We recently talked about praying daily for your friends that you haven’t met yet, an especially important act of charity and piety as we all seem to be hurtling towards mass displacement, imprisonment and/or death camps. Imagine the friends that we will make! – people that we almost certainly never would have met otherwise. The Divine Providence is unfathomable and infinitely powerful. Even in collapse and war, there is always something to look forward to, always new friends just over the horizon.

In the same vein, let us remember to teach children, youth and adults who are marriageable, to pray for their future spouse, even as yet unknown, every day.

I’m hard pressed to think of anything more romantic than to be told by a courter that he had been praying for me every day since childhood (or she for him) – and not merely as a future friend… le sigh. Not to mention the reality of the efficacy of those prayers. God is not limited by time, so yes, we absolutely can and should pray for people we haven’t met yet, with the future spouse being at the top of that list, future children, and future friends.

And then when you meet them, you can have the deep pleasure of telling them that you have been praying for them for years, and know that it’s true.

Happy Feast of the Betrothal of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary!