"When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?" Jesus' question may generate many different emotions in our human hearts. The power of the Gospel created the culture and civilization, the way of life of Europe. Animated by faith, the art and architecture, music and literature of Christianized Europe created an incredible array of expressions of the Gospel and the Catholic faith.

But now Europe is almost merely a museum recalling a past era of faith.

Jesus' question seems all too pertinent to much of the modern world. Even the most traditionally Catholic countries in Europe, are in many ways post-Christian deserts as far as the Gospels and Christianity are concerned.

Those of us who mourn for Europe and for the Church in many parts of the world must feel the "need to pray continually and never lose heart." If we still faithful Catholics lose heart and despair of the power of prayer, we will have failed in our mission to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.