A theme of hope runs through some of the stories in today’s Daily, including our lead story about the community at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, now grappling with the mass shooting on Wednesday that killed two children and wounded over a dozen others.

There are certain ironies in the human experience of hope – both in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Minneapolis this week. As the poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” – fragile, easily dashed, yet resilient, often the last thing people surrender. Hope is also a wellspring of determination and endurance, a spark of longing for a better world that orients us toward the good of others.