This was the first petition in the Prayers of the People at North Church Queens this past Sunday, December 16, 2012. I wrote it Sunday morning, just before worship.
God of comfort and
consolation,
our hearts are heavy this
morning,
as are the hearts of our
nation and the world.
As Rachel weeps for her
children in Ramah,
we
bitterly weep and wail for the twenty children
of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut,
and also for the six teachers
and school administrators there
tragically
and senselessly gunned down this past Friday.
As we raise our lamentations
to you,
we also pray that you will
comfort and console the Newtown community,
the parents, family and friends of those slain,
the first responders who faced an unimaginable and
unspeakable scene,
and all those seeking to make sense of the senseless.
Never let our prayers serve
as an excuse for inaction,
so motivate and empower us as individuals and as a nation
to address our culture of gun violence,
violence
in the media,
and violent video games,
which desensitize us and our youth
to absurd and inexcusable violence.
