"Nothing can make up for the absence of someone we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a kind of substitute: we must simply hold out and see it through. This sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap: he doesn't fill it, but on the contrary he keeps it empty and so helps us keep alive our communion with each other". (Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this to his parents on Christmas Eve, 1943, from a Nazi prison cell.)

On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more before committing suiciden on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. All who were affected by this nightmare a year ago are in my prayers today.