Please read the email below from Houston Methodist President and CEO Marc Boom, M.D.
MAY 25, 2022 — I know many of you, like me, are reeling and grieving today following the tragic news of yet another mass shooting, this time all too close to home in Uvalde, Texas. The shooting left at least 19 elementary school children and two teachers dead. The magnitude of this tragedy is hard to comprehend, especially on the heels of the terrible hate crime in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo on May 14 when 10 people were killed in a racist attack. Also, recently there was a shooting in an Asian church in Southern California that left one person dead and five injured. These evil actions fueled by hate leave me in disbelief about the extreme disregard for human life. And how commonplace these mass shootings have become is even harder to understand. It is incomprehensible, and the grief and suffering felt by the families of the victims in the Uvalde and Buffalo communities is almost unfathomable. Going to school should be safe. Shopping in your community’s grocery store should be safe. Going to worship services should be safe.
I share your pain and fear today as we think of the families impacted, and I share your outrage at the inexplicable violence in our society. It is during times like this when we must act like a work family and lean on each other for support, and comfort each other as we share our grief. Below I am sharing a prayer from Chaplain Robert Kidd that hopefully helps you cope. I am also sharing this link if you want to access some mental health resources we have available. God bless you all.
O Lord, hear our cry. Help us, Lord, we pray.
We come to you in honest anguish following yesterday’s horrific killings in Uvalde—19 elementary school children and two teachers, Lord! These are our neighbors. Some of us know the grieving families. And, Lord, we are still grieving the awful shootings so recently in New York and California. Today, some of us feel unable to take another sorrow. How can we stand before such unfathomable evil? It seems sometimes, that our world has come unhinged.
And so, grieving so much for these who have died, we call on our faith—however weak it may seem just now—and ask your comfort for all these sorrowing families both here, New York and California. Give them strength for this crushing load. Protect them and us from despair. Help us grasp your hand and the hands of those around us. Help us grieve fully and frankly, facing today with you and with those around us. Then help us do it again tomorrow. And then the day after that.
O Lord, hear our cry. Help us, Lord, we pray.
Amen.
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