We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come.
And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time. They have attacked America, because we are freedom’s home and defender. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom.
National day of remembrance full#
And this unity against terror is now extending across the world.Īmerica is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for. Our unity is a kinship of grief, and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies. It is evident in services of prayer and candlelight vigils, and American flags, which are displayed in pride, and wave in defiance. It has joined together political parties in both houses of Congress. This is a unity of every faith, and every background. Today, we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity. In these acts, and in many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another, and an abiding love for our country.
National day of remembrance skin#
A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burn victims. Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down sixty-eight floors to safety. A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend. And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion in long lines of blood donors in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible. In this trial, we have been reminded, and the world has seen, that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave. It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. This world He created is of moral design. And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own. There are prayers of friends and strangers, that give us strength for the journey. There are prayers that help us last through the day, or endure the night. Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard, and understood. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. God’s signs are not always the ones we look for. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on Tuesday, a woman said, “I prayed to God to give us a sign that He is still here.” Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing. In many of our prayers this week, there is a searching, and an honesty. Yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed, and lead us to pray. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil. Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history. To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation. We will linger over them, and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep. They are the names of rescuers, the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States, and died at their posts. They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers, and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of people who faced death, and in their last moments called home to say, be brave, and I love you. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life. Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning to read. We have seen the images of fire and ashes, and bent steel. On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation’s sorrow.
We are here in the middle hour of our grief.
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