U.S. President Barack Obama joined representatives of America’s many religions Sunday night in the northeastern town of Newtown, Connecticut for a nighttime vigil held in honor and memory of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Obama told the crowd and the Nation about the senseless shootings, “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end, and to end them we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world and prevent every single act of violence in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction.”

Amen Mr. President. Now, let’s get to work America!

I’d also like to mention that one of the religions represented at the multi-faith service tonight was the Baha’i Faith. I’d love to share with you the beautiful and moving Baha’i scripture which was read tonight by John and Margo Deselin Woodall during the live telecast because as a Baha’i myself, I am proud to offer these calming and consoling words to the mass public.

“…Although the loss of a (child) is indeed heart-breaking and beyond the limits of human endurance, yet one who knoweth and understandeth is assured that the child hath not been lost but, rather, hath stepped from this world into another, and you will find them in the divine realm. That reunion shall be for eternity, while in this world separation is inevitable and bringeth with it a burning grief.

Praise be unto God that thou hast faith, art turning thy face toward the everlasting Kingdom and believest in the existence of a heavenly world. Therefore be thou not disconsolate, do not languish, do not sigh, neither wail nor weep; for agitation and mourning deeply affect their soul in the divine realm.

That beloved child addresseth thee from the hidden world: ‘O thou kind Mother (and Father), thank divine Providence that I have been freed from a small and gloomy cage and, like the birds of the meadows, have soared to the divine world—a world which is spacious, illumined, and ever joyous and jubilant. Therefore, lament not, O Mother and Father, and be not grieved; I am not of the lost, nor have I been obliterated and destroyed. I have shaken off the mortal form and have raised my banner in this spiritual world. Following this separation is everlasting companionship. Thou shalt find me in the heaven of the Lord, immersed in an ocean of light.’

Abdu’l-Baha
Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 201

Watch the video below: