Hope

My dear Friends
The day after 9/11 some people were doing something on the site of the tragedy. Other people, at a distance, wondered what it was and drew nearer to find out. Then they saw that a group of people were dancing, for the JOY of living.

And so we must hope that something good comes out of the terrible events last week in Norway. We have learned, and so said one of the Norwegian government ministers, that evil can happen anywhere, and is not just a result of Islamic terrorism. We learn from the Prologue of the Gospel of John that the Light was coming into the world, and that the darkness could not overpower the Light. In the original Greek, the darkness cannot even comprehend the Light.

There was a Norwegian man who was living in a cabin on the shores of the lake where the terrible incident happened. Having received a phone call from a friend, he took his boat out on several successive occasions and mangaed to rescue one hundred teenagers.

As the bells tolled from Oslo Cathedral and the people left hundreds of bunches of flowers, we can reflect that the reaction of the Norwegian people was one of a people wanting to affirm their democracy and their tolerance. That gives us hope for a better world.

In Peace
Sister Gila