For Peace

We all know what is happening in the Middle East. Christians are being persecuted for their faith and not the slightest can I understand the purpose of this atrocity. I don't know what kind of emotion I should feel towards this. If there is anything, it's fear.

It sucks that there is nothing we can do to help. I, myself, do not know how I would actually respond to the call of help from the people there. But as I ponder on self pity and helplessness, the Holy Father and the religious clergy had made it clear that there is indeed something we can do: pray.

As it is so timely, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi is coming near. To those who don't know, he is the patron saint of my city in Bulacan. In the Christian faith, he is known as one of the promulgators of poverty and simplicity. Also, he had dedicated his whole religious life in spreading peace and love among people, even animals.

Peace.

The saint who is about to celebrate his feast day is indeed a promulgator of peace. And peace is exactly what we need now.

Other religions are so obsessed with finding faults on Christians believing in saints. However, they do not understand that we only pray through their intercession. We ask for help in praying for something because they are already there in heaven, close to who we are really praying to.

For this reason, I urge everyone to pray for peace in Iraq, Syria, and the rest of the world. War is threatening us all and it is not something we can really disregard. We need to do our parts as Christians and that is by sending prayers for those suffering, and for peace to finally prevail.


St. Francis, pray for us.