A Prayer for Peace After Gun Violence

“Thus says Yahweh:

a voice is heard
in Ramah,

mourning
and bitter weeping.
Rachel,

weeping
for her children,

refuses
to be comforted,

for
her children are
no more.”

Jeremiah 31:15

God,

comforter of
the broken

and
disheartened,

We
come to you

plagued with
an agonized grief
after yet

one more
outbreak of senseless
gun violence.

We come to you,

from
the East to the West,
from the North to
the South,

people
of all ages,
ethnicities,

and
walks of life.

We represent one voice,

the voice of
bitter weeping
echoing

throughout
our cities

and
resounding
in communities

throughout
the world.

As violence abounds,

we sit
in the darkness,

sitting
alongside
the suffering

on
the mourner’s
bench.

We are Rachel,

mourning with
wordless
sobs,

the lives
of those sacrificed
on the altar of
violence.

We are Rachel,

weeping
for the wounded,

for those
whose minds and
bodies
are

etched
with painful
memories
of
men’s
unjustifiable
rage.

We are Rachel,

lamenting
with the families
who have
lost

loved ones

whose
cries of despair

join
with  those
from tragedies

of
gun
violence.

We are Rachel,

perplexed
with troubled souls,
and searching for
answers,

seeking
to understand

what
would cause
humans to inflict
pain

on
their fellow
sisters and
brothers.

We are Rachel,

exasperated,
grasping—
crying out,

“How long,

O God?”

How long
will this wave of
violence

consume
your people?

-Education for Justice-

Thanks for The Prayer
  in the Face of Gun Violence
‪http://www.loaloachristiannetwork.com/

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