Praying for Barcelona and Madeira

As we pray for the 14 victims killed by a terrorist in Barcelona, we pray also for the many injured in the attack. A minute’s silence was observed yesterday out of respect for the victims. We remember also the 2 victims killed in a knife attack in Turku, Finland.
Incidentally two days earlier, on the Portuguese island of Madeira, a huge oak tree crashed down on a popular religious festival in honor of the Assumption, killing 13 people and injuring 49 others. The tree fell while a large crowd was gathered near the island’s capital of Funchal as part of the Nossa Senhora do Monte festival. It’s Madeira’s biggest annual festivity and was being held Monday and Tuesday, drawing large crowds to a church on Funchal’s outskirts. The tree was a towering oak, which local media reports said was more than 200 years old. Regional authorities say they are investigating what caused it to come down. Of those injured, seven people had serious injuries. Of the fatalities, 10 people died at the site of the accident. A child died en route to a local hospital, where 2 other women died later.