Presented by Gun Sense: For the Common Good

Part of the SMOS Living Justice Ministries

The number of deaths due to gun violence in St. Louis is already at 74 as of April 15 – only 105 days into 2023 year.  This is an outrage that touches every St. Louisan, an insult to the sanctity of life breathed into each of us by God’s Holy Spirit.  Who doesn’t know someone personally or by news story whose life has been lost too soon, too tragically?  In our church, many of us have gazed upon the Pieta in which a grieving Mary cradles Jesus, her crucified son taken down from the cross.  Like Mary, too many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters have grieved as they mourn and remember a life lost to gun violence.  

Gun Sense: For the Common Good will light candles weekly in mourning and remembering lives lost.  For names and stories of those who have died due to gun violence, stop by the Altar of the Pieta and pause to pray.  Pray for those who have died and the families they leave behind. Pray also for the care-takers who carry them from the scene. Pray for those who welcome adults, teens, and children into emergency wards in hopes of saving lives.  Pray with Mary as she cradles her son and every person whose life is lost.