It’s been a whisper in my mind these past weeks, like the first flakes of snow on the ground. “Save me,” it says, “Please come and save me.” And I know where it comes from. It’s a whisper from the places where the wise men came to see the baby Christ so long ago. They traveled everywhere to seek him, because they knew they would not find him in ancient Persia — what is now modern Iran and Iraq.

Fast forward 2,000 years and bring them along with their camels and treasures and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t find the Christ Child there now either.

In the Scriptures, a phrase is used when evil old King Herod the Great hunted down the little boys of Bethlehem. A rabbi walking the wind-blown street cried out among the tiny bodies: “A voice was heard in Ramah. It was Rachel, weeping for her children, because they are no more.”

You can hear that cry again if you listen closely, for murderers of a radical Islamic sect are martyring adults and children who proclaim Christ their Savior. Horrific things are done. The locals say Genghis Khan was not that brutal. Crucifixes are thrust into the necks of Christian children before they are killed. Curved scimitars receive work not done in ages as the heads of thousands of Christians are taken. And the rest? If they don’t flee, they are simply shot. Stupid me. I thought the world had changed, but in many countries on this earth, the name of Christ brings blood and death.

If you have kept up with me this far you will wonder why I talk about this. I had a cynical Scripture professor in the seminary who assured us that Herod would not have done such things to little kids, because history would have recorded it. I thought the prof was pompous then, but he was just ignorant.

Every day now, our brothers and sisters die by the sword in the Middle East. Some say Christianity is being extinguished in what once were holy lands. And yet with the exception of the pope   during his latest visit to Turkey, from cardinal to bishop, bishop to priest, lay person to lay person in all the rest of the lands where Christ crucified is still worshiped and respected, there is only moderate condemnation and protest. Many, many people are not even aware this is happening. Some scholars have said that in the past few years more Christians have been martyred than in the first 500 years of the Church. And we hide our faces.

But it is not too late. The power of prayer is great. Now would be a good time to ask Christ and the Virgin Mary, or your favorite saint, or the guardian angels that stand by these martyrs sides, to strike a blow against such evil. Help the martyrs be strong, help the children be brave. That should be our prayer for them.

There is no Templar Knight, or King Richard the LionHearted, or King Baldwin of Jerusalem to ride to their aid. The Crusades were not the right way to handle this evil. Like Jesus once said to His disciples who were having trouble with an exorcism, “These devils can only be driven out by prayer.”

So prayer it is for us this Advent. Remember the suffering Church and offer your own pains and sufferings to give them strength. And pray that someday in the streets and alleys of Ramah (a name which stands for every city), kids from every religion will play together with Satan far, far away, and the loving Christ in their midst.