Praying for Gloria.

MORE TEARS ARE SHED, THE GREAT SAINT Teresa of Avila once wrote, over answered prayers than unanswered ones. The collective gasp we heard last week, when Press Secretary Jesus Dureza prayed at the start of the Cabinet meeting that the heavens endow President Macapagal-Arroyo with the tolerance to serve the nation until 2010 and beyond, was the sound of a convulsion-in-the-making. If Durezas prayer does become reality, we may well hear wailing and gnashing of teeth, of Biblical proportions.

Dureza was quick to explain that his impromptu prayer was actually a series of lighthearted intercessions. In the hubbub that erupted over his light prayer, however, he failed, he …