Victims of Gun Violence - 1/1/2019 - 2/7/2019

Rest eternal grant unto them,

And let light perpetual shine upon them.

May the rest in peace.

Click here for a link to the list of names of all people killed with a gun from January 1 to February 7, 2019

Homily following the Shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue (10/28/2018)

Last week, I made the decision to keep the Feast of Ss. Simon and Jude today. In part, I wanted to have something other than the usual green. But in part, I was inspired by the Revival last week to reflect more closely on our work and vocations as Christians. I thought that reflecting on some of the apostles might be a good way to do that. I do think there will be value in that, but, of course, we need to begin by holding up in prayer the people shot and wounded and killed yesterday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

First posts, I suspect, are tricky things. I always find the first sentence of anything that I'm writing is just about the hardest.

There are a couple of things I'm hoping to put here in this blog. I think I might try to put my homilies here. People have asked me to post them somewhere, but I've always hesitated. There's a couple of reasons for my hesitation. First of all, they're not terribly polished. There are misspellings and typos. Also, they change. This last Sunday I liked what I was trying to say, but I really didn't like the way I had written it. So for two of the services, what people heard and what I wrote down where pretty different. That's the third reason. I think homilies are meant to be heard. All of that said, this will probably be a place where I put some of them, if not all of them.

The second thing  has to do with a project I''m working on. A little over a month ago, there was a shooting in State College, PA. One of the victims was related to a parishioner of mine, so this particular incident hit closer to home. In a different way that I had in the past, I felt the kinds of connections that people have. Each of these shootings is a life cut short, a family in grief, a loss to the whole human family. I felt called to begin a monthly requiem mass for the victims of gun violence where we would pray for everyone who died in the last month. And we would pray for them by name. Looking around the internet, I couldn't find anyone who was compiling a list of the names of the people that died. The Gun Violence Archive tracks incidents, but they do not have an easily accessible list of the names of the people involved. So I'm hoping to make this blog a place where I can share the list that we're compiling with others. I will also try to have some resources for others who want to be part of this ministry of prayer and witness.

Finally, there might be other things that come up. I'm not quite sure yet. Please feel free to send me an email if you have thoughts or ideas.