Stop and Pray

For the little ones and for their families.

When God Reminds You of The Things That Really Matter

I’ve spent the last few weeks unpacking boxes and hanging pictures and catching up on as much sleep as I can because the last few months almost flattened me. I think in this second half of life I’m doing a deep re-think on the nomadic way. I think I’ll plant some real roots while following The Way.

I’ve been interviewing for new positions. There are things brewing.

But truly all I want to write about is how none of it matters when 18 (or more) little girls go missing due to a flood where I spent a year living just under two years ago.

I’m a “feeler”. We all have giftings of the Holy Spirit and experience that relationship in differing ways. I see and feel. I’m a see-feel kinda gal. So when something like this happens my heart floods as well.

It all started with one of those posts you almost pass up because you’re not quite sure if it’s a forwarded message from 15 years ago. But this wasn’t. It was about the major floods that began a few days ago (at this writing) in the Hill Country along the Guadalupe River in Texas.

And there’s a whole summer camp of cherubs missing.

Today I began to feel all those feels. I just couldn’t stand it. I had to stop.

And pray.

I said a Rosary. But then I realized I have access to their names. So I pulled out my phone and began speaking their names in the prayer. If you were there mother or father, wouldn’t you want that? To know that someone out there is fighting in the spiritual while you are fighting in the physical?

At this point I have heard that three have been “recovered”. Oh Lord have Mercy on the families! All of them.

Stop Right Now And Pray

Read their names and ask God for mercy on their families. And I’ll say this, too, even though I don’t want to - that no matter what - they be found. That there would be reunion in joy or sorrow but that there could be closure.

Virginia

Mary Grace

Blakely

Hadley

Molly

Linnie

Margaret

Kellyanne

Wynne

Cile

Anna Margaret

Renee (found deceased)

Greta

Sarah

Lainie

Janie

Eloise (found deceased)

Lila (found deceased)

We know there will be reunion ultimately for us all in heaven. But I pray for it now for them none-the-less.

And for the ones who have been recovered - Renee, Eloise, and Lila - we pray:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Ora Pro Eis

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison

Perhaps a prayer in lieu of a comment…