I'm an associate member of the Sisters of Mercy, so I'm on their e-mail lists. Here's the response to the bombings on their Connect With Mercy blog:

When evil intrudes again and again in our lives, we are tempted to accept it as normal; to say," This is life as we must live it now. This is our reality." We are tempted to become reactionary, to align our choices to the presence of evil, to be defined and paralyzed by its shadowy, cowardly potential.

In all acts like the Boston Marathon bombings, the evil-doer plots not only to injure, but to capture the wills of innumerable people and crush them into his own small hatred. Evil would like nothing more than to rob us of our light – our hope, our trust and our freedom. It would like nothing more than for us to exist in a world – as it does – defined by death rather than by life.

Whether evil comes to us in events like yesterday's bombings, or in the everyday meanesses of some small, hate-filled individual, it will come. In our advanced technological age, it can take huge proportions. But whether small or large in its appearance, evil is equally debilitating when we allow it to control us – for that is its greatest desire: to rob us of ourselves.

So let this be our prayer for the people whose lives were affected by yesterday's evil acts: may they have the courage and support to again choose life, hope, freedom and trust. May they never be defined by yesterday's experience, but may they become their strongest selves despite it. And for those who lost their lives in this senseless act, may their memory encourage us always to choose life. For nothing could be worse than to live – as the perpetrator does – defined by death.

By everything we do today, and every day, let us consciously stand for love, mercy and life. It can be our way of offering healing to our injured world.