Our first response to the horrific news from Paris is a prayerful “Oh my God.”

The unspeakable savagery of the massacre and maiming of hundreds of innocent men and women in Paris by the Islamic State terrorists numbs the mind – 129 killed, including 20-year-old American student Nohemi Gonzalez, and 352 injured. Magnifying the incredible barbarity is the fact that it was done in the name of God.  In the words of Pope Francis, “There is no religious or human justification for it.”

It is human to be filled with anger and thoughts of vengeance but the inevitable retaliation will only increase the cycle of violence gripping the world. A major cause of such violence and brutality is the fact that 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty that breeds hopelessness and desperation. Hopelessness ferments and breeds desperate solutions.

We must pray for the leaders of France and other nations that a just and appropriate path will be found to end this darkness that is plaguing the world.

May God bring consolation to the families and friends of the victims of this horror as we add our prayers to theirs for lost loved ones.

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Image credit – “Eiffel Tower from Champ-de-Mars, 2 August 2015” – Wikimedia Commons