It is still early in our Lenten journey, but already in our daily masses we have heard from a lot of different Old Testament books: Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jonah, and today Esther. This is quite different from how we normally hear different readings from the same book for a series of days in our daily masses in our liturgical cycle. Esther was a Jewish woman who was queen to the King of Persia. Esther used her influence with the king to help prevent a massacre of the Jewish people by the Persians. The prayer we hear in our first reading today was the prayer she prayed before she spoke to the king. In her prayer, Esther knows that she cannot do anything without God’s help. She reminds God of the promises he made to her people generations ago. Like the Jewish people in the time of Esther, we also might feel sometimes that we are completely in God’s hands. What strikes us in Esther’s prayer is that she does not try to bully or manipulate God; rather, she is open to his will. It is up to him to answer the prayer. Even though we may may be confident in our faith, we may also feel like we are searching in our lives for something. Besides fasting and almsgiving, prayer is one of the pillars of Lent, so hopefully prayer is on our radar during these early weeks of Lent. We have the prayer of the stations of the cross that is very reflective of our Lenten journey. The women of the parish have a prayer retreat during Holy Week at Karen Hodges’ farm. Our Little Black Book and publications such as Give Us This Day and Magnificat also give us prayer suggestions. Like Esther, let us reach out to God in our prayers. Let us search for different ways to communicate to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment