Chad Flowers, a photojournalist for WRAL-TV in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, has witnessed an incredible amount of history first-hand because of his job. He’s been to multiple presidential inauguarations, to the Vatican, covered more hurricanes than he can count on both hands, and provided livestream video for the area’s most notorious murder trials.

One of his videos – in which he filmed a tornado bearing down on Raleigh from the penthouse of a downtown highrise – ended up on the National Geographic channel and won him an Emmy.

It’s a job that allows one to see the best and the worst of mankind. Predictably, he was up early Monday morning to catch a flight to Las Vegas. Monday and Tuesday were grueling and emotional days. Late Tuesday Chad took a walk to the Mandalay Bay entrance and snapped this photo:

His caption on Facebook:

“Took a walk out to the front of Mandalay Bay and captured 2 men laying hands on and praying for 2 police officers guarding the front entrance.”

While the politicians and partisans have become entrenched in their familiar positions, these two men sought to comfort. Their actions remind me of the prayer of St. Francis:

Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love…

O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console…

Our nation is in need of peace, love, and consolation. Thank you to the two unnamed gentlemen who were not seeking glory or recognition, but were simply showing love and asking for God’s protection on these officers.