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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.
