We"re now "On a wing and a prayer."

Milly Walsh is a fair and decent man. As he peddles his petrol at the Dublin Bridge he shows that he is also a wise man by shouting the same cheery greeting to the guy who hasn"t bought off him in ten years as to the owner of the car he is filling.'This recession could be the best thing to have happened to this country in a long time,' Milly remarked to me the other day. Grappling with this surprising statement, I couldn"t come up with any basis for agreement, so I stayed quiet, waiting for an explanation. 'The people will start saying an odd prayer again. I see a few more of them in the cathedral these days and it"s not a bit of harm! Too many lost the run of themselves and thought they were too powerful and needed neither God nor man. You should pray when things are going well and not be waiting for the bad times!'Could Milly be correct? Will this bolt out of the recessionary blue jolt us back to reality? All the signs out there would seem to indicate that Ireland had abandoned God in her daily life. There are even objections in some quarters to prayers being said in school, religious symbols in hospitals and the angelus bell on TV. Until a few years ago God was invoked in almost every conversation: 'Please God', 'God is good', 'God bless the work', 'God bless the child', God bless the cow', 'Thanks be to God', 'May God be with you', etc. etc. were everyday expressions and salutations. Nowadays a person who brings faith or God into a conversation will probably be regarded as being 'a bit soft' or weird maybe. But if the plane loses three engines and that same guy stands up and says; 'let"s say a decade of the rosary' nobody will call him a bollix and all will join in because there are no agnostics in the trenches. Why is it that we have become almost embarrassed for being Christians? Not all countries have gone like this: I see how devout and demonstrative are the Spaniards in religion and did you hear all the references to scripture from President Obama in his acceptance speech? Not surprisingly I have since heard this aspect ridiculed on our radio. Why is it that Muslims can throw themselves to the ground in an act of worship to their God, while we strive to dilute and downplay our religion with such comments as; 'Well, I was born a Catholic but I don"t pay much heed to that anymore', or, 'I am a member of the Church of Ireland but I don"t attend church.'Now this column is not going to preach to you, being written by one of those 'a la carte' Catholics, but we need to ask the questions. I certainly get something good from wandering into a quiet old church occasionally for a bit of peace and reflection. People who attend church are not necessarily any better than those who do not, but the former have the consolation in the thought that in the finish up it will be all we have to fall back on. Maybe most of us are in denial and just want to live the good (or bad!) life for as long as we can and then have death-bed absolution in the nick of time? Or as Saint Augustine said; 'Oh Lord make me good - but not just yet'!But is it fair to ignore the church and its clergy except when a priest is required for a baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage, or funeral? If we treated any other profession like this we would be told to 'go to hell'! (What a pun!)Irish people have lost a big part of what we are by downgrading religion to being the preserve of a minority of the grey and blue-rinse brigade. How times have changed in a few short years when it is now a newsworthy snippet to report that someone like Ronan O"Gara or Michael O"Leary actually attend Mass! Has the Celtic Tiger succeeded in accomplishing what the penal laws and centuries of persecution failed to achieve?We don"t have to be goody-goodies or even religious to pray and there are proven benefits outside the realms of spirituality. It is believed that people who say even an occasional private prayer live healthier and longer lives. The person who prays has an outlet for stress and anxiety. Recovery from illness is shown to significantly improve in those who find comfort in religion, according to the medical profession. Hope and peace are more prevalent in difficult times where people have a strong religious commitment.You see, apart from hoping for grace and indulgences being stored up for us in the next world, the mere fact of focussing on someone or something outside of ourselves helps us cope when we feel inadequate. This in itself brings some measure of tranquillity - or as we say in Spain, 'tranquilo.' There is much comfort simply in having a God to turn to, to appeal to, to talk to - or even to blame.Yes, prayer definitely brings with it a physiological and physical benefit. So if I die and there is no God, I will have had a better life for believing that there is: On the other hand, if I live as if there is no God and have to explain myself when I meet him, won"t I feel a right eegit!?Our country is in a state of crisis but Ireland has overcome terrible times in her past and we can do so again. I am reminded of that old Second World War song 'On a wing and a prayer' - from which that saying comes - in which a damaged fighter plane is limping back to base - making it home on 'a wing and a prayer'. This country"s wing is the proven resilience of her people; but Milly Walsh could be sucking diesel when he proclaims that we may need the prayers as well!!Don"t ForgetLet us pray, not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs.