A young Filipina girl kneels in prayer inside a nipa hut with a small altar, overlooking green rice fields and hills at sunset.

Here are some of the quiet, heartfelt prayers you might hear whispered by a young poor Filipina growing up in a small barangay in the hills of Leyte, usually after the Angelus bell at six in the evening, or before she sleeps on a thin banig under a nipa roof: Lord, salamat po sa isa pang araw na nakita ko ang bukang-liwayway. Thank You for letting me wake up again, for the rice we ate even if it was only with bagoong, for Tatay coming home safe from the bukid, for Nanay’s hands that never get tired. Please keep my family strong. Bless Tatay’s back that hurts from planting kamote and palay. Give Nanay strength so she won’t cough so much at night. Protect my little brothers and sisters from fever and from the big waves when the typhoon comes again. Lord, if it’s not too much to ask… help me finish high school. I promise I will walk the 7 kilometers every day, even when it rains and my tsinelas are broken. I just want to study hard so one day I can find work in the city, or maybe even abroad, so I can buy Nanay medicine and send my siblings to school too. Please send us a good harvest this year. Just enough so we don’t have to borrow rice from the landlord again and pay with half of what we grow. If the coconuts bear plenty of fruit, maybe Tatay can finally fix the roof before the next habagat. Mama Mary, tabangi ko (help me) to stay kind even when people laugh at my old uniform or my dark skin burned by the sun. Teach me to be patient when there’s no load for my phone and I See more