We’re still sifting through the senselessness of an impossible jigsaw, and it’s far too early to begin to start sorting it out, yet alone to begin to put it together.

We are here to stand alongside one another this morning simply to begin sifting in our minds, in our prayers, in our silence and even in our daring to hope.

The dastardly acts at New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, and wherever they were given their unworthy birth, have torn into our minds and hearts the world over because almost all of us seem to have someone we know, or someone who knows another, who was there.

Our hearts go out in love and sympathy to the Clifford family here in Cork, whose name we can say only because we already know;

and to those whose thousands of names we have not yet heard and may never hear;

to those who are waiting without knowing;

and to all who will never be the same again.

“Weep with those who weep…” said that great follower of the Christian way, Saint Paul: and several thoughts later he gave this enormous challenge:

“Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
(Letter of Paul to the Romans 12)

So when we speak of resolve, let us mean to start with ourselves;

to be together at this cataclysmic, defining moment,

to bridge unimportant differences which this horror puts in their place,

let us mean to renew our vision for peace in our own hearts and living space;

and let us determine not to pass on our bitternesses to our children;

but rather to work to understand people whom we think are different.

All this and so much more that we cannot begin to say, when we prefer to be silent, let us draw together as we reach out to the God whom Jesus told us to call “Father”, and say…

Our Father…