By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept.
Today, my heart is heavy with grief for the children, families, and community devastated by the shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota. I weep with those whose lives have been forever altered by this event, and we lift our prayers for those who have died, those who are injured, and those who mourn.
We are a diocese of schools, and churches with connections to schools. So, I imagine so many of you in the diocese feel this moment in your heart and gut.
In this moment, be mindful of the parents who now carry the searing memory of violence visited upon their children.
We give thanks for the courage of first responders who ran toward danger and embodied Christ’s love in their presence, their touch, and their prayers. Their witness tells us that even in the shadow of death, light is not extinguished.
Yet, we must also confess we are living in a society caught in cycles of fear and violence. As Edwin Friedman reminds us, “When anxiety governs a community, leadership too often falters, and the health of the whole is put at risk. It is not enough for us to weep—we must also act.”
As Christians, we recognize that our faithful citizenship is in God’s kingdom. That kingdom calls us to resist violence with compassion, to reject despair with hope, and to work toward a world where children may learn in environments filled with safety and peace. To honor the dead, to love the living, we must commit ourselves anew to building communities rooted in care, justice, and generosity. We must respect humanity. If the lost lives of children and the suffering of parents is to be honored, then we must seek to be a better community.
So we pray:
For those who have been killed.
For the children who will carry scars in body and soul.
For the parents who tonight cradle both grief and gratitude.
For the teachers and leaders who must guide a community through trauma.
For lawmakers and citizens, that courage may replace apathy, and vision replace division.
Let us not grow weary in lament, nor in the work of peace. Christ calls us to be light in the darkness, a people who believe that even as strangers in a foreign land, we may see the hope of God before us.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle
