Prayer about mass grave discovered on former British Columbia residential school grounds

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/canada-remains-indigenous-children-mass-graves?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1  Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

Heavenly Father, knowing the truth can both help and hurt, bringing both peace and sorrow. That is how we feel about the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of a former residential school in southern British Columbia. The Tk’emlups te Secwépemc people have suspected for a very long time that hundreds of their children were hidden on those grounds; now their “knowing” has been confirmed. Lord, we know that 150,000 children attended such residential schools that were intended to assimilate Indigenous children into a different culture. We now know that abuse of all kinds was common within this educational network. We pray for the recovering adults who once attended these schools to find peace in the knowing, to receive some sort of closure, to be able to move forward in the healing process. We pray that more of the suspected 3201 deaths can be uncovered and accounted for, so more families and communities may find peace. We pray that we will learn from this sorrowful history and avoid making the same mistakes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.