A Litany of Love in Action
This litany was composed for the iACT/St. James’ Interfaith Vigil for Uvalde and Buffalo by the Rev. Carol Johnson, and it is shared with her permission.
READER: We gather broken hearted for those who have recently lost loved ones to gun violence. 19 young children with only 10 birthdays and their teachers, gunned down while sitting in their classroom. Grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, grandfathers, fathers, and sons – all who simply stopped at the grocery store to shop for their family’s dinner, gunned down. It is overwhelming.
PEOPLE: Love looks like SHARED GRIEF
READER: We want to have hope that this will not happen again. We want to believe that hate and unresolved anger will not rule the day. We want to send our kids to school and shop in our grocery stores, without feeling fear.
PEOPLE: Love looks like COMBATTING FEAR
READER: We feel alone and scared. However, we know that as a community we can claim our power to act together. We may not be sure what the right answer is. We may not all agree. But we know that only our combined voices can bring about change
PEOPLE: Love looks like COMING TOGETHER
READER: We know that guns are killing us in ways they are not killing people from other countries. We know that we have exponentially more guns per person, in our country, than people from other countries have. Somehow, guns are part of the problem.
PEOPLE: Love looks like ADMITTING THE TRUTH
READER: We know that lack of action will perpetuate the current situation. Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
PEOPLE: Love looks like SUMMONING COURAGE.
READER: We are not sure what action is the right one. We hear so many voices swirling around us. We are called in so many directions. Let us pause and collectively look within. Let us draw on the sacred the messages of our faith traditions, which at their core, have immense similarities. Let us together ask and answer the question: What would love do?
PEOPLE: Love looks like TAKING A STAND, TOGETHER.
