The faithful followed the sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” as they headed to Mass at Annunciation school in Minneapolis Aug. 31.
They came from all directions; some walked by boarded-up stained glass windows that were shattered at the parish church next door, when a person wielding a gun opened fire on an all-school Mass the morning of Aug. 27. The shooter killed two students — 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski — and wounded 18 other students and three adults at the elementary school.
On the plywood boarding the windows at the church were messages of hope. Blue and green ribbons — the school’s colors — were tied around trees in the Minneapolis neighborhood. On front lawns were signs that read, “Our hearts are with Annunciation.”
People and families packed the school’s auditorium and stood in the school hallway for the Mass, which was held there because the desecrated church must be reconsecrated before it can be used for worship. It wasn’t the normal place of worship for Annunciation parishioners and this was something Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation, recognized.
Members of the congregation sat in plastic folding chairs with the sanctuary on the auditorium’s stage. It wasn’t his parishioners’ usual place of celebration, Father Zehren said.
Father Zehren talked about the immense help parishioners and neighbors, community responders and others have provided one another. He compared it to the book of Exodus passage in which Moses lifted his arms and hands in prayer, and when he wearied, the Israelites fell back in battle. When Moses held up his arms, they prospered in the fight.
“So, what did they do?” Father Zehren said. “They put a rock under Moses (to sit). And Aaron and Hur stood by him and lifted his hands in prayer so that he could keep his hands in prayer and the battle could keep going in the right direction. That’s what we’ve been experiencing in so many ways around here. All of you. All of our neighbors, all of our community, police, first responders, they’ve been a rock underneath us. And they will continue to be a rock for us. There (are) so many people who will be continuing to hold up our hands in prayer.”
While many mourned, some expressed anger over the Aug. 27 shooting, and frustration with political leadership in Minnesota for not making the state’s nonpublic schools eligible for state funding provided to public schools for cyber and building security. Dan Larson, a parishioner at All Saints in Minneapolis who grew up in south Minneapolis, said Catholics should be “soldiers for Christ in the world.” He said this is a time to recognize and draw a clear distinction between good and evil.
After his homily, Father Zehren invited everyone in the auditorium to stand and profess their faith. He said, “How can we do anything without faith?”
“There is no darkness that God can’t bring light from,” Father Zehren said. “There’s no sorrow that God can’t spring joy from. There’s no grieving that Jesus can’t bring comfort to. And there’s no dying that Jesus can’t raise to new life.”
“When we hear that voice of Jesus, it comes to our hearts and a little light starts to dawn,” Father Zehren said. “That’s what we wait for now. That’s what we welcome. We welcome the dawn of a new day at Annunciation. We welcome the light of a new day. It’s a light that will scatter every darkness; it’s a light that will never fade. It’s a light not just for us; it’s the light of the world, and it’s the light of Jesus Christ. We watch for that light.”
Some people, in tears, sang hymns after Mass outside the Church. Women in blue dresses with images of Mary and wearing head wraps sang and prayed with the many who continued to mourn and remember the shooting.
“These children, the families, they will continue to be that rock underneath us,” Father Zehren said. “Harper and Fletcher will always be that rock underneath us, that keeps our hands raised in prayer seeking for good, fighting for good and knowing the battle belongs to the Lord and we keep our eyes on him.”
Fran Akufongwe, a member of the Catholic Women’s Association from Cameroon and St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, said members of the association came to the community to join it in sorrow and in its time of need.
“Just pray,” Akufongwe said.
