Just a few miles from Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis, Father Dennis Zehren, the church’s pastor, stood on a hill overlooking Lake Harriet and the bandshell Sept. 14.
Over a hundred people had gathered for an interfaith prayer service in memory of 10-year-old Harper Moyski, who died in a shooting Aug. 27 during an all-school Mass at Annunciation’s church. Father Zehren wore a baseball cap because the sun was shining.
“Standing here at Lake Harriet, we’re getting a lot of light and warmth from above,” Father Zehren said. “We thank God for the light and the warmth that he keeps sending from heaven to get us through these difficult times. We know that it is a light that will scatter every darkness. He’s doing wondrous things in our midst.”
People walked over a mile in Annunciation shirts to get to the bandshell. They prayed together, shook hands and hugged. The message was “light,” a similar light Father Zehren felt on the hill overlooking the bandshell. Guests were given God’s Eyes, crafts made from woven yarn symbolizing protection and blessings.
Father Tom Hurley from Chicago, who offered remarks at the gathering Sept. 14, got to know the Moyskis when the family lived in Chicago. He said Annunciation is not just a parish in Minneapolis.
“It’s not just a place that’s going to be defined by the act of violence, but when you go all the way back in our Christian tradition to the Annunciation, it was a reality,” Father Hurley said. “It was a reality of a messenger from God, Gabriel, who came to a young woman named Mary … and the angel came and said to Mary: You’re going to be part of something because God wants to bring peace to this world.”
Father Hurley said that everyone gathered on Sept. 14 were to be human messengers, to be those who bring the message of peace and nonviolence and “to bring the voices and the messages of justice and peace to our world.”
“We are part of that,” Father Hurley said. “We are part of that announcement. We are the ones who are called to be the Annunciation, to bring forth God’s peace and God’s dream for the world.”
Mike Moyski, standing with Harper’s mom, Jackie Flavin, said, “We have been so touched by the incredible love and support around us from our family and friends, neighbors, our Annunciation community, first responders and elected officials.”
Flavin said, “These last few weeks have felt like being dropped at the bottom of the ocean where it is dark, and the pressure is crushing, and no human is willing to survive it, and the light that we’re used to just doesn’t really reach all the way down there at the bottom of the ocean. But I have to say that even in the deepest, darkest places, life somehow finds a way and light breaks through down in the deep dark.”
Flavin said that she and her family can feel the thoughts and prayers from loved ones. There are three lessons Flavin said she learned from her daughter. Lesson one: Be your own kind of light. Lesson two: Let your light be big. Lesson three: Light glows when we share it.
Rabbi Jason Rodich from Temple Israel in Minneapolis recited a poem he wrote for the service.
“Harper Moyski was all in,” Father Hurley said. “She was all in, as a beautiful child of great creativity and great joy, great humor.”
Rebuilding the domestic church: Why housing affordability is a pro-family cause