Martyred Lambs, Children of Our Sorrowful Mother, Pray for Us! Part I by Cami little handmaid
My
husband, younger daughter, and I live 40 miles from Uvalde, Texas, where, on
May 24, 2022, 19 students in the fourth grade and 2 teachers were killed at
Robb Elementary. I have read that some of the students were shot in the face
and couldn’t be identified even by their parents until a parent brought a DNA
sample. Horrific violence! All of the victims were shot in one classroom. Some
parents had to wait until that night to find out whether their child was alive
or dead.
My family and I, to my knowledge, did not know any of the victims, nor their families, but my heart has been aching, and I have been crying as if they were close family members. How can any person with an ounce of compassion not cry for the children, the teachers, and their families?
The shooter was an 18 year old boy from a local high school. Before he drove to Robb Elementary to commit this grave evil, he shot his grandmother, who had raised him, in her face. The last report I heard was that she was in a San Antonio hospital in critical condition. She had raised him, because his mother is a drug addict. He was bullied throughout his time in school. None of this justifies what he did, but maybe gives us a very small understanding of his anger. He was shot and killed by police.
The day after this terrible killing of so many innocents, I spoke to a spiritual friend of mine on the phone, and we shared our thoughts and our feelings about this horrible tragedy. She said something that gave me a little consolation. I hope that it will also give those who read this a little consolation. She said that we can pray to these child martyrs to ask them to pray for us.
Later that day I spoke on the phone to my spiritual director. I expressed my deep sorrow, and my confusion about why these school shootings have been committed over and over since the Columbine High School massacre of 12 students (and one teacher), committed by two of their fellow students, who then took their own lives. Since Columbine in 1999, there have been over 300 schools attacked in the U.S. Ten of them have been elementary schools. Why, I asked, has this been happening so often in the United States of America?
“I know why,” my spiritual director responded to my question, “it is because of the disintegration of the family.”
The next morning I woke up to an image of two lambs laying on the ground, dead, in front of a partial brick wall.
Cami
little handmaid