midst of a war.  Our Enemy's battleground is our homes, our schools, our universities, our workplaces, and our churches.  He seeks to bring discord instead of peace, darkness instead of light, broken relationships rather than healthy and healed ones.  Precisely because the Lord loves us we are hated by our Enemy: those who already belong to Christ Satan beleaguers, those who do not he seeks to keep bound in darkness away from the light of the Lord and the hope of eternal life.

Of course there are those who have bought the lie that neither the Enemy nor the battle exist.  CS Lewis put it this way: "One of Satan's best tricks in the 20th century is to make people believe he doesn't exist."  This was a trick that neither our Lord, nor the early Christians fell for - they knew the reality of the spiritual forces ranged against them.

The battle is not an equal one, however, for our Commander has already won the war.  But until he returns he has equipped us with defensive armor and offensive weapons to continue the fight.  We have been given the full armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod with that which allows us to proclaim the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This armor will surely protect us from the Enemy's arrows, but anyone who has fought in a war knows that a merely defensive posture will not win any battles. So we have been given a couple of weapons with which to attack, and defeat our Enemy.  The sword of the Spirit is both a defensive and an offensive weapon.  But the atomic bomb in the faithful Christian's arsenal is prayer. The faithful prayers of ordinary Christians release the awesome power of God in ways covered in mystery that we cannot plumb.  The Enemy flees helpless in the face of the prayers of the Lord's faithful.

Let us take to heart Saint Paul's words.  We are at war! But we know the Enemy, we have detected his tactics, and we have a great Commander who is greater than the one who comes against us.  We are his warriors whom he has equipped for battle, both with protective armor and weapons of attack.  May we enter the fray daily clothed in the armor of God and in the sure knowledge that his power pours forth through our persistent prayers.

In the Peace, Grace, and Love of our Lord,

For all ages resume on September 9