Today is the feast of John of the Cross. A mystic, his famous work is called “The Dark Night of the Soul,” and it speaks of that moment we all feel at times, when it feels as if we’re getting nowhere spiritually. If every time we prayed, we got happy feelings, we would begin to pray only for those feelings. Sometimes, being removed from such immediate positive feedback is an invitation to deepen our prayer life and why we pray.
This seems in some way oddly appropriate given the tragedy of today.
What feels oddly inappropriate, but perhaps is not, is levity. After-all, as Chesterton said, “The devil fell through ‘gravity,'” by which he implied the overt seriousness with which he took himself. Such pride is a sure way to fall.
So, I give you Levity.
May the souls of the children, teachers, and even the shooter, in the massacre in Connecticut today find eternal peace.