Call for national prayer this Lenten Season

News about the PDAF scam is again hugging the headlines. Still, the truth remains elusive and those who can truly tell the truth unwilling yet to set our people free completely from the historical and selfish grip of corruption and abuse.

News about tax evaders has also been reported recently. Many of those who earn less are paying more taxes while those who can afford to and should pay more are not.          Hearing the news made me think if it is possible for us all Filipinos to make this Lent Season special by offering together, as a nation, daily prayers and masses to the Lord to touch those who need to tell the truth, to touch those who need to admit their guilt, and to allow our people and this country to move on with more honest Filipinos, more transparent public servants, and God and people-oriented governance.

Shall we try this from now? Within this Lenten Season, shall we all together as a nation start to offer special prayers for this sole purpose of asking God to turn the hearts of those who need to release the truth and to do what is right? Shall our various churches assemble together to enjoin the worshippers to set aside even just a minute or two of fervent supplication to the Lord to please , please confirm the truth about the PDAF scam and tax evasion and more importantly, to have everyone, especially those who are withholding the truth and those deceiving themselves and our people, to finally reveal the truth and do what is right so that they can themselves fully turn back to the Lord in penance and receive God's forgiveness this season or at the soonest time possible?

Physical prison does not seem to have broken spirits yet and so let us turn to God the Almighty to break their spirits and return them to Him and for them to return the truth and everything else they deprived our people of soonest. Let us also include our prayers for our disaster survivors to be afforded their rightful share to allow them to stand up quicker and more firmly and to move on, in faith and in hope.

March 7th, First Friday's reading taken from Isaiah 58:1-9 is a very beautiful, timely reminder for us all about Lent, especially the abusers and corrupt. Allow us to share this with you all as follows: "Thus says the Lord God: Cry out aloud for all you are worth; raise your voice like a trumpet blast; tell my people of their offenses, Jacob's family of their sins. Is it true that they seek me day by day, longing to know my ways, as a people that does what is right and has not forsaken the word of its God? They want to know the just laws and not to drift away from their God."

"Why are we fasting," they complain," and you do not even see it? We are doing penance and you never notice it."

"Look, on your fast days you push your trade and you oppress your laborers. Yes, you fast but end up quarreling, striking each other with wicked blows. Fasting as you do will not make your voice heard on high. Is that the kind of  fasting that pleases me, just a day to humble oneself? Is fasting merely bowing down one's head, and making use of sackcloth and ashes? Would you call that fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?"

See the fast that pleases me: Breaking the fetters of injustice and unfastening the thongs of yoke, setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke. Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the one you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin."

Then will your light break forth as the dawn and your healing come in a flash. Your righteousness will be your vanguard, the glory of your Yahweh your rearguard. Then you will call and Yahweh will answer, you will cry and he will say, I am here."

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