For many months, I managed to pray a "perpetual" novena against terrorism, without break. But ever since a week or so before the baby was born, I haven't remembered to do it with any consistency. I am undecided if this is a good thing or not. On the one hand, I ought to pray it all the more, with yet another helpless child in my family, another crusader child to be loathed and murdered if possible. On the other, possibly my not praying it means my focus is returning to the sphere of life where I can do the most positive good in the world, my family. I'm not certain, but I think my indecision stems from an understanding that both things are true: I need to focus more on my family, and less on abstract fears like "terrorism" and even "al Qaeda"; but I nevertheless ought to pray for peace and safety, and let God work out the details.