While many speak about the tragedy of abortion -- or wait in trepidation for future global events, perhaps a mega-storm -- we're already incurring a massive chastisement in the way of cancer.

I've discussed this before. It's not a pleasant subject. No one likes to write about it.

But it's all around us.

In 2014, there will be an expected 1.85 million newly diagnosed cases in Canada and the U.S., with a projected 662,320 dying from it -- just about half as many as are killed annually through abortion. One out of every four deaths will be caused by it. Translation: of those living in the two nations, 83.7 million will one day succumb to it.

That's substantially more than died worldwide during World War Two.

It's certainly more (tragic though it was) than the 1,833 who died in Hurricane Katrina.

There aren't many greater chastisements.

A mystic once said that chastisement would be fashioned with our own hands. Take that literally. And take a look at what you eat, breathe, drink, and absorb (as in radiation), and who fashioned that.

Some of what we eat is all but totally synthetic.

Food labels look like instructions in a chemical lab.

Dyes, preservatives, sweeteners, salt.

The body isn't made to handle it (though it "keeps" well and tastes good!). Refined, refined, refined -- bringing to mind the word "refinery": our foods are processed like oil, and like oil are barely recognizable in the finished (though quite refined) product.

It is a crisis. Eating right, in modern America, it is all but impossible.

One has to actually work at buying foods that are not laden with herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides -- many of which are suspected of causing cancer, though the vast majority have never been fully tested.

We're talking literally about tens of thousands of chemicals. No one -- and no computer -- could tabulate what they might do in combination with each other (an interaction known as synergism).

Pray to the Holy Spirit for what you should eat. Pray for His purge and protection.

That's our great (and legitimate) hope -- as the devil pulls forth all manner of deception, in the name of progress.

In parts of Europe, the body simply feels far better after a meal than it does here. Reason: natural ingredients. Olive oil. Fresh vegetables -- not the cardboard tomatoes, and modified corn, we now see in supermarkets.

We have badly, badly strayed from what God created.

We are told it is good; it's convenient, which means economical; it puts people to work.

It also puts people in the grave.

It gets down to simplicity. We must return to the simplicity of Jesus.

This is a strident commentary. No question about that. But look around you. See also 1 Samuel 6:5. Note the burgeoning nature of hospice. Observe how many you know are suffering not only from cancer but other diseases caused by what we eat: heart attack, diabetes. Note all the brain cancer (suddenly). It's to the point where there are now advertisements on TV for new medications that soften the effects of chemotherapy (as opposed to the old ads on TV for things like heart-burn remedies).

Does anyone really think all the stuff we flush into the water -- the shampoos, the cosmetics, the household cleaners, the nail-polish remover, the results of birth-control pills -- can be adding health to the environment? Do you realize that great smell to a new car is a concoction of 275 chemicals, a good number of them "toxic"? Is it right that the average woman's breast milk -- what she feeds to a newborn -- now has residues of pesticides?

That brings up a scathing irony: we cause cancer by chemicals -- then seek to treat it with other, harsher chemicals, the side effects of which we relieve with yet other chemicals.

It may be good for the economy (in particular the pharmaceutical conglomerates, as well as the chemical companies that now control agriculture, including the seed supply), but it's not good for us. Thank God for His Holy Spirit -- Who can protect our cells, who can insulate them, when we ask for this (as we must).

Oh Holy Spirit, fill us with Your Grace. Fill us with Your health. Buffer our bodies against the onslaught of carcinogens.

Cancer is also caused by spiritual darkness we allow to remain around us, and by sin: witness how breast cancer is higher in women who have had abortions. But let's stay with the physical.

Is there a link between malignancies and cell phones (in Europe, the answer is often yes; in the U.S., where corporations rule supreme, the answer is "of course not," as it also was originally with health concerns about tobacco and DDT)?

No one can tell us -- really -- what levels are "safe."

How many studies have there been on the effects of electromagnetism from digital devices (including the alarm clock) in your home? The wi-fi? The cell towers?

Do yourself a favor. Drink plenty of pure water (or as close as you can come to such a thing). Look for organic meats, fruits, and vegetables. Get a juicer like the Nutri-Bullet, and fill it with washed spinach, broccoli, kale and other dark green vegetables.

Get in the rhythm of cabbage, turmeric, extra-virgin olive oil, blueberries, flaxseed, green tea, garlic, and avocados (if you can find ones that are not genetically modified). Leave the refined stuff -- the sugar, the flour, the white bread, and certainly the donuts -- behind. Watch what's in plastic. A good, protective supplement is co-enzyme q-10.

Eat mean and lean and lean on God.

Ask the Holy Spirit.

And don't fear. God can protect us in any circumstance. Don't accept the "evil report." The accounts of "terminal" cancers cured through spirituality and nutrition are now full to overflowing. We constantly receive them. The body can regenerate. There are far more reasons for hope than most think. Ask the Holy Spirit what to eat. Pray always. Blessing your food blesses you!

Each body is unique. Only He knows. God is the ultimate nutritionist, having created our world as it was supposed to be, but is no longer.

-- Michael H. Brown, 7/3/14

[ Healing books, Sweet Grace, and Michael Brown's books]

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: Connecticut!]

Prayers for Saint Peregrine]