I can’t bear to think any more about the school murders in Connecticut but I can’t stop thinking about them.

And so Christmas Day dawns once again in this wicked world, full of horrors.  Many years ago, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, in another time of horrors:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled so long
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

And that will have to do for today as well.