This prayer is a response to three recent suicides. In the past week, Jeremy Richman, the father a first-grader killed in the Sandy Hook School shooting, was found dead of an apparent suicide. Days earlier, Parkland, Florida, was rocked by two apparent suicides involving survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School rampage, Sydney Aiello and an unnamed Parkland Student. Here’s are two related prayers: “For Terror Survivors” and “A Dream of Columbine: Psalm of Protest 13.”

For Survivors of School Shootings
O grief beyond consolation,
Release your grip
On the survivors of terror in our schools,
The witnesses of this violence,
And the families of the slain.

You who have endured this grievous loss,
You who have mourned and lamented,
Surely sorrow pierced your heart
When murder raged,
Staining your memory red with blood.
Let love bind your wounds.
Let tears sooth your soul.
Let your life be a tribute
To the memory of the lost.

G-d of compassion,
Heal the broken-hearted,
Comfort the bereft,
And bring solace to the hearts of the bereaved.
Make a swift end to the scourge of terror in our schools,
And let the souls of the innocent
Rest in peace.

© 2019 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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Tags: death, grief, grieving, grieving parents, Mass Shooting, prayer after a school shooting, prayer after gun violence, protest, school shooting, terror