Remembering 9/11
by VP
Posted on Wednesday September 11, 2024 at 01:21AM in Documents
Public domain
Remembering 9/11
Prayer of Benedict XVI
O God of love, compassion, and healing, look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions, who gather today at this site, the scene of incredible violence and pain. We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to all who died here—the heroic first responders: our firefighters, police officers, emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel, along with all the innocent men and women who were victims of this tragedy simply because their work or service brought them here on September 11, 2001.
We ask you, in your compassion to bring healing to those who, because of their presence here that day, suffer from injuries and illness. Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy. Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope. We are mindful as well of those who suffered death, injury, and loss on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our hearts are one with theirs as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.
God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the Earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred. God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events. Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain. Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all.
St. Paphnucius, Bishop of Egyp
by VP
Posted on Wednesday September 11, 2024 at 01:00AM in Saints
"HONOURABLE WOUNDS. - St. Paphnucius, the disciple of St. Anthony, and one of the most holy bishops of Upper Egypt, nobly confessed the faith during the persecution of Maximinus. He was grievously wounded in the ankle and thumb, and had his right eye torn out previous to being sent to labor in the mines with the other martyrs. On peace being restored to the Church by Constantine the Great, he reappeared in his diocese with all the more authority, because the halo of the martyr surrounded him. This glorious title, as well as his personal sanctity, attracted towards him the reverent homage of the fathers of the Council at Nicea, where he was anxious to be present, despite his state of suffering. Constantine, who loved to converse with him and consult him as a parent, never parted from him without respectfully kissing his cheek or the scars in his hand. Paphnucius was present likewise at the council of Tyre, and there brought about a reconciliation between Maximus, patriarch of Jerusalem, and St. Athanasius, who had been calumniated by the enemies of the faith. The precise date of his death is not recorded.
MORAL REFLECTION.-If to fight for one's country be
glorious, "it is likewise great glory to follow the Lord," saith the
Wise Man.(Eccles. xxiii. 38.)" Pictorial Half Hour with the saints by Fr. Augustine Lecanu
