A Connecticut Mother Who Lost Her Daughter in Sandy Hook Shooting Reflects on Forgiveness in New Memoir
On December 14, 2012, Jennifer Hubbard’s 6-year-old daughter, Catherine Violet, was among the 20 children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting. After 14 years, the Bethel resident invites readers on an emotional but inspirational journey in her memoir, Forgiving the Unforgivable: Seventy Times Seven, just published by Marian Press.
Grappling with anger, desperation, loneliness and grief, Hubbard powerfully reflects on her Catholic faith as she navigates her relationship with God and ability to truly forgive in the midst of unimaginable circumstances.
This is not a self-help manual, for, as Hubbard explains, “forgiveness isn’t a transaction; it’s a transformation.” Further, “It’s about choosing to live free, even when the world would tell us we have every right to cling to the pain,” clinging to the pain and resenting whoever has harmed us is our natural inclination. But Hubbard explains that when we remain in this state we fail to, “make room for the healing He longs to give us.”
Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport writes in the Afterword, “Jennifer’s willingness to forgive the man who murdered her daughter is not naivety; it is love in action. It declares that evil will not have the last word.”
“No matter what you’re carrying, God’s Heart for you is the same as it’s been for me: a gentle call to come close, let Him do what only He can, and find a peace that defies understanding,” Hubbard says. “So, come sit with me awhile. I can assure you that this journey may begin in a place of brokenness but ends in a sunrise of peace.”
“Forgiving the Unforgivable: Seventy Times Seven,” in hardcover with 16 pages of color photos, is available on ShopMercy.org and Amazon.com.