What we are learning from Corpus Christi, in their agony

This week's news of a 15 year old stabbing Ann Maguire in Leeds is totally horrendous and has appalled the nation.

But the response from the local community in the way it has drawn together is awe-inspiring.  Pictures of the parish church filled with young people coming together to mourn, to sit in silence, to try to understand what has happened, demonstrate the power that schools have to pull people together.

I saw something similar happen when Matt Fox, the superb music teacher at Saint Gabriel's in Lambeth, suddenly dropped dead in the middle of band practice just a few months ago, from a massive heart attack. The way the students and staff pulled together to cope with such a shock was so so impressive.

Terrible events test communities to their core.  At times like these we see what that core is made of.

In its agony, Corpus Christi school in Leeds is sending out a power wave to the world around it, demonstrating that love and respect for each other, embodied in the love they had for their lost teacher, is what, above all else, it stands for.

For that we are grateful.