By now you have seen his photo. Third-grader, Martin Richard, was a bright faced kid with braces pulled tight on his teeth; but they did could not constrict his wide smile.

       The eight year-old's picture is on Facebook. It was taken in his classroom. He was holding a big sign: "No More Hurting People...Peace!"

       Martin had been near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, waiting for a friend to run by. As he went for ice cream, one of the two bombs exploded near him. He died.

       He did not know Krystle Campbell or the graduate student from China, but they also died. Plus, 180 were injured.

       Ironically, at this world class footrace, many legs were blown-off.

       Monday afternoon we all thought about 9/11 again. We thought about where we were when the Twin Towers fell. We thought about the Muir Federal Building in OK City. We remembered the Olympic Park bombing.

       On top of the bombings are the bullets. Gut-gnawing memories of Columbine and Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook have hooked our hearts and we bleed tears.

       Sadly, Boston reminds us, both of our past and the new normal of our future with its cumulative gravity of these losses.

       Monday night we all sat stunned around the Church Council tables in the Fellowship Hall. Dave Wooten, our church Moderator, has run the Boston Marathon. He recalled the long trek, the tough up hills, the tougher down hills, and the exhausted exhilaration of the finish line.

       Jo Meeks said that her daughter-in-law, Emily Meeks, had run and finished the Boston Marathon that very day! Jo had received a cryptic text from Emily saying something like: "I am OK." Later, Jo heard the news of the bombing. She then realized that Emily had run past the explosion site not long before it detonated.

       We are all connected. It is a basic premise of spirituality; and the compression of the bomb's blast was felt all the way to Buckhead.

       If I were little Martin Richard's dad, I don't know how I would live past his death. I don't know how the parents of Newtown, CT, survive after their children's murder? I admire them that they do at all.

       Best I can do today is to bundle. I will bundle my grief and grievances, my hope and my hurt. I will read Psalm 22, the one Jesus quoted on the cross saying, "My God, why have You forsaken...?"

       And I will pray.

       Bet you will too. 

 Sunday, May 5, 2013

Music from Arcadelt, Schutz, Monteverdi, Sullivan, Rutter*, Diemer, Faure, and PDQ Bach's The Seasonings (S. 1 ½ tsp.),

humbly edited by Peter Schickele*

*Not Your Mother's Madrigals
 

TICKETS
 Season Tickets (4 concerts) - $40.00
 Tickets for individual concerts - $15 per person

Seniors - $12 at door
Students - $5 at door
Group Tickets (10 or more) - $10 each

(advance purchase is required)

Email: tickets@cgatl.org or call 404-223-6362