Dear Friends,

Perhaps your phone alerted you to the all too unimaginable evil that unfolded today at the Annunciation Church and Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our thoughts and prayers fail to contain the depths of sorrows brought on by the epidemic of gun violence affecting our land. As I have prayed for the families, emergency responders, and pastors there, I have found that I need to repeat a prayer like that of Saint Francis to guide my soul as I see the evil, oppression, and injustice around us.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, wholeness;
where there is doubt, faithfulness;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is evil, goodness;
where there is sadness, presence.

O Divine Teacher, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

In time, we must move beyond thoughts and prayers into actions, but our thoughts, prayers, and conversations connect us with God, ourselves, community, and the right responses. I found the advice below from The American School Counselor Association very helpful for parents and teachers of children.

• Try to keep routines as normal as possible. Kids gain security from the predictability of routine, including attending school.
• Limit exposure to television and the news.

• Listen to kids’ fears and concerns. Be honest with kids and share with them as much information as they are developmentally able to handle.
• Reassure kids that the world is a good place to be, but that there are people who do bad things.
• Families and adults need to first deal with and assess their own responses to crisis and stress.
• Rebuild and reaffirm attachments and relationships.

Tonight, our clergy staff will be available to chat and pray with you during dinner and program times if you would like to talk or pray together. The following article “Talking to Children about Terrorist Attacks and School and Community Shootings in the News,” created by the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, is a helpful resource as well.

Click to access Guidelines-Talking-to-Kids-About-Attacks-Two-Sided-Onesheet-Format.pdf

Our hearts are heavy with grief. May God give us wisdom, peace, courage, and the resolve we need to keep striving for safer communities rooted in humanity, healing, justice, equity, and love.

Pastor Paul