Prayer after the stabbings on London Bridge and in the Hague

God, who steadies us
in the throbbing heartbeats
of fear and running,
who kneels beside the bleeding,
and rides with the paramedics,

we pray for your tenderness
in London and in The Hague,
where busy crowds
were cut open by violence.

We pray for those who mourn
these unexpectable terrible losses,
for those still critical
in the hospitals
and those healing at home.

We pray for the ones
who will suffer from nightmares,
and for those who will shrink
back into their own homes,
for fear of sudden danger
any time they are in a crowd.

We pray for all of us,
in a time of such violence,
the courage
of Londoners who intervened
at their own risk,
the wisdom
of a police commissioner
praising unity in difference,

and your serenity
to shape a world of safety
for teenagers
pre-Christmas shopping,
effective care
for those identified as unbalanced,

and, for all the “causes” —
those I agree with and those I do not —
held with mind-bending passion,
a renewal of
nonviolence, not weapons,
as the path to change
amen.