by: melyrnI

Chapter I
Prayers of Filipinos & Filipinas

1. “Almighty and ever loving God, creator of heaven and earth, in the beginning, you scattered us over seven thousand islands. We independently spoke the language of each island, contentedly subsisted on your provisions tilled with our hands, built shelters with materials you planted in our midst and superstitiously talked to good and bad spirits for needs beyond our toil and understanding. Almighty and ever loving God, our contentedly poor souls and simple hearts had no desire to change or exchange anything with others. Your invisible hand Lord God, guided us to divide our labors and share the provisions and materials you provided with others in our islands; sweet ubi in one island, bountiful fishes in another and strong nipa palm in a swamp somewhere.”

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves, otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built.

Then the LORD said: “ If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says.” Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
Genesis 11:1,9

2. “LORD God, in your divine mercy, the birth and crucifixion of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ revealed to us in Latin through Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, Jesuits, Recollectus; mendicant European men who learn Tagalog, Bisaya and other dialect, contrasting with conquestadors and friars that sailed to Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico of the same era. LORD God, we desire to till our land and rebuild our city in the image of the City of God,2 united in our love for you alone LORD, our God with all our heart, with all our understanding, with all our strength and for our love with one another as we love ourself.”


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