A Prayer for Trey Reed , Found Hanging at Delta State
A Spiritual Response to the News | CurlyNikki.com
I don’t have answers. Just the sound of Billie Holiday ringing in my ears, in 2025… a broken heart. Tears. Prayers. I offer it all up. I give it all to Jesus. I join it all to His Holy Cross.
Because something about this hurts in a way I can’t explain. It’s not just that a young Black man, Demartravion “Trey” Reed, 21 years old, was found hanging from a tree on a college campus in Mississippi. It’s not just that it happened during the university’s centennial celebration. Or that it happened before sunrise, in the loneliness of the dark, in the quiet. Or that officials say there’s no foul play, even though the whole internet is holding its breath.
IT’S ALL OF IT. THE WEIGHT OF IT ALL. The familiarity of it all. And it never gets easier to carry. The shock at myself for not being shocked at reading the headline. Having to explain to my young son what a lynching is, watching him hold something he shouldn’t have to carry either. Witnessing my daughter fill in the gaps of my explanation, because she knows more than I even realize.
Something has to give. I kept saying that, when I heard God say interiorly,”You have to. You have to give Me your heart. Lift it up to Me. Exchange your heart for Mine. Exchange your mind for Mine. Set your mind up here, in here… and you’ll see.” I am not sure if I have. But I have made even more room. More room for prayer and forgiveness. For Love. But the questions and the fear come back in fast. So I pray again.
My prayer room has been gutted many times over the years. Redone, decorated. It’s the most austere it’s ever been. I used to think that having the mind that was in Christ Jesus meant keeping my mind on Him… but today, I realized He had His Mind on Our Father. *insert mind blown emoji* Faceless. There’s no renderings. Nothing the mind can hold on to. All I know is that I was made in His Image. Trey was, too. And that gives me the confidence to stand back up, chin up, hopes up… God is with us, y’all. Even now. Even here.
Even as I stand, beside you, not knowing any details, just the loss, I’m always bowed inside. Always praying inside. Praying beyond the outer experience. Beyond what the eyes report. Feeling what’s just beyond.
Our Prayer for Trey Reed
God,
Cover your son, Trey.
Wrap him in the kind of Light Mississippi could never put out.
Hold him in the kind of Love that doesn’t ask questions.
That doesn’t need a cause of death to say, You mattered.
You saw him, when no one else did.
You saw him in the dark, before the morning, before the news.
You saw his heart. You knew his pain. You know his purpose, even now.
If he was hurting, You were there.
If he was lost, You were still there.
If he was taken, then You have taken him back.
I don’t know what happened.
But You do.
So I place this collective grief, this silence, this storm, in Your hands.
Please speak to his family. Speak to the students. Speak to the state. Speak to all of us.
Speak in dreams. In peace. In truth.
Speak in the places that don’t make it to the news.
Speak through your Gospel.
Let Your mercy be louder than the fear.
Let Your Blood speak louder than every theory.
Let Your justice flow without our asking.
Let Your presence be the answer.
Cover every Black boy who walks across that campus today.
Cover every mother who feels this in her chest.
Cover the kids who can’t sleep tonight.
Cover the ones who cry. And the ones who can’t cry at all.
I feel The Precious Blood being poured out over every student. Over every school. Over every soul.
Be here, Lord.
As Comfort. As Fire. As the God who saw him.
As the One who holds him now.
Because he was Yours.
Because he still is.
Amen.
Let’s Pray the Following Together:
-
1x Our Father
-
3x Hail Marys
-
Glory Be
-
Trisagion Prayer
“Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
‘The Lord’s Prayer ‘is truly the summary of the whole gospel.’ ‘Since the Lord… after handing over the practice of prayer, said elsewhere, ‘Ask and you will receive, ‘ and since everyone has petitions which are peculiar to his circumstances, the regular and appropriate prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) is said first, as the foundation of further desires.’
– Tertullian, De orat.
from the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 2761. – EWTN
“Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.”
“Glory be to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning
is now, and ever shall be
world without end.Amen.”
“Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” (3x)
“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” (3x or full Chaplet if time allows)
You Are Not Powerless
When you see headlines like this, don’t scroll past.
Pause.
Breathe.
Pray.
Because prayer is power.
And Presence is protection.
And your faith is not small.
You can make a difference, right now, by turning your eyes toward Heaven. And keeping them there.
