At a loss.

I feel very isolated from this morning's tragic shooting in Connecticut, having only learned of the event late in the afternoon after spending much of the day holed up in my room finishing a paper that was due today. I can think of no words of consolation or uplift at the moment; I can only share in the sense of sorrow and devastation that President Obama expressed earlier this afternoon regarding the senseless death of twenty small children: "They had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

My prayers this afternoon are for all who are affected by this tragedy - I pray for the victims, for their families, and, yes, I also pray for the gunman whose terrible deeds have brought suffering to many. May God have mercy on them all.