Sunday mourning music

No, that's not a spelling error in the title of this post.  With two mass shootings in the last 24 hours - at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and at a bar in Dayton, Ohio - resulting in at least 29 innocent victims dead and dozens more injured, it's hard to be light-hearted and entertaining this morning.

For all those who died or were injured, and all those who mourn loss or try to help their family members recover, and all of their families and friends, and for all those who, out of simple humanity, mourn our shared loss, here's the Introit and Kyrie from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48.

May the sins of all those who died be forgiven, and may they find eternal rest;  and may their families and loved ones find what comfort they may in so tragic a situation.

May all those who were wounded make as full a recovery as possible, and may their families receive all the assistance and support they need to cover all of the costs involved.

May this country not tear itself apart once more in an effort to pin blame on who- or whatever any commenter hates or dislikes, but instead unite in an effort to bridge and overcome the divisions and rising extremism that threaten all of us.

As for the perpetrators . . . I leave them to God's mercy, if that can apply to such as they.  If their actions were anything but deranged, insane outbursts, I don't know how much of that there can be for them.

For the rest of us, John Donne has the most appropriate words.

No man is an island, entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.

Peter