"GOD, our Heavenly Father, Lord of peace and justice, we humbly come before you during this time of escalating geopolitical tensions in our part of the world. ... Have mercy on us, Lord; rescue us from the malevolent forces that influence world leaders. For we believe that '... our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.'"

So goes, in part, the Oratio Imperata for Peace, issued by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on July 22 to be prayed at Masses throughout the country until January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace in the Catholic Church.

Fearful of Asia frictions amid devastating wars in Ukraine and Israel, the CBCP approved the Oratio in English and Filipino versions at the second of its twice-yearly plenary, held in Cagayan de Oro City in early July (https://x.com/cbcpnews/status/1815317552022671675). Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, whose constituents include fishermen adversely affected by China's fishing ban on the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, had also called for the daily praying of the rosary.

Will these and other peace prayers to heaven stop conflicts ongoing and threatening across the globe? It may not seem so, with the gruesome, unabated Ukraine and Gaza carnage, plus our own incidents with China in the West Philippine Sea.

But looking at key world events in recent years with both the eyes of faith and the mind of geopolitics, one may see God responding to mounting pleas for peace.

How God is making peace

The most prominent and powerful peace prayer in our time has to be the Consecration of Russia, Ukraine and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, said by Pope Francis and echoed by thousands of Catholic bishops worldwide on March 25, 2022, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which celebrates the Incarnation of God the Son in the Blessed Virgin's womb.

Done by the Holy Father as requested by Ukrainian prelates, the consecration is the closest the Catholic hierarchy has come to fulfilling heaven's instructions as conveyed by Mary in the third of her six apparitions in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal, and later messages to visionary Lucia dos Santos, who lived until 2005, while her fellow seers, Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto, died in the 1920 Spanish flu pandemic.

Along with the Five First Saturdays devotion, also imparted through Lucia, papal consecration was the promised way to peace. After other consecrations by Pius XII in 1942 and 1952 and John Paul II in 1981, 1982 and 1984, world war was shortened or stopped ("Will there be world war? Not this year, we pray," https://tinyurl.com/4c99syu2).

And arguably, global conflict may also be avoided with Pope Francis' worldwide consecration. How? Read carefully to the end.

After the March 2022 rite at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, replicated in cathedrals across the planet, Ukraine and Russia indeed nearly concluded a peace agreement for Russian invaders to completely withdraw if Ukraine stayed neutral.

But Washington and London blocked the peace deal and prodded President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to keep fighting with Western arms and aid. The aim: to "weaken" Russia's military and economy, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after visiting Kyiv in April 2022.

So, instead of ending the war just weeks after it began on Feb. 24, 2022, the fighting has decimated half a million people, wounded and displaced millions more, devastated Ukraine's cities, and lost even more territory to Moscow.

Rather than getting weaker, Russia now has 800,000 troops in and around Ukraine — Europe's largest and most heavily armed — and its economy has overtaken Germany, fed by massive oil revenues and military spending. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are nearing collapse, and NATO armaments are much reduced by massive aid to Kyiv.

Already reluctant to intervene in Ukraine due to his country's November 2024 elections, US President Joe Biden became even more war-wary when the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted last October. Thus, the following month, Biden agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco to adopt measures for avoiding superpower conflict.

Mark the dates

Putting on lenses of faith, with special attention to Catholic feast days and the world events leading to the West's war avoidance, heaven's hand in geopolitics seems to show, at least for devout believers.

The depletion of Western arms was spelled out by the top Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, which reported on Jan. 23, 2023 — the feast of the espousal of Mary and Joseph — that the US would run out of precision-guided munitions in less than a week of fighting just over Taiwan (https://tinyurl.com/35pha97t). The next key date was October 7 last year — the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — when Hamas attacked southern Israel, prompting US fears of having to fight two major wars.

Presidents Biden and Xi met on November 15, the memorial of St. Albert the Great, who did not follow his German father's military career and became a leading medieval Church thinker. The first Mass reading on that day also warned: "Hear, O kings, and understand ... you judged not rightly, and did not keep the law, nor walk according to the will of God, Terribly and swiftly shall he come against you" (The Book of Wisdom 6:1–11).

Recent events are set to end the Biden administration, which blocked peace in Ukraine. On June 27, the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Biden did badly in his debate with former president Donald Trump. That led to Biden dropping his reelection bid on July 21, the hottest day ever recorded, and his withdrawal speech on July 24, the memorial of St. Christina the Astonishing, a patron against mental illnesses and deficiencies.

Further pressuring the Democrats was the failed assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, the date of the third Fatima apparition, when Russia's consecration was instructed, and the feast of Our Lady of Rosa Mystica.

What's next? US elections on November 5, when several martyrs to atheist ideologies are commemorated.

Let's keep praying. Amen.