Category Archives: gun violence

One or the other

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

One says, Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; another, Thou shalt not covet the livestock. One says, Give as good as you get; another, Do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good. … Continue reading →

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The road to Emmaus

Posted on April 23, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

If the risen Christ stumbled through our doors, unexpected and unrecognized, visibly wounded in his head and his heart and his hands, how would we treat him? As a victim of our human violence, or as a threat? Continue reading →

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Prayer in the aftermath

Posted on April 21, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Offered in case it is helpful in your context in this week or another. Feel free to adapt as needed. Gracious God, king of peace, who brought again from the dead our Saviour Jesus Christ after we had crucified him … Continue reading →

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For all the alleluias

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

For all the alleluias that fall into the empty grave before the earth is cast down; alleluias that burst like a disappointed balloon upon the tongue; alleluias that took a wrong turn and never came home; for all of the alleluias that become ululations for the still dead and dying; alleluias gasping; … Continue reading →

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Sirens

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Time was when the siren was a singer of sea mist; her music has hardened, staccato,and her figure, smooth and long like steel; still, she kills, and from a distance the echo returns as a wail falling and rising like smoke foreshadowing the ashes of the dead

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Triduum

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

While the dough was doing its thing, I went out to the forge, made one more cross out of gun barrels. Continue reading →

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Preaching from the shadows

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading →

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Capitalizing on panic

Posted on March 24, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

On the stories we tell ______________________ I saw a story in the Washington Post where a man named Kevin Thomas started making pop-up safe rooms for schools – kind of like the panic rooms that became a status symbol in … Continue reading →

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A psalm of lament

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

We turn to you, Compassionate One,
with your endless forbearance and infinite mercy, and pray that your patience will one day break;

because it seems some days that ours, our capacity for carnage, is everlasting. Continue reading →

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From the forge

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I madea heart; hammeredaway at steelhot from the forgeuntil I got into its groove,turned the base untilit barely lookedlike the barrel of a gunany more.I sliced it with the sawuntil it wouldn’t holdany more.I thought aboutthat Bible verse,turning hearts of … Continue reading →

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