Election Day is finally here. The candidates have ceased their travels and even the pundits have silenced their prognostications long enough to go out and vote. But for the Christian, this is no time to rest!

Believers have the advantage on pivotal days like today. We know how to sway elections in a perfectly legal way - through prayer!

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you,” Jesus taught in Luke 17:6.

Now is the time to put our faith to work!

In Ephesians 6:18 we are told: “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers . . .”

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful. It makes things happen,” we read in James 5:16.

This is why it’s so important to pray today – as our brothers and sisters are making up their minds and heading to their polling stations.

Pray the rosary, the same prayer that drove the Communists out of Austria and allowed the fledgling Christian navy to defeat a superior Muslim armada.

Visit the Blessed Sacrament on your way to or from the polls.

Pray the Chaplet of Mercy and ask God the Father to look upon this nation through the Cross of His Son so that He won’t see the sins of this nation but the atonement His Son made for those offenses.

If possible, fast in reparation for the sins of the nation. Make small sacrifices throughout the day; give up little comforts; forgo a favorite snack.

Flee to the Blessed Virgin Mary and plead for her intercession on our behalf.

The following prayer is both a powerful plea for God-fearing governance and an expression of gratitude for all the blessings He has granted to these United States.

O God, we acknowledge You today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.

We thank You for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to You.

We thank You for Your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged And recognized as higher than any human law. We thank You for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote, But to influence countless others to vote, And to vote correctly.

Lord, we pray that Your people may be awakened. Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation, Their response to You requires that they be politically active.

Awaken Your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world But rather a community of faith renewing the world.

Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to You in prayer Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth; That the same eyes that read Your Word Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot, And that they do not cease to be Christians When they enter the voting booth.

Awaken Your people to a commitment to justice, To the sanctity of marriage and the family, To the dignity of each individual human life, And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin, And not one moment later.

Lord, we rejoice today That we are citizens of Your kingdom.

May that make us all the more committed To being faithful citizens on earth.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.