Looking for Hope As Days Darken

"We want everybody to know that our hearts and prayers go out to them. This includes the family of the shooter."

Good people saying things that give me hope in a liturgical season dedicated to seeking hope--when events in my country have made hope even more difficult (for me and I suspect for many others) than usual:

"It [i.e., gun control] is just as much of what many religious people call a 'life issue' or a 'pro-life issue,' as is abortion, euthanasia or the death penalty (all of which I oppose), and programs that provide the poor with the same access to basic human needs as the wealthy (which I am for)."

"(Less pope, more Jesus!) What the people in the church want is to live the inclusivity and compassion of Jesus and to move away from the clericalism, the excommunications, the silencing, the suspensions, the banning from communion and the condemnation of books such as those by Elizabeth Johnson and Margaret Farley."

"2012 was truly the year of the nuns."

"How can followers of Jesus be so cruel? Why does cruelty pass for orthodoxy?"

"To even associate the word Christianity with these sentiments is an attack on Jesus Christ."

"Somewhere I read that 'clothing' someone – in biblical terms – means 'encircling with love.' That's what Obama is talking about."