Prayer Wars

Hurricane Season = Prayer Wars

This season of the year--June 1 till November 30--is totally ironic, almost by definition.

Last year Florida got hit by 4 big ones. We had some damage to the roof of our house, which we didn't discover until it rotted through and we had to cut through the sheet rock in our bedroom to get 2 baby possums out, but we came out of that with the house still standing. We lost power for about 24 hours in one of those, but in the bad one that damaged the roof, we never lost power at all.

This year they're predicting another bad season. It'll be August or September before those storms start rolling in, and we pray to God we'll survive unscathed.

It's this praying to God part that's ironic. If there's a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, it's going to hit somewhere. How do you pray about something like that? "Dear God, let it hit Mexico?" "Dear God, let it hit Texas?" Or my ironic favorite, "Dear God, let it hit Mississippi and destroy all those tacky trailers and the people who live in them?" I don't think so.

My prayer from now until the end of November, every time I pass a Catholic church, will be, "From the terror of the hurricanes, O Lord deliver us. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us." I pass Catholic churches 6 or 7 times most days, so I say that prayer a lot. It wouldn't hurt if our readers said them for us in Florida, too.