OUR PRAYER FOR THE SONA 2022

A Prayer-Statement on the 1st State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Righteous and just God, in the course of the life of your people in our beloved country, you have allowed us to make choices, choices that would define the future of our country and these are influenced by the things that we see, hear, experience and learn around us.

In the past, we have not only seen and heard, but more so experienced first-hand the atrocities committed by our leaders especially during the Martial Law years under the Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. presidency. Because of this, your people painfully learned the lessons of oppression and tyranny leading us to decide to put an end to such leadership through your inspiration and power, peacefully wielded by your people through the People Power revolution.

Today, perhaps we have forgotten the lessons of the past, for if the recently- conducted elections were truly without fraud, we can say that we have chosen the son and namesake of the oppressive and tyrannical leader of our country’s Martial Law years to now lead us. Forgive us, dear God, for forgetting the precious lessons of the past, for not being able to enlighten and fully guard the hearts and minds of our sons and daughters and thereby allowing them to be exposed to lies and distortions of truth, leading them to choose again another Marcos who believes that the time of his father’s leadership, those years that we were under Martial Law, was a “Golden Age” of our country’s prosperity, a great lie perpetuated to distort and change the truth.

As we therefore now behold the 1st State of the Nation Address of Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., we fast as we prepare to hear the same old promises of a good future for your people uttered meaninglessly by those in power. We ask for courage to be able to continue to speak out the truth in behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves and, as the prophet Isaiah strongly reminds us, to fast by loosing the chains of injustice, untying the cords of the yoke and setting the oppressed free. Give us the courage to stand fast and never back down in guarding the truth for the sake of your people.