To a place of ce­le­bra­tion
Filled with laugh­ter, danc­ing, joy,
Came such vio­lent de­vas­ta­tion—
One man’s ef­forts to de­stroy.
God, we grieve for loved ones tak­en;
We la­ment, What can we do?
Now, we’re feel­ing lost and shak­en;
Heal our na­tion! Make us new!

Weapons kill—and so does si­lence;
Hear our pray­er as we con­fess:
We have giv­en in to vio­lence,
We have bowed to hope­less­ness.
God, we’ve lost our sense of vi­sion
Of a world where there will be
Plowshares made from vio­lent wea­pons,
Justice in so­ci­ety.

Give our lead­ers strength for act­ion,
Give them minds to mend our flaws,
Give them cour­age and com­pass­ion,
And the will to change our laws.
May we work for le­gis­la­tion
That will curb guns’ aw­ful toll.
God, re­new our de­di­ca­tion
To a world that’s just and whole.

Give us love to change our vi­sion;
Give us love to cast out fear.
Give us love to speak with wis­dom—
Love to work for jus­tice here.
Give us love to wel­come dif­fer­ence—
Love no hat­red can de­stroy.
Only love can stop the vio­lence;
Only love will bring back joy.