And what has been done to our children?  We watched as horror unfolded in Connecticut on Friday.  Little ones … believers in the magic of Christmas … still clinging to the hope that there is a Santa Claus … the innocent ones … whole lives ahead of them … and teachers who lost their lives as well … teachers of truth and goodness to the young ones … how can we anymore stand by and idly watch as these violent episodes happen in our country over and over again? 

Great God of Advent and Christmas, rend our own hearts in the midst of such violence and pain.  Shatter our complacency.  Give us the strength to stand up and be counted.  Help us to pray deeply.  Help us to reach out in every way humanly possible at this time.  Let us not spare ourselves in the effort.  These children are ours … these children are yours. Incarnation is real and is in our midst.  Let us not miss it enclosed in selfish little worlds.  Give us hearts of largesse and tears that cleanse and heal.  And bless all the little ones you have so recently received into your Reign of Love.  May their innocence do something to change our hardened hearts so that we lay down our weapons of violence and extend the olive branch of peace.  Amen.