PASTORAL PRAYER FOR MAY 29, 2022

(This is a prayer written by the Rev. Shari Prestemon, Conference Minister

of the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ)

Help us, God.

When 19 precious children and two of their teachers are murdered just days before the school year’s end, when families are devastated beyond description, when yet another community is traumatized, when tears course down our cheeks at the sheer and unimaginable horror or it. . .

Help us, God.

When one tragedy follows closely after another, when 10 innocent lives are lost to gun violence while buying groceries on a Spring Saturday in Buffalo, when one is killed and five injured in a Taiwanese American church at worship on a Sunday morning, when racial hatred is weaponized by a hater with a gun. . .

Help us, God.

When gun violence erupts in churches and synagogues and mosques, in schools and concerts and night clubs, when week after week and year after year yet more violence and unfathomable loss. . .

Help us, God.

When our grief overwhelms us, when our despair leaves us hopeless, when the sheer awfulness of things leaves us speechless. . .

Help us, God.

Oh God, in this brutal moment we utter just one whispered word. . . Help.