For Whom the Bell Tolls: 40 Days of
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The quotation comes from John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, “Meditation XVII” (1624). “For whom the bell tolls” became famous in the 20th century; Ernest Hemingway borrowed it as a title of one of his great novels on death.
Anyone’s death is also our own. “Any man’s death diminishes me… For whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” In the next forty days – as suggested by the CBCP – we honor the victims of Duterte’s war on drugs by asking their widows and orphans their deepest prayers and longings. It is they who are most affected by their husband’s or son’s death. As we toll the bells, as we light the candles, we express our solidarity with them and join them in prayer daily, until November 1 when all the Filipinos go to the cemeteries and remember their dead. We pray for justice for the victims as we shout to the whole world, “in the name of God, stop the killings!” |
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