Honoring the dead, disturbing the living

Iinvite the whole Filipino nation to pause for prayer during the holidays for the dearly departed and exemplars of heroic virtue. We pray for the heroes of our personal lives and of humanity. Special prayers of a grateful nation to the Fallen Heroes of Marawi we also offer.

Mournful prayers we reserve for the souls of hazing victim Horacio “Atio” Castillo, III and of the thousands who died in the war on drugs.

Lastly, we pray for courage and vigilance for the living in this troubled world. We ask Almighty God to disturb our souls, so we will not fall into complacency or worse, apathy. Prayers will sustain our vigilance for truth, justice, and the pursuit of meaningful happiness. May prayers lead the bereaved families to recovery and new, better lives.

I offer this deeply moving prayer attributed to the revered Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Francis Drake. Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things, we possess,we have lost our thirst for the water of life when, having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas where storms show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow. Amen.

- Representative Bernadette “BH” Herrera-Dy Bagong Henerasyon Partylist Chair, Committee on Public Information