40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, First Week in Lent, 13 March 2025
Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-35 + + + Matthew 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Today dear Jesus
I pray for all those loved ones
left behind by the thousands
of people killed during the
deadly war on drugs of the previous
administration;
thank you in answering
our prayers and their prayers
most especially that finally,
justice has come for them
and their loved ones.
Forgive me, Lord Jesus,
if I ask, or wonder...
surely, those people murdered
without due process prayed too;
what happened to their prayers?
Yes, I am sure,
you answer every prayer
but I wonder why people,
especially the innocent
and good ones usually
young and helpless
for various reasons
have to die senselessly?
May we continue to await your coming, your answers to our many prayers; may we have the courage to obey you, to do your will that finally, we become our brother and sister's keeper, listening to their silent cries in cold, dark nights of poverty and indifference among us.
Thank you for clearly
answering our prayers
the other day,
in granting us
the same prayer of Queen Esther,
of finally saving us from the
hand of our enemies,
of turning our mourning into
gladness and our sorrows
into wholeness (Esther 25).
We pray hard today,
dear Jesus,
that you soften
the hearts of those
people blinded by
their power like the devil
that tempted you to prove
one's worth by doing
everything even if they have
to kill; open our eyes to
see our worth in our
being,
in our personhood
that never shall it happen
again we fail to see you
in one another.
Amen.
*Photos used in collage taken during Duterte's deadly war on drugs by various photographers we pray for their courage in documenting the evils that pervaded during those years.
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