There is Faith for a Reason:Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy's speech on the Newtown school shootings

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy gave the following address Friday at the community vigil at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown:

Good evening, everyone. Monsignor, thank you very much for opening this very beautiful church so that we might in a communal way find solace and one another as a result of the unspeakable having occurred in this community. People's children, brothers and sisters, were taken from them. People's spouses. Those teachers and administrators, were taken from us.

Yet we stand in a church and many of us today, in the coming days, will rely upon that which we have been taught and that which we inherently believe that there is faith for a reason and that faith itself is God's gift to all of you. In these times of troubles and travails, when the unthinkable happens in our very midst, our faith is tested. Not just in the religious sense, not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, in who we are, in what we collectively offer.

And it's in so many ways, permissible to have those thoughts and those doubts about who we are and what we are and what community represents, but then we turn to understand as we turn around this room and recognize our friends and our neighbors. Those we have done things for, and those who have done things for us. This is a great and beautiful community located in a great and beautiful state in a great and beautiful nation. In the coming days and in the coming weeks, I will pray that you all embrace one another. That you lift one another up. That you understand the difficulties that you collectively will undergo.

Keep in your prayers the children who lost their lives today. Keep in your prayers the adults who lost their lives today. Understand that a test is just that. That which we rise to and answer and respond to. In the coming days as many of us prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, understand that that, too, will bring sorrow as we think about these instances that have happened so close to those days. And that too, will pass and be overcome.

And all of our prayers and the prayers and hopes of all of the public officials who have assembled here today and in the presence of your great select person, I bring and extend the condolences of the entirety of this state to you, the members of this community. May God bless you. May God bless our children who are with us today and those who were taken away. And may God bless the adults who lost their lives today. Thank you.