Greetings, Blessed Peacemakers:

Discussing the accounts of the devastation of Mariupol, Ukraine, with Doug Cogan yesterday, we were stunned by what political philosopher Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil,” a notion that in the midst of combat, violence and devastation become so commonplace it ceases to disturb. Outrageous images of brutality and destruction are framed by the backdrop of everyday life—a school classroom, an apartment kitchen, a children’s playground all become unwitting hosts to the particular brutalities of war.

In our conversation I was reminded of the experience of our organist emeritus, Henry Sybrandy,