There will be tribulation but there is Jesus. It is what I keep hearing as I pray for the victims in the Sandy Hook School tragedy. We are struggling to comprehend how this can happen. But just today, there is an article that says that mass killings happen once every two weeks in the United States. How can that be true? The report says that many of them go unreported. The Sandy Hook murders grabbed our collective attention because it involved innocent children. But all murdered victims are innocent. Including those killed by abortion. This is not another politicized statement about what happened in Newtown. It is statement of the fact that we as a nation have lost our moral way. When there is not right or wrong then we struggle to maintain our civility. When we prevent people from praying and instead, bully them into thinking they cannot talk about God in "public" places, we only cause confusion in a world that is already filled with chaos. So where do we go from here? I say go to Jesus. He understands how we are feeling because he loves us so deeply that he died for us. Talk with his mother, Mary as well. She knows the pain of the loss of a child. God does bring comfort to those in need. There was a story about one of the staff at Sandy Hook who survived the shooting. She says that she spent the entirety of the ordeal in a closet with two other people and they prayed the Lord's Prayer out loud; in a public school no less. Let's lift our voices in prayer for all of the families in the world who are suffering because of violence. This tragedy should definitely motivate us to effect change.
Born during the turbulent era of the French Revolution, Saint Jeanne Jugan rose above hardship and a lack of formal schooling to become a profound vessel of Christ’s mercy. After losing her father at a young age and working through her youth as a kitchen maid and nurse, her life radically changed one freezing night when she encountered a blind, paralyzed elderly woman with nowhere to go. Jeanne carried the woman back to her own home, placed her in her own bed, and began a lifelong mission of radical hospitality. This act of profound love blossomed into the Little Sisters of the Poor , a thriving community dedicated to sheltering and honoring the destitute elderly. Despite later facing heavy trials—including being unjustly sidelined and stripped of her leadership by a controlling chaplain—Jeanne accepted her obscurity and exile with a joyful spirit, resting her complete trust in God's hidden providence until her death in 1879. In our daily lives, Saint Jeanne Jugan invites us to lo...