Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Our Nation grieves this senseless tragedy of the loss of 20 little souls all under the age of 6 and 7 and their 6 brave teachers. All weekend I’ve been receiving texts from friends that have young children the same age and it causes them to pause and wrap their arms around their child(ren), holding them close, thanking God it wasn’t us.
“Who could do such a thing?” We ask. “How can these families ever survive their loss?” We empathise.
It makes me think of a question I received Wednesday when I was pulled aside after morning Mass by a woman who desperately needed to talk. She was struggling with issues that had occurred in her life nearly 20 years before and yet now she struggled with the call to ‘forgive’. “How did you do it?” she asked me with anguish in her eyes.
“It is in stages and it does take time and a lot of prayer but ultimately we give the evil over to God and we trust Him,” I said.
Sometimes we think forgiveness means we should instantly bring our enemies into the same fold as our friends. Yes, we are called to pray for them and that in itself is an act of the ‘love’ that God calls us to. But it is in my personal understanding and belief that forgiveness is not an act of releasing them from their sin. That is between them and God.
Some might want to ask where is God in such a senseless tragedy as what happened in Connecticut on Friday. I’d like to believe He was everywhere. He was with the children in the classrooms and in the teachers who tried to protect them and the teachers who hid with their students in closets and the principal who ran toward the gunfire. I’d like to imagine He was even with the young man who chose to go against him and commit this senseless act of evil by his own free will.
I’d like to believe these children and their teachers are with God now praying for their families that they will find peace and comfort in the days to come. I personally pray for these families to find a way to ‘forgive’ and give the evil over to God so that they will be free to heal and embrace the time they had with their loved ones and not allow the evil to continue by keeping them oppressed in anger, anguish and despair.
It takes time. So in the meantime, as a community of believers it is our duty to pray FOR them, to stand in their place and ask God to bring them the peace and comfort they crave in this moment. Below are a few prayers you could say, or offer up the ones you feel on your heart.
And maybe today spend more time with your family embracing the moments we have been given in this day.
A prayer to ‘stand in’ for the families:
Heavenly Father, I come to you in this dark hour feeling broken and trying not to let anger or bitterness against you make my grief even worse that it is now. All I can think of right now is why did you let these children suffer this way? Why must you take them away now? Satan would like nothing better than for their families to turn against you now, as if he, the prince of darkness could shine any light on this tragic situation. Help them to see that this will only make things worse! Help them instead to offer up their grief to you, sharing as You did in the loss of your Son, knowing you can always bring good out of a bad situation. Help them to remember that you have something much better in mind for their loved ones, indeed for all of us, in Heaven. Help them to offer up their pain to you instead of turning away from you, for the forgiveness of sins and sinners, much as our Lord did at Calvary. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A personal prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help me to remember in these troubled times
The cross you carried for my sake,
So that I may better carry mine
And to help others do the same,
As I offer up (whatever your concern or problem here) to you
For the conversion of sinners
For the forgiveness of sins
In reparation for sins
And for the salvation of souls. Amen
Blessings
Shannon
There is always hope.