It's been a long week in Boston. It will take time to process all that's happened.
No one in my family, no loved one, no friend was harmed. Some I know, not in my inner circle, are affected, but I feel extremely blessed that all is safe and sound in this house.
The Marathon is part of every Bostonians' life. We are not runners, but we know plenty who are. IN the past we've gone to cheer people along. I'm not a lover of crowds so I rarely go. Last year, we were traveling south to Maryland while some good friends ran in extreme heat. Texting, calling kept us posted on what was happening. As if a prelude to the following years, lots of people were injured due to the heat ...and that was the story, the breaking news.
The story this year is radically different. Monday night our Compassionate Friends group met as scheduled. We sat for a time in silence. Our own loss is always present, but what took our breath away was knowing the agony of those who lost a child that day. How do you cross over and tell them they will survive? How do you assure them they can go on? Even still, I need reminders of that, but I've had moments when I've believed it and can fall back on them. But in the early moments of horror ...that's all there is ....the sheer horror and disbelief. We gathered and knew, all of us, the agonizing horror people were, would be experiencing. Pray for them, please.
It is so, so hard to make sense out of things and why God would allow them to happen. Our faith is challenged, our whole lives change, we live by different rules, know a different reality. How would God allow an innocent event to turn evil?
And our priests reach out to guide parents and families through the ugliness, they hold on to the faith when we can't carry it ourselves. Right now, one priest is present round the clock for a family affected by loss and injury ...devastation. Along with that, several other parish concerns are under his care. He is a good friend of two very dear friends of ours. He's offered several Masses for our beloved Phoebe, and though we are remote to him, he has reached out, checked in to see if we are okay and if there is anything he could do for us. I can only imagine his care for this family ...and his parish, deeply affected by all that's happened. Pray for them please.
Pray for this priest, because while he tends and shepherds so well, he grieves too ...he's lost something very dear.
