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Horse-drawn buggies clip-clopped past roadblocks Thursday morning as Amish families gathered to bury four of the five young girls gunned down inside their tiny rural schoolhouse.All roads leading into the village of Nickel Mines, where a milk truck driver took 10 girls hostage and opened fire, were blocked off for the funerals.The Amish families had asked for privacy as they pray at three homes before burying Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Marian Fisher, 13; and sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7. The funeral for a fifth girl, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, was scheduled for Friday.Five of their friends...

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) -- In most communities, a deadly school shooting brings demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones lash out at the gunman's family or threaten to sue. But that's not the Amish way. As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will. "They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent, and they know that they will...

The simplest and most basic principles of the gospel are sometimes those least understood. One of the most fundamental gospel principles is repentance. The mere announcement of the word "repentance" will cause some of you to conclude at the outset that you've already "heard it all," to tune out the speaker, or to allow your mind to wander to your studies, to dating, or simply to daydream. But I would like to give you a new insight into the principle of repentance and show you how relevant and helpful repentance can become for you. Even though some of you may...

There Are Only Two Religions in the Whole World! by John G. Reisinger There are basically only two religions in the world. One says, "If you will do such and such, God will graciously bestow His blessing upon you." The thousand and one varieties of this religion differ only on what the "such and such" is that you must be willing to do. One variety says bathe in a sacred river, another bids you kiss the sacred rock located in the holy city, still another says be baptized or some similar rite, and in distinctly evangelical circles this religion emphasizes,...

Below is a little missive I ripped out just as soon as I heard about MS. Magazine’s attempts to recruit abortion supporters by asking them to supply their names and their stories. In a fit, an absolute fit of pique, I typed up my own abortion story. Then I saved it on the hard drive and pondered all week how to deal with my narrative of anger and angst. I don’t want to put it on my own Blog as frankly-MS. Magazine doesn’t realize this-I am certainly not at all proud of my story. Yet I wonder if the millions...

Love Your Heavenly EnemyHow are we going to live eternally with those we can't stand now? When my Yale colleague Professor Carlos Eire visits his elderly mother, he often ends up as a resident theologian for a small Cuban-immigrant community of her friends. "Is it possible," one woman asked him, "for Castro to convert on his deathbed and end up in heaven?""It is possible," Professor Eire assured her. "This is what Christian faith is all about. Nobody is beyond the pale of redemption.""Well, if that were to happen," said the woman, "then I would not want to be in heaven."Karl...

Editor’s note: This is one of a series of articles about recovering from betrayal. Read the first article CLICK. All names shown here in italics are pseudonyms, used to protect the identity of the writers. A lot has been written about forgiveness — the physical and emotional healing power of making peace. For some, giving up the anger and resentment that comes with holding a grudge can reduce back pain, limit relapses among those battling substance abuse, and slash one’s stress level by up to 50 percent. Studies have led researchers to conclude that harboring bitterness and anger can actually...

Read Part 2 What Forgiveness Is and Isn’t CLICK It seems everyone experiences some tragedy in life, some trial or test. After all, that’s what we’re here for. And proving our character by the choices we make in responding to those trials is what forms the basis of God’s just rewards. Being betrayed is part and parcel to many, if not most, trials — betrayed by spouse, business partner, friend, neighbor. How do you recover? This is a heavy subject, and one that has derailed many of life’s travelers. Yet the outcome for some individuals is positive. Over time, they...

Michael Berg has come to terms with his son's murderer. But to most Americans that man is still enemy No.1, writes Martin Daly in New York. In the darkness, when the pain becomes too great, Michael Berg pulls out a chair for the man who decapitated his son and talks to him about compassion and forgiveness. Michael Berg has cried publicly many times for his dead son but he has forgiven Zarqawi, considered by the Americans to be the premier threat to peace in Iraq, but who remains free despite a $US25 million ($33 million) bounty on his head, and...

15 Apr 2006 A five-year-old girl, Kai Leigh Harriott, wheelchair bound after a bullet paralyzed her three years ago, forgave the man who shot her and told him what he had done to her was wrong. She did this to his face, in court. After breaking down and crying, the girl picked up a glass of water, took a sip, and said to Anthony Warren ‘What you done to me was wrong…..but I still forgive him.' Anthony Warren had pleaded guilty to shooting her, shots that paralyzed the girl. Kai Lee Harriot used to be able to walk. She had...

by Br. James Brent, O.P. Other Articles by Br. James Brent, O.P. Reasons for Confession 04/12/06 Lent is an especially good season for Confession. It is also a good time to review the reasons why Catholics go to Confession. In This Article...The Divine MercyThe Chosen InstrumentMeeting Christ The Divine Mercy On the evening of Easter, Jesus appeared to His Apostles and said, “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of...

<p>In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.</p> <p>O most merciful Jesus, with a contrite heart and penitent spirit, I bow down in profound humility before Thy divine majesty. I adore Thee as my supreme Lord and Master; I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee above all things. I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, my Supreme and Only Good. I resolve to amend my life, and although I am unworthy to obtain mercy, yet the sight of Thy holy cross, on which Thou didst die, inspires me with hope and consolation. I will, therefore, meditate on Thy sufferings, and visit the stations of Thy Passion in company with Thy sorrowful Mother and my guardian angel, with the intention of promoting Thy honor and saving my soul.</p>

La Shawn writes at her corner that a group called Soulforce has organized a 51-day tour of Christian and other conservative colleges on "Equality Rides" to equate phony homosexual "civil rights" with the struggle for blacks to win real civil rights back in the 1960s. Soulforce claims that: [l]ike the Freedom Rides of the 50's and 60's, the Equality Ride is a student-led effort that takes young adults into epicenters of intolerance and oppression to make a better tomorrow. In going on this journey, the Equality Riders draw inspiration from those Freedom Riders over forty years ago. I'm 45 years old and white, so...

Jesus said that we should pray to the Father saying (in part): “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Our ability to forgive men of their trespasses against us is significant to the salvation of our souls. Sadly, there are some that call themselves brethren, but they reject the idea of forgiving their brethren of sins that have been confessed and repented of. We cannot expect God to forgive us of our sins if we do not forgive the sins of others. A question from Peter to our Lord spawned a fascinating revelation: “Then came...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced researcher Hwang Woo-suk asked forgiveness Thursday from fellow South Koreans for his fraudulent claims of human stem cell breakthroughs, but blamed the scandal on junior researchers who he said deceived him. Hwang, in his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, continued to insist he has the technology to use cloning to create human embryonic stem cells genetically matched to patients — saying he could do so in six months if he had access to enough human eggs. Seoul National University, where Hwang is a professor, issued investigation results Tuesday saying he fabricated landmark claims...

Shortly after Michael and Cathryn Borden of Lititz, Pa., were slain by their daughter's boyfriend (David Ludwig), family and clergy – at least those who presented themselves to the media – indicated their readiness to forgive little Lizzie, I mean Kara Borden. Forgiveness at least implies some acknowledgment of wrongdoing. The media, for the most, wouldn't even impugn the girl. After the shootings, Borden hopped into her beau's get-away car. She told him she wanted to "get as far away as possible, get married and start a new life." Only after Borden was confronted with surveillance cameras did she confess...

As Jesse Jackson visits Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the presidential palace to denounce assassination and what he calls the ‘Rumsfeld-Robertson connection’, outside in the streets - violent protests have engulfed Caracas in a sign of Chavez’s tightening grip on power. El Universal has the story in Spanish here and Globovision has the story in Spanish here. Miguel explains it in English for us here.

In an incredible act of forgiveness, the Long Island woman whose face was shattered when a 20-pound turkey was thrown through her windshield came face-to-face yesterday with the prankster who did it — and hugged him tightly as they both broke down in sobs. Minutes earlier, Ryan Cushing, 18, had pleaded guilty to the Nov. 13 nightmare stunt that left Victoria Ruvolo, 44, critically injured. His plea was part of a deal that the big-hearted Ruvolo engineered, sparing the teen a possible 25 years in prison and instead landing the boy only six months in a local jail. As the...

Please give me a moment of time so I can tell you about an extraordinary opportunity save the lives of hundreds of children, and also further a movement forgiveness that could have a ripple effect around the world and through generations in Muslim - Christian relations. An extraordinary calling has been rippling through the network of Sudanese Christian immigrants in the US to bring relief to their former persecutors, the Muslims of the Darfur region of Sudan. "They burned our home, and they killed all my family, but I know God would have me come to their aid, even if...

I said in a previous chapter that chastity was the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. But I am not sure I was right. I believe there is one even more unpopular. It is laid down in the Christian rule, 'Thou shaft love thy neighbour as thyself.' Because in Christian morals 'thy neighbour' includes 'thy enemy,' and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies. Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be...