PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
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PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
This morning a 20 year old man from (currently) Hoboken, NJ walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and massacred 26 people 20 of whom were 6 and 7 year old children. He got through a security protocol which requires all to be buzzed in a locked door while being viewed on camera. He was wearing military flak and had 4 weapons, . He then walked into 2 classrooms, one a kindergarten classroom and started firing. 27 people dead, including the shooter, (committed suicide after his horrendous rampage). In addition a home nearby with connections to this madman, a body was found - police are still investigating the identity of the deceased in the home-news reports elude to it may be the shooters mother. He supposedly graduated from Sandy Hook HS.
At this time - while this news is so raw - I can't even find words to write - can bearly see through tears.
At this time which is supposed to be the happiest and most giving and sharing time of the year - there are many people who may never think that this time of year is happy again.
God Bless all who perished, and take them - all of these tiny children and the adults who were also killed into your paradise of L.O.V.E and LIGHT and pour into the grieving the strength and ability to know hope and happiness again. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
To all who lost their lives RIP
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At this time - while this news is so raw - I can't even find words to write - can bearly see through tears.
At this time which is supposed to be the happiest and most giving and sharing time of the year - there are many people who may never think that this time of year is happy again.
God Bless all who perished, and take them - all of these tiny children and the adults who were also killed into your paradise of L.O.V.E and LIGHT and pour into the grieving the strength and ability to know hope and happiness again. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
To all who lost their lives RIP
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Last edited by Admin on Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:52 am; edited 4 times in total
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Update: The shooters mother worked at this same school and the Justice Dept. believes she is who was found dead in a nearby home. This incident is the 2nd deadliest shooting in the history of the USA.
God Save Us
God Save Us
Last edited by Admin on Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Update: The father is not dead-he is being questioned by the Jersey police. The killer stole his brother's ID which made it difficult for awhile to get the maniacs name right.
Dear God this is beyond tragic, it is truly a horrific nightmare. Also a body found in the woods behind this school. The news reporters on scene say this death count is mounting. Reporting as well that all other children when being led out of the school were instructed to cover their eyes and were taken out by their teachers and SWAT and local PD. CT Governor to do a presser in a few minutes.
Dear God this is beyond tragic, it is truly a horrific nightmare. Also a body found in the woods behind this school. The news reporters on scene say this death count is mounting. Reporting as well that all other children when being led out of the school were instructed to cover their eyes and were taken out by their teachers and SWAT and local PD. CT Governor to do a presser in a few minutes.
Last edited by Admin on Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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This is absolutely horrific. I don't even know what to say. My prayers are with the families of these children.
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WeAreTheWorld.- Posts : 1967
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
President Obama just spoke to our Country, his words were few as he choked back tears. He is a good man and father and feels this sadness and pain as we all do. The US Flag has been lowered to half staff at the White House.
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Local authorities and the CT Governor just held a presser-are working with Jersey officials-are reporting also in Hobeken from the crime scene there-a brother of the shooter in NJ is in custody. Reporting also that the police did not shoot the gunman-so he committed suicide in the school.
The families of the fallen request to be left alone by the press today and for the days to come. The police in Newtown CT will hold another press briefing in 60 minutes with further info.
The families of the fallen request to be left alone by the press today and for the days to come. The police in Newtown CT will hold another press briefing in 60 minutes with further info.
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Movie shooting last summer, mall shooting a few days ago now this? May God have mercy!
midangerous- Posts : 3098
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The video of President Obama speaking from the WH today
Here is video of President Obama speaking from the WH today:
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Girls, what can I say? I am from Argentina, but I feel your pain as if it had happened in my country. Those poor, little children....it is devastating to hear the news on TV and the web. All of them are in my prayers, God bless them all.
The only thing I can think of, is that if Michael had been here, in some days he would have visited the school and talked to the children. He would have been really shocked at this.
President Obama was so moved by this tragedy, he couldn't even speak...
It is a very sad day for humanity.
L.O.V.E.
The only thing I can think of, is that if Michael had been here, in some days he would have visited the school and talked to the children. He would have been really shocked at this.
President Obama was so moved by this tragedy, he couldn't even speak...
It is a very sad day for humanity.
L.O.V.E.
May Michael Jackson- Posts : 345
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
There will be a memorial service in Newtown CT which will be airing soon on Fox News (FNC) and likely all cable news networks.
Sadness today all around the planet for this horrible killing of these little innocent children and 6 teachers at the school.
Prayers up to Heaven for all affected near and far.
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Sadness today all around the planet for this horrible killing of these little innocent children and 6 teachers at the school.
Prayers up to Heaven for all affected near and far.
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Last edited by Admin on Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:15 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
The President ordered every Federal and all Government buildings nationwide to fly the US Flag at half staff through this Tuesday out of respect and in mourning for all the fallen and for all suffering today in CT and throughout the Country.
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I have a niece and a nephew around the ages of these children, my heart goes out to the parents.
midangerous- Posts : 3098
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Google put this on their page at the bottom (if you go to google-look at bottom of page and roll your cursor over to see their comment to the CT people:
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Keep praying for the fallen and their poor families please
Never Forget the 20 little children and all their teachers and Principal
.
Never Forget the 20 little children and all their teachers and Principal
.
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Thanks May MJ for your kind sentiments.
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Newtown CT is having another vigil right now-see cable news channels-
President Obama travels to CT tomorrow to pay his respects! This makes me feel so good that he is doing this!
God Bless all the affected people in Newtown CT and May God Bless America and the World for all their support they are showing these poor people to help them get through this terrible trauma!
President Obama travels to CT tomorrow to pay his respects! This makes me feel so good that he is doing this!
God Bless all the affected people in Newtown CT and May God Bless America and the World for all their support they are showing these poor people to help them get through this terrible trauma!
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Let's remember the victims tonight :
-- Charlotte Bacon, Female, 02-22-06
-- Daniel Barden, Male, 09-25-05
-- Rachel Davino, Female, 07-17-83
-- Olivia Engel, Female, 07-18-06
-- Josephine Gay, Female, 12-11-05
-- Ana Marquez-Greene, Female, 04-04-06
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-- Charlotte Bacon, Female, 02-22-06
-- Daniel Barden, Male, 09-25-05
-- Rachel Davino, Female, 07-17-83
-- Olivia Engel, Female, 07-18-06
-- Josephine Gay, Female, 12-11-05
-- Ana Marquez-Greene, Female, 04-04-06
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midangerous- Posts : 3098
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Names and ages of the 26 people gunned down at a Connecticut elementary school Friday in the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history:
RIP
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Rachel Davino, 29
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Dawn Hochsprung, 47
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Lauren Rousseau, 30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria Soto,27
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Source: Connecticut State Police
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Mourners gather inside the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church at a vigil service for victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting. (Photo by Andrew Gombert-Pool/Getty Images)
Copyright Getty Images
May all who have been taken from us on Earth, be welcomed into God's Loving Arms
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RIP dear ones.
midangerous- Posts : 3098
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
President Obama will attend and speak to the community at an Interfaith Vigil in Newtown, CT today at 7PM EST - 4PM PST - will be aired live on cable channels ~
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I have CNN on tv all day-so sad to hear all these details. Just heartbreaking. I will be watching President Obama at the vigil for sure that starts in about 20 minutes or so.
Capricious Anomaly- Posts : 1446
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Here are some pictures of the 26 christmas trees that were donated by an anonymous NC donor in memory of the 26 precious children and teachers whose lives were lost in this horrible tragedy. God bless them, their families, and the entire Newtown CT area.
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WeAreTheWorld.- Posts : 1967
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I'm awaiting the vigil tonight. RIP sweet angels!
midangerous- Posts : 3098
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Re: PRAYERS LIFTING UPWARD TO HEAVEN FOR GOD'S LOVE & STRENGTH FOR THE CT VICTIMS & FAMILIES
Still waiting for Pres Obama, they say he has been meeting with the families. I can't imagine how hard this must be for him to do this, I pray for our President to be strong to help to uplift these poor heartbroken families.
My heart is aching for them all
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My heart is aching for them all
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Connecticut school shooting: Question of 'Why' and 'How' fill pews in Newtown
NEWTOWN, Conn. —
Connecticut school shooting: Question of 'Why' and 'How' fill pews in Newtown
Written by Associated Press
Dec 16, 2012
Six-year-old Jennifer Waters came to Mass on Sunday at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church with a lot of questions.
“The little children, are they with the angels?” she asked her mother as she fiddled with a small plastic Sonic the Hedgehog figurine on a pew near the back of the church. “Are they going to live with the angels?”
All across this postcard-perfect New England town, children and adults alike had questions: How could a merciful and just God allow something like Friday's massacre at the Sandy Hook School, which claimed the lives of 20 children — none older than 7 — and six teachers?
Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel wanted to make one thing clear to the classmates of 6-year-old victim Noah Pozner: “This is not an act of God. This is an act of a crazy man.”
As police work to learn why 20-year-old Adam Lanza would kill his mother and attack his old elementary school, residents of this close-knit town of 27,000 sought solace in each other's company and in the presence of God.
The Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, rector at Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street, was at the Sandy Hook firehouse with the families who lost children and has conducted services and counseling sessions since. Her church will host two children's funerals this week, but on Sunday she projected calm as she spoke of questions unanswerable “in human terms.”
She began a sermon with thanks in many directions — for far-flung clergy “who just got in the cars and drove here to help,” for congregation members who pitched in, for the town's first responders who rushed to the school. Her own son is a firefighter who was there.
She called for prayers for all of them, for those injured — and for the gunman's family — but most for the families of “those lovely little children now gone from this place and their teachers who shielded them.”
“Your tears and questions of faith have moved me,” Adams-Shepherd said in a quiet voice. She told of receiving innumerable calls and emails, mentioning in particular a 16-year-old church member who urged all not to lose faith.
“Was God absent from our world on Friday? Indeed not,” she said, citing the people all over the world moved by Newtown's ordeal and “flocking to churches and temples and mosques.”
The shooting was in prayers at congregations in other U.S. towns. At Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn, N.J., for instance, the congregation stood, held hands and sang the Sunday School staple, “Jesus loves the little children” — and many, weeping, put their arms around their own children, even if they were now adults.
A theologian once counseled “not to give simple solutions to life's tragedies” like the school massacre, Adams-Shepherd noted. “It is inexplicable in human terms.”
“None of us will find answers alone to this unfathomable crisis,” she said. “Keep loving and praying.”
Later in the service, saying “we pray especially for,” Adams-Shepherd slowly read the victims' first names, which echoed off the tall gothic arches and stained-glass windows of the small stone church.
Across town at Saint Rose, an overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service.
Lanza and his mother, Nancy, worshipped there, and the son attended the Saint Rose school for a time. Now, the church staff are preparing for eight children's funerals later this week.
Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on window sills. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one in the shape of a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.
The Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, officiated. Letters of condolence from the pope and Archbishop William Lori, who left the Bridgeport diocese this year to become archbishop in Baltimore, were read at the start of Mass.
In his homily, Doyle tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.
“You won't remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”
At Adath Israel, nestled in a remote an area of stone walls, rolling hills and woods, people slowly approached the simple cedar-shake structure as a light, cold rain fell. They filed past a blue-and-gold “Happy Hanukkah” banner and a bronze tablet honoring those lost in the Nazi Holocaust.
“We are forever grateful to those who fight tyranny, to our country, and to this wonderful community for allowing us to gather here and practice our faith in peace,” the plaque read.
Sunday classes went on as planned at the temple, but without Rabbi Praver. He was meeting with Noah's family to planning the boy's funeral.
A police officer kept watch over the parking lot, but congregation president Andrew Paley crossed the road to speak to the media.
Paley's twin sons, fourth-graders, were at the school — one in the art room, the other in the gym. They heard the shots, saw the bodies.
Saturday was the last night of Hanukkah, and the boys celebrated at home with family. Paley has shielded them from news reports, but he said there are lessons to be had from this tragedy.
“The message, if anything, is that there is good that comes out of evil,” he said. “It's the heroism and the community strength that's really coming forward here in Newtown. We're a small-knit community. The Jewish community is smaller. But we all are all together in this.”
After Mass, Joan and Jennifer Waters stopped by a makeshift memorial of votive candles, flowers and stuffed animals to pray the “Our Father.”
“Can we get these?” Jennifer asked her mother.
“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.
“Who died?” her daughter asked.
“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.
As for Jennifer's earlier question, her mother assured her that they were surely in heaven.
“Was God absent from our world on Friday? Indeed not,” she said, citing the people all over the world moved by Newtown's ordeal and “flocking to churches and temples and mosques.”
The shooting was in prayers at congregations in other U.S. towns. At Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn, N.J., for instance, the congregation stood, held hands and sang the Sunday School staple, “Jesus loves the little children” — and many, weeping, put their arms around their own children, even if they were now adults.
A theologian once counseled “not to give simple solutions to life's tragedies” like the school massacre, Adams-Shepherd noted. “It is inexplicable in human terms.”
“None of us will find answers alone to this unfathomable crisis,” she said. “Keep loving and praying.”
Later in the service, saying “we pray especially for,” Adams-Shepherd slowly read the victims' first names, which echoed off the tall gothic arches and stained-glass windows of the small stone church.
Across town at Saint Rose, an overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service.
Lanza and his mother, Nancy, worshipped there, and the son attended the Saint Rose school for a time. Now, the church staff are preparing for eight children's funerals later this week.
Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on window sills. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one in the shape of a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.
The Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, officiated. Letters of condolence from the pope and Archbishop William Lori, who left the Bridgeport diocese this year to become archbishop in Baltimore, were read at the start of Mass.
In his homily, Doyle tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.
“You won't remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”
At Adath Israel, nestled in a remote an area of stone walls, rolling hills and woods, people slowly approached the simple cedar-shake structure as a light, cold rain fell. They filed past a blue-and-gold “Happy Hanukkah” banner and a bronze tablet honoring those lost in the Nazi Holocaust.
“We are forever grateful to those who fight tyranny, to our country, and to this wonderful community for allowing us to gather here and practice our faith in peace,” the plaque read.
Sunday classes went on as planned at the temple, but without Rabbi Praver. He was meeting with Noah's family to planning the boy's funeral.
A police officer kept watch over the parking lot, but congregation president Andrew Paley crossed the road to speak to the media.
Paley's twin sons, fourth-graders, were at the school — one in the art room, the other in the gym. They heard the shots, saw the bodies.
Saturday was the last night of Hanukkah, and the boys celebrated at home with family. Paley has shielded them from news reports, but he said there are lessons to be had from this tragedy.
“The message, if anything, is that there is good that comes out of evil,” he said. “It's the heroism and the community strength that's really coming forward here in Newtown. We're a small-knit community. The Jewish community is smaller. But we all are all together in this.”
After Mass, Joan and Jennifer Waters stopped by a makeshift memorial of votive candles, flowers and stuffed animals to pray the “Our Father.”
“Can we get these?” Jennifer asked her mother.
“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.
“Who died?” her daughter asked.
“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.
As for Jennifer's earlier question, her mother assured her that they were surely in heaven.
picture:
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A woman hugs a young girl as they arrive for services at Trinity Church, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. / Jason DeCrow / AP Photo
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Connecticut school shooting: Question of 'Why' and 'How' fill pews in Newtown
Written by Associated Press
Dec 16, 2012
Six-year-old Jennifer Waters came to Mass on Sunday at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church with a lot of questions.
“The little children, are they with the angels?” she asked her mother as she fiddled with a small plastic Sonic the Hedgehog figurine on a pew near the back of the church. “Are they going to live with the angels?”
All across this postcard-perfect New England town, children and adults alike had questions: How could a merciful and just God allow something like Friday's massacre at the Sandy Hook School, which claimed the lives of 20 children — none older than 7 — and six teachers?
Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel wanted to make one thing clear to the classmates of 6-year-old victim Noah Pozner: “This is not an act of God. This is an act of a crazy man.”
As police work to learn why 20-year-old Adam Lanza would kill his mother and attack his old elementary school, residents of this close-knit town of 27,000 sought solace in each other's company and in the presence of God.
The Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, rector at Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street, was at the Sandy Hook firehouse with the families who lost children and has conducted services and counseling sessions since. Her church will host two children's funerals this week, but on Sunday she projected calm as she spoke of questions unanswerable “in human terms.”
She began a sermon with thanks in many directions — for far-flung clergy “who just got in the cars and drove here to help,” for congregation members who pitched in, for the town's first responders who rushed to the school. Her own son is a firefighter who was there.
She called for prayers for all of them, for those injured — and for the gunman's family — but most for the families of “those lovely little children now gone from this place and their teachers who shielded them.”
“Your tears and questions of faith have moved me,” Adams-Shepherd said in a quiet voice. She told of receiving innumerable calls and emails, mentioning in particular a 16-year-old church member who urged all not to lose faith.
“Was God absent from our world on Friday? Indeed not,” she said, citing the people all over the world moved by Newtown's ordeal and “flocking to churches and temples and mosques.”
The shooting was in prayers at congregations in other U.S. towns. At Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn, N.J., for instance, the congregation stood, held hands and sang the Sunday School staple, “Jesus loves the little children” — and many, weeping, put their arms around their own children, even if they were now adults.
A theologian once counseled “not to give simple solutions to life's tragedies” like the school massacre, Adams-Shepherd noted. “It is inexplicable in human terms.”
“None of us will find answers alone to this unfathomable crisis,” she said. “Keep loving and praying.”
Later in the service, saying “we pray especially for,” Adams-Shepherd slowly read the victims' first names, which echoed off the tall gothic arches and stained-glass windows of the small stone church.
Across town at Saint Rose, an overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service.
Lanza and his mother, Nancy, worshipped there, and the son attended the Saint Rose school for a time. Now, the church staff are preparing for eight children's funerals later this week.
Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on window sills. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one in the shape of a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.
The Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, officiated. Letters of condolence from the pope and Archbishop William Lori, who left the Bridgeport diocese this year to become archbishop in Baltimore, were read at the start of Mass.
In his homily, Doyle tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.
“You won't remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”
At Adath Israel, nestled in a remote an area of stone walls, rolling hills and woods, people slowly approached the simple cedar-shake structure as a light, cold rain fell. They filed past a blue-and-gold “Happy Hanukkah” banner and a bronze tablet honoring those lost in the Nazi Holocaust.
“We are forever grateful to those who fight tyranny, to our country, and to this wonderful community for allowing us to gather here and practice our faith in peace,” the plaque read.
Sunday classes went on as planned at the temple, but without Rabbi Praver. He was meeting with Noah's family to planning the boy's funeral.
A police officer kept watch over the parking lot, but congregation president Andrew Paley crossed the road to speak to the media.
Paley's twin sons, fourth-graders, were at the school — one in the art room, the other in the gym. They heard the shots, saw the bodies.
Saturday was the last night of Hanukkah, and the boys celebrated at home with family. Paley has shielded them from news reports, but he said there are lessons to be had from this tragedy.
“The message, if anything, is that there is good that comes out of evil,” he said. “It's the heroism and the community strength that's really coming forward here in Newtown. We're a small-knit community. The Jewish community is smaller. But we all are all together in this.”
After Mass, Joan and Jennifer Waters stopped by a makeshift memorial of votive candles, flowers and stuffed animals to pray the “Our Father.”
“Can we get these?” Jennifer asked her mother.
“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.
“Who died?” her daughter asked.
“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.
As for Jennifer's earlier question, her mother assured her that they were surely in heaven.
“Was God absent from our world on Friday? Indeed not,” she said, citing the people all over the world moved by Newtown's ordeal and “flocking to churches and temples and mosques.”
The shooting was in prayers at congregations in other U.S. towns. At Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn, N.J., for instance, the congregation stood, held hands and sang the Sunday School staple, “Jesus loves the little children” — and many, weeping, put their arms around their own children, even if they were now adults.
A theologian once counseled “not to give simple solutions to life's tragedies” like the school massacre, Adams-Shepherd noted. “It is inexplicable in human terms.”
“None of us will find answers alone to this unfathomable crisis,” she said. “Keep loving and praying.”
Later in the service, saying “we pray especially for,” Adams-Shepherd slowly read the victims' first names, which echoed off the tall gothic arches and stained-glass windows of the small stone church.
Across town at Saint Rose, an overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service.
Lanza and his mother, Nancy, worshipped there, and the son attended the Saint Rose school for a time. Now, the church staff are preparing for eight children's funerals later this week.
Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on window sills. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one in the shape of a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.
The Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, officiated. Letters of condolence from the pope and Archbishop William Lori, who left the Bridgeport diocese this year to become archbishop in Baltimore, were read at the start of Mass.
In his homily, Doyle tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.
“You won't remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”
At Adath Israel, nestled in a remote an area of stone walls, rolling hills and woods, people slowly approached the simple cedar-shake structure as a light, cold rain fell. They filed past a blue-and-gold “Happy Hanukkah” banner and a bronze tablet honoring those lost in the Nazi Holocaust.
“We are forever grateful to those who fight tyranny, to our country, and to this wonderful community for allowing us to gather here and practice our faith in peace,” the plaque read.
Sunday classes went on as planned at the temple, but without Rabbi Praver. He was meeting with Noah's family to planning the boy's funeral.
A police officer kept watch over the parking lot, but congregation president Andrew Paley crossed the road to speak to the media.
Paley's twin sons, fourth-graders, were at the school — one in the art room, the other in the gym. They heard the shots, saw the bodies.
Saturday was the last night of Hanukkah, and the boys celebrated at home with family. Paley has shielded them from news reports, but he said there are lessons to be had from this tragedy.
“The message, if anything, is that there is good that comes out of evil,” he said. “It's the heroism and the community strength that's really coming forward here in Newtown. We're a small-knit community. The Jewish community is smaller. But we all are all together in this.”
After Mass, Joan and Jennifer Waters stopped by a makeshift memorial of votive candles, flowers and stuffed animals to pray the “Our Father.”
“Can we get these?” Jennifer asked her mother.
“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.
“Who died?” her daughter asked.
“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.
As for Jennifer's earlier question, her mother assured her that they were surely in heaven.
picture:
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A woman hugs a young girl as they arrive for services at Trinity Church, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. / Jason DeCrow / AP Photo
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