It is said, “it takes a village” but where has the village gone?
Why has hatred cast its foul cloud over the land?
Our children are dying; brothers and sisters perish in the violence of madness.
Evil rises from the mist of dawn.

Where has that village gone?
Oh God, where are you? Where is your merciful hand?
Righteousness only a shadow of yesterday now remembered with sadness.
Will the wicked still mock the sanctity of life? For how long?

Oh God, where are you and where has that village gone?
Is there no safe haven from the lethal acts of a wicked man?
Your sanctuary, now a slaughterhouse, a place of light suddenly filled with blackness.
Oh God, where were you, when in death your faithful fell down?

I know in whom I must trust and in faith, I will surely live on.
But Lord please forgive this weak soul who asks:

Oh God, where were you and where has the village gone?