Our Great God and Loving Father, we come to You individually touched as humans shattered by grief and collectively as a people deeply wounded.
We lift a harmonic cry as a distraught nation, traumatized by the pain of our fellow Americans in Newtown, Conn.
We long to lift this community of families and friends, yet feel admittedly limited in our competence to do so. Therefore, we cry out for Your limitless Grace and infinite Mercy. Lord, we need You now!
Our entire nation and those nations around the world, who believe in an infinite God, lay prostrate in reverence to Thee O' Lord and yet filled with revulsion at this unspeakable tragic and massive destruction that has befallen our brethren.
We have become like children ourselves, so uncertain and so very vulnerable. Therefore we seek You on bended knee. You are our Father, the CEO of the Universe. We are Your children, weeping for our children.
Lord, we need You now!
With the fractured blow from a darkened mind, bullets shattered the lives of the most innocent. We lost them like casualties of a war that no one knew had been declared on the most innocent among us.
Amidst the flashing light of a sniper's fire, gone is the naiveté that such evil could so swiftly alter our lives, forever leaving us with horrific images that our minds cannot eradicate.
And now as mostly tiny caskets are sealed, and hearses depart slowly from cemetery grounds in solemn silence, mothers weep in the night and fathers stare blankly into space, we feel so very, very sorry.
Lord we need You now!
Only You can reach so deeply, healing the shrieking pain of having the majestic joy of this season so viciously bludgeoned into a disfigured disappointment that has contaminated the plans of many and shaken the rest of us to our very core.
Lord, we need You now!
Father, send Your angelic spirits old and new to watch over our children who feel shaken and unsettled by what has occurred.
Grant parents the wisdom to comfort their sons and daughters, so that the evil visited upon Sandy Hook Elementary School will not spread like a disease to other hearts and homes in other cities and towns.
Speak gently, Sweet Holy Spirit.
Remind us of Your Eternal plan in which this lifetime is merely a brief interlude. Remind us that our losses are Heaven's gain. Remind us O' God that the stars will twinkle more brightly and the world will soon stand more aware of its duty to prevent such darkness from invading our ranks ever again.
Through it all we must remember to thank You for Your tender mercies in the midst of our tears.
We thank You for those little feet running across the school ground, hiding in closets and under desks to survive such unimaginable horror. We thank You for those families reunited with loved ones after making such narrow escapes.
Thank You for giving us heroic teachers, a principal, a psychologist, a custodian and others whose sacrifices live on. Thank You for those heroes and 'sheros' still amongst us who inspire us all to be better people.
Lord, thank You for those of us far removed by distance from this tragedy that is yet so near in our hearts.
And in this season especially, we thank You that we have been granted yet another opportunity to draw our own children closer and to appreciate all that You have given us more dearly.
We thank You that we can turn our selfish hearts and once complaining lips to well springs of praise to You.
We thank You that those of us who are far away by virtue of geography are acutely aware that in sharp contrast, our lives are blessed with normalcy.
Though our hearts are broken and heavy with unspeakable sadness, we take this moment to thank You that You have spared us this personal trauma so that we might comfort those now cloaked in the garments of mourning.
We trust You to hold these times in Your Hand.
As moments consumed with death and despair intermingle with moments of faith, and hope, and love and culminate in the victorious warmth of life's goodness, we are aware that true peace is found only in our time spent with You in prayer.
And in the days ahead with Christmas looming in the forefront, (Chanukah sadly overshadowed by the tragedy,) and with the emptiness of lost loved ones ever present, this community will be faced with the inevitable task of moving ahead.
And we will stand watch, continuing to pray for the unfathomable heartbreak of mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and of family and friends, classmates and loved ones, and the entire town of Newtown, Conn.
As tears trickle downward, let hope spring upward in our hearts, arising like artesian wells within.
O' Lord, cover each of them under Your sheltering wings and let Your arms of protection be wrapped around them as never before.
O' Lord, we need You now!
And as ‘We the People’ are also forced to find intrinsic meaning in the aftermath of this tragedy, we ask that You give our President, Barack Obama the conviction to press Congress to put legislation in place that upholds the Second Amendment while keeping “an irresponsible, law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war,” and that the House and Senate also take those steps that "protect our rights and protect our kids.”
Give mothers and fathers the vital parenting skills, our mental health professionals the courage and discernment to do what's right and grant the mentally challenged the emotional balance to end this dark night that manifests itself in sudden violent outbursts that rob us of our innocence.
O' Lord, grant our citizens a new found respect for human life that ends the epidemic of death before another tear drop falls.
I pray for America to be united in its collective reasoning so that this massacre and those that came before it may be abated, once and for all.
If enough is truly enough, then too much is far too much.
O' God our Father, our Strength, and our defense, we petition Your sovereign hand.
We are Your children often overwhelmed and staggering under the weight of our responsibilities, derelict in our duties and destitute of a resolution without You! Help us to make sense of our times.
Lord, we need You now more than ever!
Amen.
This prayer is dedicated to our fallen brethren at Sandy Hook Elementary School, to the First Responders who averted further devastation, the civic and religious leaders who rose to the occasion, showing amazing strength amidst unimaginable shock and grief, to all who mourn in the town of Newtown, Conn. and to all those who rallied around this community to share their pain. You will not be forgotten.
12-14-12 RIP.