"O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring. Direct my will, teach me to pray, and You, Yourself, pray in me. Amen."

- St. Philaret of Moscow

When disasters happen I have a tendency to feel justified in being angry at God. And I felt that way this morning. But, as I began to pray I become very aware of the inner voice of the Holy Spirit crying out in sympathy and understanding for victims of Hurricane Katrina, as well as those who suffer in war, famine and disease throughout the world.

When God chose to become one of us as Jesus, He shared completely in all the conditions of earthly life. He chose to suffer Himself, while He freely offered forgiveness and healing to others. He demonstrated that death and suffering can be overcome by choosing to trust completely in God in all things.

Because of the gift of free will, which enables us to be God-like and choose love, peace, patience, kindness and generosity, we are also able to choose hate, war, selfishness, and greed - and be a god unto ourselves.

When we look deeply into the causes of disasters and tragedies of life, we can often see an element of greed or human depravity within it. For example, deep within the disastrous floods of New Orleans we can see the root of greed that caused government officials and property developers to ignore the environmental warnings and continue to build upon land that by nature is below sea level and destined to flood. It is tremendous irony that over the next few months and years billions of dollars will be used to rebuild New Orleans. If a fraction of that money had been used to maintain its fragile infrastructure, the disaster may not have happened and thousands of lives would have been spared all the suffering.

Evil is a VERY real thing in the world. Sometimes we don't see it until we look back. Perhaps the greatest evil of all is to blame God for our sins.