Prayer for a Day of Remembrance

University Presbyterian Church,

On this day, August 3rd, one year ago, El Paso was horrifically attacked in an act of racism and hate with the intention of dividing our community between White and Latinx,  American and Mexican. 23 lives were stolen away from our community and countless others have scars, both physical and emotional, that we all must live with. There have been many city-wide efforts to recognize this day as a community and there will be many more. We invite you to use the prayer below as you work through the emotions and feelings of today, even as those emotions and feelings change moment to moment. If you are in need of talking, please reach out to one of us or to your Deacons. 


--Co-Pastors Tim Gray and John Nelsen


Emotional and Grieving God,

We give you thanks for the ways we can express ourselves, and live in the wide spectrum that is life as you have made it. Today we mourn. It has been a year since we were surprised in shock and horror. It has been a year since our minds had to make sense of what we were reading online and seeing on TV, some seeing in a parking lot, others fearful and overwhelmed in a store. Embrace us, Lord. May we feel these feelings, from the pit in our stomachs that won’t go away, to the waves of mixed emotions like the tumbling waves of the sea.  Bring us together, online, on the phone, exchanging glances and “hellos” in the store and in parking lots. Give us your compassion, your capacity to feel, and your Grace to this community and its people as our own; each grieving in different ways, each our sibling in Christ. 


Angry and Vengeful God,

Where is the sting of your justice? The blood on the floor of that Walmart, that parking lot, and in the hospitals is still crying out to You! How can we live into compassion when an eye has not been given for an eye; a life given for lives? How can we live in peace when the hatred of some is still acceptable? Give us the perseverance to hold on to what is right. Give us the courage to stand up to racism, to lift the proclamation that Latinx lives matter, not because we wish to lift one life against another, but because our society doesn’t value Latinx lives as others. Give us the strength to work towards your justice, your righteousness, your reconciliation that we may better reflect your Love.


Hopeful and Waiting God,

We give you thanks for the hope of little glimpses of your Kingdom. We give you thanks for community leaders who work to lift up the voices of the oppressed. We give you thanks for the community that is willing to confront our history of racism and hate. We give you thanks for neighbors and friends willing to embrace one another even when we fall apart. Show us the ways of your Love, that we would continue to proclaim your Good News and your Kingdom. Show Grace to the terrorist whose hate has consumed him. And may your Son lead us to live your life after death.

Amen.

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