Remembering

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God of all creation, our hearts are broken over the destruction and loss we remember this day. And we acknowledge, O Lord, that on that day of human carnage yours was the first heart to break. In our remembering, may we stand with those who mourn and those who cannot stop mourning. Through remembering, may we find new comfort in your care. In our remembering, may we be drawn to a new hope for the whole world and may we gain for ourselves a measure of your peace.

You who can turn the shadow of night into the bright promise of a new day, empower us to shape a world marked by ways of life that lead to justice and peace for all peoples. Fashion in us a people who are more ready to grow in understanding than eager to judge those who are different from us. Form us as a people determined to heal wounds rather than inflict them.

We pray at last that you would cultivate such love in us that we may reach out in compassion to all those who are still wounded by the events of that day; and in seeking to heal others, may we experience a love that makes us whole. This we pray in the strong name of Jesus our Christ. Amen

(Source: National Council of Churches, prepared by Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, Ph.D., pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly, N.J., and the Rev. Jon Brown, a Presbyterian minister and Pastor of Old Bergen Church, Jersey City, N.J.)

This is a prayer our minister shared with us today, and I have been comforted by it and wanted to share it with all of you.

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Today on our morning walk, Bo and McCord and I saw a white dove flying overhead.  I've never seen one before in the wild.  It kept circling overhead and was very symbolic.