Clergy members of the Archdiocese of Manila will hold a penitential walk on Thursday to pray for voters who will be choosing the new leaders of the country in the May 9 elections.
In an advisory on Wednesday, the archdiocese said the activity will start with a Mass at 9 a.m. at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros.
Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula will be the main presider and homilist of the Mass.
“We particularly pray for our people as we choose our next leaders this coming May. We ask our fellow Filipinos to be ‘maka-Diyos kaya makabayan, (God-loving and patriotic’ to discern their choice well and prefer leaders who embody and promote the values of the kingdom of God,” it added.
The penitential walk coincides with the 150th anniversary of the martyrdom of the three priests Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, collectively known as “Gomburza”.
The participants will also be joined by other priests from Manila’s suffragan dioceses and the religious men and women from different congregations.
After the Mass, the penitential walk will follow from the cathedral to the Gomburza memorial marker at the Luneta Park and will then proceed to the Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guia in Ermita.
The event will be a liturgical and devotional activity, an act of public worship and piety, which will be marked by a Eucharistic celebration at the cathedral and some prayers at the two other sites.
“We are doing an “alay-lakad” according to the pious Filipino sense of penitensya. For us Filipinos, doing acts of penitensya or sacrifice is never just for oneself, but always intercessory, that is, on behalf of others and in solidarity with others. As clergy, we shall make this act of sacrifice not only for our personal piety but also for the sake of our people and in communion with our people,” the clergy members said.
