Joachim & Anna

An open letter to those affected by the devastation in Beslan, Russia

I am an American who cannot get the images of your children out of my mind. For days now I’ve wrestled with emotion and tears not knowing how to release the weight on my chest or how to deal with the agonizing impression this calamity has had on my soul. Forgive me for all I have are words.

Our Lord and Savior answered His disciples after they had asked Him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" by calling to Him a child. He put the child in the midst of them, and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. "

This ungodly act inflicted by godless men, certainly not men of a god of endless compassion and love for mankind, for if they were, they would have without doubt known the way in which He views His creation and in particular, His children.

In remembrance and as an act of penance for the shameless guilt I have over your loss, I vow to embrace and kiss my children daily, prove to them what they mean to me in word and in deed, repent of the evil I have done them in prayer and petition God for the strength, love and wisdom to be the father and husband he calls all men to be.

We will continue to weep with bitter tears, say our molebens, hold our vigils, send relief in the best way we know how to here in the West, and have you continually in our remembrances with the hope and faith that God Himself will provide you solace and assurance that your children’s departure of this world puts them at the feet of their shepherd.