I have no way of understanding what is in the hearts of other people. We can only judge their actions and words. Only God knows what is in their hearts. The words of many people on the political left after the terrible shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last week, to me, were curious and empty and demand a response. Jen Psaki opined, for example:
“Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers do not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.” — Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) August 27, 2025
Of course, prayer is not enough, but for those of us who pray, it is always the beginning of everything we do. Explaining to people who don’t pray about a habit of prayer is difficult. Just yesterday, a 74-year-old friend of mine whom I swim laps with told me that anyone who prays is “participating in an illusion and a delusion.” He is a retired college professor—a Ph.D. in Education. My Catholic Catechism tells me that prayer is a “surge of heart” that raises our souls to God. Not only the Judeo-Christian traditions believe in the idea of both the material and spiritual components of our being, but every culture over the past 4,000 years has believed that. C. S. Lewis goes to great lengths in documenting these common beliefs in all cultures.
There are many different forms of prayer, and everyone I know prays in these forms without ever even thinking about it. Adoration, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving, and Praise are all ways in which we connect with our Creator. Praying for a good outcome in an athletic event, a business transaction, or to pass a math examination is fine, but such prayers for intervention would be best followed by the words “Thy Will Be Done” because His Will, will be done. They should also be preceded and accompanied by an action such as studying or practicing and training for a skill to compete in. I have prayed over many three-foot putts, but the reason I missed so many of those putts is mostly because I didn’t read the putt properly, didn’t execute the putt, or maybe I relied too much on praying and not enough on practicing. Praying can put my mind at ease before I putt. Prayer cannot execute the putt. In my opinion, those who don’t understand the implied reverence and subjugation that are required to accept His Will are not being appropriately humble. They need to also understand that “there is a time for praying and a time for playing.” We prepare ourselves from the “inside out” before we act externally.
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis specifically mentions that belief in God is widespread, encompassing ancient Greeks, Romans, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and many others, whereas atheism, materialism, and their ugly cousins—humanism, progressivism, and socialism—are modern exceptions. Christianity joins this broad, historical consensus, suggesting a shared human intuition or experience toward the divine.
The great scientist and physicist Blaise Pascal talked about the “holes in all our hearts that can only be filled by God with prayer.” Like so many of the founding fathers of science, from Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, up to Einstein and many of the modern-day astrophysicists like Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., an astrophysicist and Ph.D. at MIT and a Jewish Rabbi, the connection between the material world and the spiritual realities of existence can be explained rationally. Aquinas gave a platform for the Philosophers of the Enlightenment to build a theory of Natural Law—”A law imprinted on the hearts of all men made known through the faculties of reason and revelation.” You need both, just like we need both prayer for inspiration and discernment, and we need both reason and revelation for understanding ourselves, our fellow man, and God’s purpose for our lives.
Praying won’t keep us from suffering physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. Jesus prayed on the Cross while he was being crucified. Praying can connect us to our Creator, who promised that he would share our sins and pains, our hopes and loves, and our lives. It is when we prepare to pray that we assume a position of reverence, humility, and gratitude before our Creator. It is when we pray that we become connected to God. When we prepare to pray with gratitude and humility, we acknowledge that we are not our own gods. We are supplicant to a Devine Providence greater than ourselves. Humility and gratitude are essential ingredients for approaching prayer. These virtues seem to be lost in my humble opinion on many in our society today.
Many on the political left have once again politicized this tragedy. Two precious children were taken away from their families. The hopes and dreams of generations were snatched up in an instant by a man whose heart was filled with evil—the tool of the devil. When people talk about “gun control,” they expose their lack of understanding of the real cause of violence in the world. When we allow the holes in our hearts to be filled with the agents of sin, we open up ourselves and our society to the ramifications of our own misplaced “free will.” Think drugs, domestic violence, sexual abuse, loneliness, and mental illness, just to name a few.
My friend, the Ph.D., also asked that if there was a God, why would He allow for such a tragedy? I, of course, don’t pretend to have the answer, but I do know that God only permits the possibility for such terror because He gives us his second greatest gift: “FREE WILL.” Permitting and allowing are very different. That same “free will” can be used as a tool to confront evil in all its forms.
Without acknowledging that “evil” is a real force in our society, and without confronting the nature and cause of evil, we will never be successful in providing for the safety of the most vulnerable in our world. Controlling evil should be our goal, not controlling guns. In fact, having armed security in our churches and schools may be what is needed to confront those who are possessed to cause harm to our most vulnerable.
