DC Gunman shoots at all of us

Statue of Jesus in Rio

The Way through this World 

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom
nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon
us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so
pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Was this really happening again….

That’s all I could think as the news shot through me yesterday.   

I felt numb and unresponsive.  Questions spoke inside me.  

The Navy Yard?  With that security? 

How in the world could this have happened at the Navy Yard? 

I am numb to the words—“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who died.”  That benediction feels empty and void, so helpless for the ones who got the dreaded news. 

I have only reached that place where what happens in this world does not have to define me and how I live.  The Prayer Book offers the way through this world.  Faith, the act of faith….it provides us that Ruler and Guide that leads through a world that shutters with violence and then goes back to bring us tomorrow.  Is that just as empty as “prayers and thoughts for the family?”  Perhaps.  But it means that we who are still alive have a mission and purpose bigger than life itself, that the most infinitesimal act of love carries us through this world to the next….where we shall hear together, that we have passed through “the great tribulation”  and  “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: 

and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”  (Rev. 7: 14-17

 The Book of Common Prayer