Have Mercy . . .

This prayer is from a chaplain friend who has seen war up close and voices my prayer better than any words I can say on this sad day.

Have Mercy …
God have mercy as sadness fills this day
around our great big world
Especially God hear our prayer here in the USA
where as parents lost a child, a young woman who was yesterday a girl.
God have mercy in our world gone wild
where for such random killing there comes no defense.
Bless the parents of young men, there boy child
as they grieve their loss that will never make any sense.
God have mercy for we are not whole
as we are daily robbed of our peace.
Mend, O God, the tear in our communal soul
that some of the random violence may cease.
God have mercy in the midst of our strife
as we experience chaos continually gnawing away at creation.
God grant us by your mercy new life
as we turn to you daily for our salvation.

Psalm 46:1-5 (KJV)
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble
Therefore will not we fear,
though the earth be removed,
and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea,
though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her,
She shall not be moved:
God shall help her and that right early
Victor Ronald Chatham