Community gathers to pray for peace after Oxford school shooting
OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Hundreds of people, shocked and in tears because Aggressive shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan left three people dead and eight others injured, appeared at three different vigils on Tuesday night, seeking solace and meaning amid the devastation.
They span the ages – students wear blue and yellow Oxford-style coats and sweatshirts, the school colors; parents with anxiety etched on their faces; community members never thought anything like this could happen in their little enclave in northern Oakland County.
“This is what you read on the news, it happens in places,” said Kim Kozel, 51, of Orion Lake, one of about 300 who attended the vigil at Kensington Church in Orion Lake. is different. She spent the afternoon worrying about her son, an employee of the district’s IT department who commutes between schools during the day, only to find out that he’s been locked out of middle school for a week. time of the shooting.
“I don’t think I’ve done it yet,” Kozel said, confused. “It’s been a lot.”
Pastor Jesse Holt told a crowd of more than 200 at LakePoint Community Church in Oxford Town: “All of Oxford is hurt. When the seats were full, dozens of people stood to serve. Some hold each other for comfort. Then, sharing a common fire, they lighted the candles that were given. And they cry.
Everything we know:Oxford High School opened fire, leaving 3 dead, many injured
React:President Biden, Governor Whitmer React, Express Heartbreak
It is impossible to know how every student, every teacher, every parent will be affected by the shooting, which police say was carried out by a 15-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic handgun. . But later in the ceremony, Holt asked the students who were at the school Tuesday to stand.
“Father,” said Holt, “I pray that you will bless them in what they do. I pray that in the days to come if worries, nightmares, troubles come, you will give them. peace as I prayed.”
The same message at St. Joseph in Lake Orion, Michigan. “Our entire community, our entire faith family has been affected,” said Father John Carlin. “We offer this Mass to free their souls, to comfort the wounded and family members.
“This Mass is specially dedicated to them as a Mass of Peace, and may God grant us peace.”
Carlin said he heard about the shooting Tuesday afternoon during a penance ceremony. “God is calling me, saying I really have to be with my people right now,” Carlin said, adding that St. Joseph was locked out when he received word of the shooting at Oxford High School. “Something told me that as a priest, as a father of a community, I have to be there for them. I’m not even sure what to do.”
He said he drove to the Meijer store, where students and staff from the high school had been evacuated, praying along the way.
“I am praying to God. I was just praying to the Lord, asking, ‘What should I do?’ … I don’t have superpowers. I can’t fix everything that’s going on. What peace must I bring to anyone, let alone my heart? “Carlin said.
And that, he said, was when he realized the answer was to comfort them with faith and trust in God in the darkest of times.
“Every time we lose a friend, loved one, or something we don’t understand, God not only wants to walk with us through that darkness, but to let us know that he is there, and that he will not. go anywhere and you never will,” said Carlin.