134 Bell Tolls for 134 Lives Lost

Today the Cathedral tolled its 2-ton Bourden bell -- the bell we use for funerals and mourning -- 134 times to mark the 134 lives that will be lost in America today because of gun violence.    

It’s part of Gun Violence Awareness Day, and if you visited the Close, you’d see a whole lot of orange. It’s the color of gun violence awareness, and it’s designed to grab your attention.

People ask us why we care about this issue. We care because each of those lives lost mattered to someone: a mother, a son, a father, a sibling. And each and every one of those lives matter to God. So they must matter to us.

With gratitude to the Sisters of Mercy, we pray:

God, our hearts are broken with pain at the senseless deaths caused by gun violence. Families mourn, children live in fear, and some in our nation respond by arming themselves with more guns with greater capacity to end life. Our disconnection and alienation has caused some to turn to guns for protection and safety. We ask that you touch our hearts with your love, heal our brokenness, and turn us away from violence toward peace.

Help us to transform our own hearts and to seek peaceful ways of resolving our differences. Let our hands reach out and connect with those who feel alone, those who live in fear, and those suffering from mental illness. Let our voices be raised asking our legislators to enact gun laws to protect all in our society, especially those most vulnerable. Let our pens write messages demanding change while also scripting words of hope and transformation. We ask this in the name of the God who desires that we live together in peace.  Amen