Bless - December 14, 2018

Photo from CNN.com

This season of Advent is one of my favorites of the liturgical year and one of the favorites of almost all the families of this part of the world, since in addition to preparing for Christmas, the tree is bought, the house is decorated and the purchase of gifts for friends and family. It can be a time of stress and at the same time one of happiness since we want to show our love to others with a gift.

During this time six years ago, a tragedy took place that tore at our souls, the killing of mostly children and some adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

How can one forget that day? The uncertainty, the fear and the sadness that invaded our homes. To find hope, rebirth, understanding, after such tragedy without God would be impossible.

We asked ourselves where God was at that moment? How did he allow that to happen? Maybe we were even angry with Him.

How to bless God in those moments of difficulty, of impotence? How can we do it? How would those parents or children who had lost their relatives that day on December 14, one so close to Christmas?

I can only say that those innocent children were welcomed into the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they are surely praising Hosanna in the highest next to the angels in heaven.

Whenever we experience happy things or sad and tragic events, we should bless the Lord and have a psalm, hymn or prayer that helps us to be very connected spiritually with our God.

We should trust that He, the creator of everything we see and do not see, loves us and awaits us with open arms even if we do not understand why things happen

My favorite psalm in these times of sorrow is Psalm 103-1: 2

"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits "...

This psalm fills my soul with tenderness and although I am sad or angry or happy, it does me good and I know that God loves me.

In this Advent we must be prepared with His word by incorporating it into our everyday lives, so that by blessing others, we obtain our own blessings. Amen.

Post byRoxana Videla Olivares

Esta estacion de adviento es una de mis favoritas del año liturgico y una de las favoritas de casi todas las familias de esta parte del mundo, ya que ademas de prepararnos para la navidad, se compra el arbol, se decora la casa y se hace la compra de los regalos para amigos y familiares. Es una epoca de cierto estres y a la vez de felicidad ya que queremos demostrar nuestro amor a los demas con un presente.

En medio de todo este clima, hace seis años atras sucedio una tragedia que nos desgarro el alma, la matanza de los niños y algunas personas mayores en la escuela elemental Sandy Hook, en Newtown CT.

Como olvidar ese dia, la incertumbre, el miedo y la tristeza que invadio nuestros hogares. Como encontrar en medio de todo eso la esperanza, el renacer, el entendimiento, sin Dios seria imposible.

Nos preguntamos donde estaba Dios en ese momento, como permitio que eso sucediera, nos enojamos quiza con El.

Como bendecir a Dios en esos momentos de dificultad, de impotencia?,  como podemos hacerlo?, como lo harian esos padres o hijos que habian perdido a sus familiares? ese dia 14 de diciembre, tan cercano a la Navidad, dia de alegria y reuniones familiares.

Solo puedo decir que esos niños inocentes fueron recibidos en los brazos de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, y seguramente estan alabando Hossana en la alturas! junto a los angeles en el cielo.

Cada vez que nos sucedan cosas alegres o muy tristes y tragicas bendigamos al Señor, tengamos un salmo o himno u oracion que nos ayude a estar muy conectados espiritualmente con nuestro Dios.

El creador de todo lo que vemos y no vemos y que aunque no entendamos por que suceden las cosas confiemos en que El nos ama y nos espera con los brazos abiertos.

Mi salmo favorito en estos casos es el 103-1:2

“Bendice alma mia al Señor, y bendiga todo mi ser su santo nombre.

Bendice, alma mia, al Señor y no olvides ninguno de sus beneficios”…

Eso llena mi alma de ternura y aunque este triste o enojada o feliz, me hace bien y se que a Dios le agrada.

En este adviento estemos preparados con su palabra incorparada cada dia en nuestras vidas, de manera que bendiciendo obtengamos bendicion.

Amen. -

Remembering Sandy Hook

The power of the wicked shall be broken. (Ps. 37:17)

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. From students, teachers, and administrators to first responders, parents, and community members, people across society were forced, then and afterward, to respond to an unprecedented hatred, hatred that should never have had recourse to a firearm, hatred that should never have inflicted itself on a living being.

That hatred drove people to the most violent, harrowing ends of human experience, ends that are now unbearably all-too-familiar, judging by the news and our society’s collective reactions to similar tragedies: grieve, move on quick, and let it be, we are told—this is just how the world works.

But on that day and in the weeks, months, and years that followed, we witnessed bravery and love beyond all telling in the face of that hatred: children who encouraged their classmates to flee, teachers who gave their lives that their students might live, parents who devoted themselves to reducing gun violence in schools and communities.

Even so, there is an ever-present temptation to give in to the insistence that we let it be. The challenges before us may seem too large, the obstacles too many. But that awful beauty in midst of terror, the divine light that shines in the darkness which the darkness cannot overcome, should give us hope that God can make a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Is. 43:16, 19).

God does not grace us with witnessing bravery and love just for us to gaze upon bravery and love from afar and admire those qualities in others. Still less does God bless us and have us share this earth with people who embody those virtues just so we can remember them in eloquent eulogies and lament them and their untimely passing.

God means for us to take up those virtues ourselves and live them out in our own lives—in the words of the letter to the Ephesians, to take up the whole armor of God, so that we may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Bravery and love are virtues that exist for more than just the extremes of human experience; they are gifts that God gives us through the Holy Spirit that we cultivate little by little throughout our daily lives.

What that looks like will vary from person to person, but in all of us who seek to follow Jesus, that means a stubborn resistance, no matter the odds, to the temptation that lulls us into making peace with—or worse, embracing—evil, in even the smallest of ways. In all of us who seek to follow Jesus, that means an unfailing heart for those whom, as we hear at Lessons and Carols throughout this month, God particularly loves: the poor and helpless, the cold, the hungry and oppressed, the sick and those who mourn, the lonely and unloved, the aged and little children, as well as all those who do not know and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

This day, as we remember those who lost their lives and those who gave them, I invite you to set aside five minutes to pray for bravery to contend with evil and injustice, and for love to heal hatred and make us friends with God and one another. May our God act through us, in us, and with us, so that the power of the wicked may be broken.

Post by Armando Ghinaglia

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Image labeled for reuse with modification from June Mita Photography: https://www.flickr.com/photos/junie_moon_photoshare/7659087176

Remembering Sandy Hook

Photograph by Madeline Pantalena

By Madeline Pantalena

This is the playground at PS 166, an elementary school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This is where I was when I found out about the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

I had just picked the three boys I nannied for up from school, after noticing that the street around the school, and the school itself, was crawling with police officers. I couldn’t figure out why—but since they were not in the playground, only outside the fence, and the day was warm enough for December, I acquiesced to the boys’ request to play for a while after school.

While watching the boys play, trying to keep track of them in the morass of screaming, happy children, I got a text from my mother telling me what had happened. Surrounded by joyful, playing children who had no idea continue to run and play, I burst into tears.

How unfair, to know that hope has been extinguished for whole families, for a whole community, while standing surrounded by childhood hope only an hour away.  

As I’ve wrestled with the loss my Connecticut community suffered on this day four years ago, I always return to the playground at PS166. I spent countless hours there—nursing boo-boos, holding coats and backpacks, arbitrating whose turn it was on the monkey bars—that I can still see it clear as day in my mind’s eye. Playgrounds are hopeful places. They are where children learn some of the most important lessons of life: how to work out disagreements, how to share, how to be better humans.

I hope, and feel we all must hope, that this tragedy remains an aberration, not the start of a trend. That the memories of the victims inspire hope for a better future, with better gun control and better treatment for mental illness, rather than inspiring bitterness and divisiveness.

Pray with me today in remembrance for those lost but never forgotten, and for hope, for a world where children can play on playgrounds, blissfully unaware that anyone might ever want to hurt them. Where their joy and hope can infect grown-ups near and far, helping us to learn how to be better humans, too.