As I’ve never experienced anything remotely approximating Connecticut-magnitude grief, I’m reluctant to comment on it. At the same time, it would feel shallow to write about the Awfulness of Being Roadkill at Christmas when such grief is still so brutally immediate.

I did have an idea, though. Most of us have something to dread about Christmas Day. It’s certainly a day of joy and peace if you’re not poor, lonely or exhausted, and have perfectly functional families, and your aunts or in-laws always treat you with respect. Otherwise, though, there’s something to not look forward to. So…maybe, this year, instead of dreading, avoiding, or resenting whatever that something is, we could all offer up our respective somethings for the people facing a Christmas season that is really, truly heartbreaking. And if we prefaced the sacrifice with a prayer thanking God for giving us the opportunity to offer something for them, maybe we could actually win someone the grace that makes the difference between being able and not being able to go on.

It needn’t be restricted to the most recent news; there will be any number of people around us suffering the pain of bereavement, and bereavement still hurts when it’s no longer news. We could offer it up for them, too. (And there are plenty of opportunities to offer up a Holy Communion between now and Christmas day.)

Anyway, it’s an idea.