Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the nation reels from Wednesday's deadly shooting at a church in Minneapolis, the messages of faith will be prevalent at services this weekend.
"The only thing we can turn to is our faith in God," said Msgr. David LiPuma of OLV Basilica in Lackawanna, referring to the Minnesota shooting. "There is an anger, I admit that, and I know God has big shoulders and understands our human emotions and our feelings and and how we all deal with things in different ways. But what I keep turning to is I don't know what I do if I didn't have faith and trust in God, and that somehow, someway, out of this very horrific, dark evil, that there will come a light that he's going to show us the way forward."
LiPuma says now is the time to dig deep if you're among those whose faith is shaky right now.
"I trust that somehow [God will] show us the way forward, and that [He] is with us," LiPuma told WBEN. "That's a powerful reminder in the gospels, particularly by Jesus, how many times it's mentioned, do not be afraid. And I know that's a hard message right now, because people are afraid, but it's clearly that the Lord is with us in this darkness, and he's not going to abandon us."
Fr. Paul Seil will be delivering a homily in LeRoy, and while he's scheduled to talk humility and service, he's trying to work the events of this week in.
"I think it's important to try to stress the compassion we have to feel, the empathy we should feel, I think especially here in Buffalo, we've gone through many shootings over the years, most, most notoriously, the racially motivated shooting at Tops on Jefferson," said Seil in an interview with WBEN.
He says the question is how do we face incidents like this.
"There is no clear answer, it seems, because every time one of these mass shootings happens, and we know what's happening over-and-over-and-over again so many times in a year in our country, we always say that, 'Well, this is not who we are, and we've got to be better,' and all that stuff. But it really doesn't seem to be improving," Seil said. "So the message has got to be somehow, one of hope, still in the face of what seemed to be overwhelming odds where violence is become such a strong part of our communities and of our of our society."
Seil says in parishes to which he's been assigned and parishes he visits, security can be a concern.
"When there's someone in the church who is not someone you usually see, or when there's someone in the church who's acting maybe a little bit in a different way because of some kind of problem they might have, your mind goes to that, and sometimes it goes to some of the darkest places," Seil said.
He adds you can't help but think about this, and you're always on the lookout for something that might be a little bit unusual. That's such an important part of being ready to receive, but he says don't go overboard.
"Kind of shunning people who are just maybe a little different or new people to the community. It's very difficult. And I, unfortunately, I think of it very often, pretty often, when I'm at church," Seil added.
Meanwhile at OLV, LiPuma says security has also been brought up in his Masses.
"I just want to reaffirm and hopefully strengthen people that we are blessed to have the security that we have every day, throughout the day," he said. "From the moment we open in the morning to the moment we close at night, and particularly in the school itself, the cameras that are there inside, outside, when the kids are being dropped off for school, when they're being picked up, when they're walking over to church, there's always guards watching and making sure that they're present."
He says parishioners may not even know the extent of the security, but it is very strong.
"We constantly are looking at our protocols and reviewing them and making sure that we always have a heightened awareness and not take anything for granted," LiPuma added.
Mary Pruski of Save Our Buffalo Churches says security is always a concern.
"I can remember when some of the church shootings first started down south, people started thinking about it, and I know a lot of churches had meetings like with their ushers, just to have somebody with eyes on the door at all times and making sure that everything's secure as people are walking in, you can only do the best you can, but at least everybody knows that you look out for each other, and if somebody doesn't look right, you speak up and say something right away," Pruski said with WBEN.
She says parishioners just have to keep their guard up and pray that everything will always be OK.
Pruski says the Buffalo Catholic Diocese supports anything the parish wants to put in place.
"There's no such thing as armed people, or anything like that. It's just everybody you know looking out for any dangerous signal, strangers or, of course, carrying items," she noted.
Pruski says she always feels safe in church.