Moment of Silence for those affected by VT Atrocity

>> GENERAL PRAYER:

Oh Lord, God of Love - Mercy - and Peace. By suffering and dying on the cross, you grants us reconciliation with God and meaning in the sufferings of this life. By resurrection, you give us hope in the eternal life. May all people are reconciled and granted hope in this life. Especially those who are effected by the atrocity at Virginia Tech, may the dead soon to be mercifully received in the your glory, may their family, relatives and friends be comforted in their grieves and be granted reconciliation and peace. Lastly, O Lord, forgive the one who causes this atrocity, for he knows not what he was doing. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord, who died for our reconciliation with God. AMEN.

>> FOR PEACE (Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

>> FOR COMFORT TO THOSE EFFECTED (Prayer for Comfort)

Grant unto us, Almighty God, in all time of sore distress,
the comfort of the forgiveness of our sins.
In time of darkness give us blessed hope,
in time of sickness of body give us quiet courage;
and when the heart is bowed down, and the soul is very heavy,
and life is a burden, and pleasure a weariness,
and the sun is too bright, and life too mirthful,
then may that Spirit, the Spirit of the Comforter, come upon us,
and after our darkness may there be the clear shining of the heavenly light;
that so, being uplifted again by Thy mercy,
we may pass on through this our mortal life
with quiet courage, patient hope, and unshaken trust,
hoping through Thy loving-kindness and tender mercy
to be delivered from death into the large life of the eternal years.

Hear us of Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.