May 27, 2022
My heart has been heavy this week, as I know yours have been, too, with the news of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It is unimaginable, and yet all too common.
Whenever these atrocities occur, a public battle ensues between legislators who offer "thoughts and prayers", and rightfully furious citizens who demand action. As people of faith, it sometimes helps to remember that we are called to both. Prayer is what offers us strength and resolve to then go out and do the work that needs to be done. I read a poem this week on the connection between prayer and action that spoke to me:
We pray for the hungry,
And then we feed them.
That's how prayer works.
We pray for the lonely,
And then we enter into their lives.
That's how prayer works.
We pray for the naked,
And then we clothe them.
That's how prayer works.
We pray for the stranger,
And then we welcome them.
That's how prayer works.
A few stanzas later, the poem offers this:
We pray for an end to gun violence,
And then we repent of our colossal failure.
We stop making excuses,
We demand that we change our hearts and minds,
And we act.
That's how prayer works.
(The Rev. Charlene Rachuy Cox)
I do urge you to pray, this week, and always, for those experiencing the deepest pain and grief imaginable. I urge you to pray for students, who go to school fearful. For teachers and other leaders. I urge you to pray for change in the way we idolize guns in our country, making them a god. Pray for yourselves, and the built-up grief and trauma you carry. And then I urge to you to feel empowered to take action. The Peace & Justice Team has some suggestions as to what you might do, if you are looking, - see below, within this Announcer, for that.
In the middle of the deep grief of this week, as you pray and as you act, my prayer for you is that you are able to hold on to hope. As I shared in a letter to Saint Anne's families with children this week, one of the most powerful moments I've ever experienced was at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., after the Parkland shooting. The organizers had been expecting 100,000 people. 800,000 showed up. The crowd was largely students and the speakers were largely students and though I am as worried about our kids as all of you, I also see hope for the future in their passion, their voices, and their demands that their world not look like this. I believe in them. We will get there. Thoughts and prayers alone won't do it, but we will get there. A world where all things are made new is God's great promise and it's a promise I trust.
Lord, have mercy,
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy,