Queen Esther bares her heart to the Lord. She recognizes the supremacy of God. She expresses her total dependence of God and considers God as her only Saviour, while experiencing an intense feeling of frustration. Secondly, she recalls what she had been catechized in her childhood as to how the people of Israel were protected and saved by the Lord and how God had fulfilled His promises to them. She asks form the Lord courage and the strength she requires as she was about to face the ion, the kind who had decreed that all the Jews be killed and that she intends to stand before him on behalf of the Jewish community even being prepared to disobey the law of the king and yet to plead in al helplessness on their behalf to save them. She will be heard, the Jewish community will be saved and the enemies will be put to death. Esther becomes a model of justice to the Jews, courage and faithfulness to the community. She stands by them and reaches out to them in their extreme need through her prayer of intercession.

We experience here the power of intercessory prayer. God wants us to pray not only for ourselves, but also for others and therefore for the Church and for the entire humanity. Like Queen Esther we too need to cultivate the attitude of dependence on God.

When all of us pray for one another having cultivated the attitudes of Queen Esther, the Lord will answer our prayers according to his will.

Do I believe in the power of intercessory prayer? Do I pay on a daily basis for one another, for the Pope, religious and civil leaders, the Church, our country for the entire humanity? Di I pray in the same intensity for those who I criticize?

God Bless. Have a wonderful day