Prayer: How Long O Lord?

Our Father and our great God, how long will the flood of innocent blood rise and roar in your ears and pound in our hearts? Please Lord, forgive our rebellion, our stubbornness, our dysfunction, our moral, spiritual and religious collapse. Forgive us for making wealth, bodily pleasure, power, honor, our God. Forgive us for not listening to you. Forgive us for ignoring you and your Son, Jesus Christ. Over two thousand years ago, your Son came to save us and lift us from the level we have fallen. But today, we have made the goods of this world our savior. We have defiantly claim that we do not need a Savior, that nothing is wrong with us. Today, we delude ourselves by insisting that we are okay. But the truth is that we are not okay. No one is okay. Our world is sicker, more divided, less godly, less human and less humane. True love is fading. Technologically, the world has never been more advanced than it is today, but in the depth, we have retrogressed and suffered a deep malfunction. Lord of heaven and earth, we desperately need you. 

The One who alone is good, we are utterly bewildered by the reckless killing that goes on around the globe. Around the world, terrorists and Islamic extremists kill innocent people with ease. Those who survive their attack are constantly attacked, harassed, and maimed by the corruption and wickedness of the political elites. In Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, Cameroon and elsewhere innocent lives are wasted due to the power drunkenness of the political class. Please Lord, we are mad with the "madness of a mobbed and mocked and murdered people." As we raise our hands and voices in prayer to you, we pray that the flood of human blood will cease. By the very Blood of the Crucified and Risen One, Jesus Christ our Savior, bring peace to the world. And do not allow men and women with ulterior motives of selfishness, of greed, of inflation of ego, of dominating and enslaving your children to ascend positions of power. Before we say Amen, we ask, Are you saying something to us, Lord? Give us clear signs of what you are saying to us. Just when we think we are coming out of COVID-19 pandemic, we are now being threatened with a nuclear war. Our good and merciful God, protect us. Whatever that happens, keep us close to you and never be tired of pouring your ocean of mercy upon us. In Jesus most powerful and holy Name we pray. Amen. 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Tuesday, March 8, 2022