Our parents before us understood that strife is rarely far from even the best of us, and they girded themselves for warfare, actual and spiritual. World War II thrust temptation, fear, danger and death on the men and women that Archbishop Fulton Sheen had formed through his popular radio shows in the 1930's.

Knowing that many of his listeners were now beyond the sound of his voice, fighting and dying on battlefields afar, he wrote his pocket-sized prayer book so that they could put on the armor of God as they faced their new trials, physical and spiritual.