Catholic Radio Dramas

From the book of Esther Ch 14

THE HOLY SEASON OF LENT

A Reading from the book of Esther

“Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the Lord. And when she had laid away her royal apparel, she put on garments suitable for weeping and mourning. Instead of diverse precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body with fasts. And all the places in which before she was accustomed to rejoice, she filled with her torn hair.

She prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: “O my Lord, who alone art our king, help me a desolate woman, who have no other helper but thee. For I am taking my life in my hands. I have heard from my father that thou, O Lord, didst take Israel from among all nations, and our fathers from all their predecessors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and thou hast done to them as thou has promised. We have sinned in thy sight, and therefore thou hast delivered us into the hands of our enemies, for we have worshipped their gods. Thou are just, O Lord. And now they are not content to oppress us with most hard bondage, but attributing the strength of their hands to the power of their idols, they design to change thy promises, and destroy thy inheritance, and shut the mouths of them that praise thee, and extinguish the glory of thy temple and altar, that they may open the mouths of Gentiles, and praise the strength of idols, and magnify forever a carnal king.

Give not, O Lord, thy scepter to them that are not, lest they laugh at our ruin, but turn their counsel upon themselves, and destroy him that hath begun to rage against us. Remember, O Lord, and show thyself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me boldness, O Lord, King of gods, and of all power. Give me a well ordered speech in my mouth in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to the hatred of our enemy, that both he himself may perish, and the rest that consent to him. But deliver us by thy hand, and help me, who have no other helper but thee, O Lord, who have the knowledge of all things.”

The Book of Esther 14: 1-15