|
April
16, 2007 -
Almighty
God,
We ask your
blessings of
comfort
descend like
the dew of
Heaven for
the families
of those
whose
children
shed their
blood into
the concrete
and spring
grass of a
place they
had come to
for learning
and not for
death.
We
pray also
for those
who are
injured that
they might
be healed
speedily and
in our time.
We pray for
those who
believe in
You and we
pray for
those who do
not believe
in You.
May they all
find their
way through
this
avalanche of
grief and
woe by their
own lights
and by the
strength of
their
friends and
families.
Comfort them
all and heal
them all
from the
wounds of
this
terrible
day.
We
also pray
for those
students and
their
friends and
families
who, though
not wounded
physically,
have been
traumatized
by this
senseless
act of
carnage on
their campus
and in their
lives.
Help them to
overcome
their fear.
Strengthen
them to face
the
Springtime
of their
lives with a
wounded but
still intact
hope.
Heal
O Lord, we
also pray,
all the
parents and
protectors
of all the
children who
are sent off
to all the
schools in
all the
mornings of
our lives.
Help them to
let their
children go
to school
with a smile
and a kiss
and not a
tug and a
tear.
We know that
the chances
of such a
bloodbath
engulfing
them are
remote, but
like
lightning or
a sudden
storm, we
know that
the chances
for complete
safety are
an illusion
in our
wounded
world.
We truly and
sorrowfully
know that
some storms
cannot be
weathered.
So it is
with the
storm of
murderous
evil on this
day.
We know that
we must let
them go, but
today we do
not want to
let them go.
Today we
only want to
hold them
close.
Help us all
to live with
the
terrifying
challenge of
freedom and
fate.
In
Exodus 19:4
we read that
You took us
out of
Egypt
on eagle's
wings.
The
symbolism of
this is lost
to many of
us who do
not know the
way of
eagles.
Those who
watch eagles
know that
they teach
their young
to fly by
pushing them
out of their
nests built
upon high
cliffs and
then flying
close to
them as
their chicks
fall and
flap their
untested
young wings.
When their
young fall
too far, the
eagle
parents
swoop down,
catch their
young on
their pinion
feathers,
and flip
them upward
into the sky
to save them
from the
rocks below
and to give
them another
chance to
reach the
sky.
Eagle
parents do
catch most
of their
eagle
fledglings.
We know this
because
there are
still eagles
in the sky.
Still, we
know that
they do
not—they
cannot—catch
them all.
Nor can we.
Oh
dear God,
heal us from
our grief at
the sight of
our fallen
eagles.
Help us, but
mostly help
them to find
a way to
believe
Springtime
and the blue
sky still
beckons.
Amen
From
Rabbi Marc
Gellman
Medicine You Need
|
