December 14th Sandy Hook

December 14th

Remember the names of children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary thirteen years ago, on December 14th, 2012.

“Holding these persons in our broken-open hearts, we are less likely to forget.”—“Advent Message for Today,” from St. Mary’s Cathedral, Memphis.

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jesica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

Rachel Davino, 29 (Teacher)

Dawn Hochsprung, 47 (School Principal)

Nancy Lanza, 52 (Mother of the gunman)

Anne Marie Murphy, 52 (Teacher)

Lauren Rousseau, 30 (Teacher)

Mary Sherlach, 56 (School psychologist)

Victoria Soto, 27 (Teacher)

Adam Lanza (shooter)

 “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”—Elie Wiesel.

This “Advent Meditation for Today” from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis lists the names of the children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School thirteen years ago. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, keeps reminding us in his writings, which live on after him, that remembering those who have died, especially their names, helps us keep them alive. These “Holy Innocents” call us to keep their memory alive, as well as the memory of so many others, to remind us how guns and assault weapons are out of control in our country. These children and their teachers cry out for us to remember the lives they will never have.

As we pray for peace this Advent, may we pray for courage, sacrifice, forgiveness, compassion, and discernment to answer this question for our country. May we be guided by what we can learn from so many other countries that have found solutions to this issue.

So, what do the children and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School have to do with our spiritual lives? The God of love calls us daily to spread the love we learn as we connect to the God within ourselves and God in our neighbor. We know our God grieves with all these children and their families. God’s love also calls us to connect in some unknown way to their grief. Our love and grief call us to honor those who have died by working to prevent such acts of violence. Discernment and action are just as important parts of the spiritual life as prayer, silence, contemplation, and forgiveness.

St. Lucy December 13

St. Lucy, December 13th

“Santa Lucia, thy light is glowing

Through darkest winter night, comfort bestowing.

Dreams float on dreams tonight,

Comes then the morning light,

Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.”—Swedish Children’s Folk Song.

Today, December 13th, in the darkest hours of the morning (2 a.m. to 4 a.m.), in Sweden and Norway, the eldest daughter of a family wearing a white gown, a red sash, and a crown of lingonberry twigs and seven burning candles on her head emerged out of the darkness carrying a tray of rich saffron buns and steaming coffee to wake up her family. Every village also has its own Lucy, who goes from one farm to the next carrying a torch to light her way, bringing cookies and buns at each house, and returning home by daybreak.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner for literature often has the honor of lighting the candles on the head of Lucy for the city of Stockholm. Throughout Sweden, they celebrate the feast day of Lucy as a festival of lights with bonfires, incense, and candlelight parades. It is a mystery how honoring St. Lucy became so widespread in Scandinavia, given that Lucy was a native of Sicily. The tradition of honoring Lucy may have originated among the Vikings in Sweden. They traveled south on peaceful trading expeditions to Italy and brought back the stories of the early Christian martyr Lucia.

December 13th is one of the shortest days of the year. In popular piety, Lucy is perhaps most revered because her feast day was, for many centuries, the shortest day of the year. (The calendar reform by Pope Gregory VIII (1582) would shift the shortest day to December 21/22, depending upon the year.) On Lucy’s day, the light gradually returned, and the days lengthened. This was particularly powerful in northern Europe, where winter days were relatively short.

Therefore, the Scandinavians honor a young Sicilian girl, Lucy, whose name means “light,” during the darkest part of their year, as light is about to return. It is all a mystery, but the tradition is beautiful.

I especially remember this day because two friends who carried the light of Christ to so many people died on this day, seven years apart. So, in my prayers on St. Lucy’s Day, I remembered special friends who have brought light out of darkness to so many, and I treasured especially those in my own life who showed me the light in times of darkness.

My Advent prayer on St. Lucy’s Day is to remember those who brought the light of Christ, the light of God, and the light of the Spirit to us.

St. Lucy Day is an Advent tradition that the Scandinavians have given us to remember the light that shines in our darkness.

We can also bring this Advent practice home. In the past, our family often celebrated St. Lucy’s Day during the second week of Advent, with our oldest granddaughter serving buns at an Advent family service. She dresses in a white dress with a red sash and carries a candle (or her St. Lucy doll), as we all say, the traditional song Lucy sings on her rounds.

Thomas Merton: Mary and Elizabeth

Thomas Merton: Mary and Elizabeth 1

The Visitation of St. Elizabeth to the Virgin Mary 1503
Artist: Albertinelli, Mariotto

“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person who each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.”—Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 140-142, Doubleday:1966.

Merton’s mystical experience captures what spiritual friends seek: seeing the light of Christ in one another. I am reminded of Mary, the mother of Jesus, visiting her even more pregnant relative, Elizabeth, in Luke 1:39-56. As Elizabeth, carrying John the Baptist, hears Mary’s greeting to her, the baby in her womb leaps for joy. Elizabeth is then filled with the Holy Spirit and greets Mary with the words: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary then breaks into the song of praise and thanksgiving, which we call the Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”

How wonderful when we meet our neighbor, and the creative part within us, the Christ within us, leaps for joy to perceive the Christ within our neighbor. What does this story tell us about what occurs in our lives and the lives of our neighbors when this happens? We are filled with the Holy Spirit, and our neighbor is empowered to say, sing, or live out the Magnificat.

sculpture at the Church of the Visitation in Jerusalem

Some of us are like Mary, just beginning to bear children. Many of us are like Elizabeth, beyond the child-bearing age. Some of us have never borne children, but this story of these two saints and Merton’s story still speaks to us. God is speaking to the birthing, the creative part of us, which empowers us to see the Christ in ourselves and the Christ in our neighbor.1

1 Seibert, The Living Church, May 25, 2003

Joanna        https://www.joannaseibert.com/