The children: Charlotte Bacon, 6, Daniel Barden, 7, Olivia Engel, 6, Josephine Gay, 7, Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6, Dylan Hockley, 6, Madeleine F. Hsu, 6, Catherine V. Hubbard, 6, Chase Kowalski, 7, Jesse Lewis, 6, James Mattioli, 6, Grace McDonnell, 7, Emilie Parker, 6, Jack Pinto, 6, Noah Pozner, 6, Caroline Previdi, 6, Jessica Rekos, 6, Avielle Richman, 6, Benjamin Wheeler, 6, Allison N. Wyatt, 6.
The staff: Rachel Davino, 29, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, Anne Marie Murphy, 52, Lauren Rousseau, 30, Mary Sherlach, 56, Victoria Soto, 27.
Nancy Lanza, Adam Lanza
O God, whose beloved Son took children into his arms and blessed them: Give us grace to entrust the children and all those whose lives were taken yesterday in Newtown to your never failing care and love, and bring us all to your heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Names from the New York Times.
Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: Deal graciously with the families of Newtown in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
– Book of Common Prayer, p. 494 (The Daily Office)
H/T to Jim Naughton at The Lead.
Memory eternal, RIP.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteThank you for these prayers June. I would ask for prayers for me and my little 1st graders on Monday when we return to school. How do I answer their questions when they ask me if they are safe in school?
ReplyDeleteI told them on the first day of school way back in August that my job was Safe Keeper (all the children have rotating classroom jobs too) and that my job would always be to keep them safe.
I weep for the lost innocence and pray for the strength to actually protect them and keep them safe in a very crazy world.
Also I thank God for Advent and my belief in light arising in darkness. I don't know how I would cope otherwise.
Brian, I will pray for you and your 1st graders. This event weighs heavy on the hearts of us all, and it's so hard that children lose innocence at such a young age. I think of the children and staff who survived at Sandy Hook School, of all the empty places. I pray for them, too. Truly, if this sort of tragedy can happen in Newtown, it can happen anywhere. What would I do without my faith?
DeleteAnd please may we think about the real and true heroism of the teachers who died protecting their charges? In the unspeakable horror of this, we have an example of adults who gave their lives for the children.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, let us remember these lives cut short at the very beginng. As Morgan Freeman said, let us not remember the name of the killer. Let us treasure the names of the children.
Charlotte
Daniel
Olivia
Josephine
Ana
Dylan
Madeleine
Catherine
Chase
Jesse
James
Grace
Emilie
Jack
Noah
Caroline
Jessica
Avielle
Benjamin
Allison
Thanks, IT. The teachers were truly heroic, some giving their all. I will remember all the lives cut short.
DeleteWhether or not we remember the name of the shooter, I thought he should be in our prayers.
I don't know what the answer is, but Mimi, I think you will appreciate this thought-provoking article, "Our Moloch," by Garry Wills:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/dec/15/our-moloch/
Thanks for the link, Russ. I'll check it later today.
DeleteThis event is one of the saddest in our history.
ReplyDeleteI cannot comprehend why all that fire power was so available to a young man with obvious mental health issues.
whiteycat, it should not be, but that's how it is with the insane gun laws in the country.
DeleteWhat I hear is that he "borrowed" his mom's guns to shoot her. Against that there is little you can do.
DeleteThere are two quite different spins coming through from that. One is that she was one of these crazy survivalist arm-yourself-and-wait-for-the-Rapture types (at least behind her own front door). I'd like to hope that wasn't true.
But the other is not much more comforting, because if it's true she made the same mistake most Americans make. Namely: she believed that the answer to gun crime was more guns.
Check the Washington Post report on Gallup's analysis of long term polling trends about gun control here. From that you see that what Obama says is one thing: what he will persuade the authorities to do will be another, because most Americans care more about their constitutional rights than they do about their kids.
James, with all the will in the world, Obama can only do what's possible. The country is awash in guns, an estimated 300 million of them, nearly one for every man woman and child. The best law that will come out of this tragedy is a ban on assault weapons, a limit to the size of clips that can be placed on guns, and a mandatory background check for every gun sale, including those purchased online and at gun shows. The major work will be to change the culture so that people who have guns to protect themselves against criminals or against their own government will rethink their ownership.
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