Sadly, this could be any day in America, but as I am finishing up a project on prayers focused on gun violence, there has been yet another school shooting, this time at a Catholic School in Minnesota.
Here is an unedited prayer that I have written for school shootings. Please feel free to use and adapt this for your community. Please attribute and link back to this page if possible.
Let us pray —
God of the expansive mind, body and spirit,
in another school shooting, your will is not being done.
Today, we lift up those who have lost their lives
to another act of gun violence in a place
where minds, spirits, and bodies
are meant to thrive,
not cease to be.
For those whose lives have been lost, we lift them to you, oh God.
We lift up their families, friends, and communities as they grieve and mourn this day and for the days, months, years, and lifetime ahead.
We cannot imagine the terror that teachers, administrators, staff, and children must have felt,
so we also lift up those who will live with the memories of
the sounds,
the smells,
the images,
and the trauma of the day.
May they find hope and healing in the ways and in the time they need.
Give us the courage not to choose again
to repay these acts of violence with more acts of violence,
but repay them with acts of peace.
Give us wisdom not to choose a future of
active shooter drills,
bulletproof backpacks,
and armed educators
over a future of cultivating educational spaces
where young people can thrive, flourish,
and grow in body, mind, and spirit, as you hope and intend.
And may school shootings cease to be the norm.
AMEN.
The project I am working on will include 20-ish prayers. I am not sure when it will be out, but I will let you know.
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