A couple console each other near an El Paso Walmart where a mass shooting occurred Saturday (The Texas Tribune, 08/03/2018)
“Two mass shootings in less than 24 hours left at least 29 dead and 53 injured, a back-to-back barrage of violence that shook the nation…” – The Wall Street Journal, 08/05/2019
Dear Friends, In the wake of the recent, multiple, horrifying acts of mass violence throughout our nation, please join me in prayer for everyone impacted. And let us again pray for peace. Let us pray that those with violent intentions would open their hearts to God’s healing grace that transforms their hate into compassion and love for all people.
Blessings, Pastor Basile
A Prayer (and Hymn)
Dear Lord and Father of humankind, Forgive our foolish ways; Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives Thy service find, In deeper reverence, praise.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still, small voice of calm. – John Greenleaf Whittier (Author of the lyrics of the hymn, “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”)