9/11 – Mr G's Ponderings

9/11 Kintsugi

The 11^th September 2001 is forever marked as one of the darkest days in the journey of humanity on this earth.
That day, I was bidden to turn on the television news and I witnessed the second of the planes flying directly into the second of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The sense of horror was deep within me. This was an unbelievable act of demonic terrorism which destroyed not only many innocent lives but also changed forever our perception of what evil human beings are capable of. It brought back the atrocity of World War Two and Nazism. This time, the perpetrators were an Islamist extremist network called al-Qaeda who planned the attacks on both New York and Washington from Afghanistan.
The first thing that came to my mind was a line from the poem by W.B.Yeats, Easter 1916 – All changed,changed utterly.

And so it has turned out because so much has divided humanity since. The experience of the demonic and the hatred, hurt, prejudice and distrust between people are only part of the legacy of that day and event. What is happening in the Middle East today is only one example of an evil gripping our race.

But, as always, there is also an opposite reaction and view.

One of the sources of prayer and reflection that I turn to is one provided by the Jesuitresource.org which is part of Xavier University in Cincinnati. (It provides resources in Jesuit education and Ignatian Spirituality.)

On its prayer website, I came across a number of prayers and reflections relating to 9/11 and its aftermath.

I was particularly touched by this reflective prayer from a Hindu source which seems to me to put into words what many felt that day and since:

As glass shattered, cement crumbled and steel melted in the inferno of senseless cruelty, the heart of humanity screamed in anguish. September 11, 2001 — a day when the evil potential of misguided ego was again exposed. While our landmarks collapsed in a cloud of smoke and debris, beneath a surge of shock and rage, something awakened in our hearts: compassion. Suddenly, our worldly obsessions faded away as we cried for the plight of others and were deeply affected by our “remen’s sacrifice.” In memory of this tragic day, let us join hands and pray for God’s grace to heal, unite and empower us to serve with love.

– Radhanath Swami

This sense of moving beyond the destruction and brokenness into a new hope of love is strongly prayed in these words. It is also what drew me to the illustration I have used above. It is a piece of glass sculpture by my dear artist friend, Kay Gibbons.

It is a piece which began as an attempt to fuse blue and green glass together. In the process it broke into 3. So she “played around, had fun, and created something quite different.”

The process in doing this she describes as, “This panel has been produced in a ‘kintsugi’ fashion, after the Japanese art of bonding broken ceramics with gold.
Beauty in fracture..
Broken beauty..

It struck me that this resonates with the prayer above. The aftermath of 9/11 could be seen as a spiritually human ‘kintsugi’. Bonding broken people with the gold of repentance and love and with determination to work for a beauty which though broken is nevertheless bonded in hope and as the prayer says, filled with compassion and love.

I have no solutions to what we can do to heal our broken world but another prayer on the Xavier University resource site puts it so movingly and offers an amazing way forward if we would but take it.

One Loving Family

Loving God of Peace: On this anniversary of unbelievable sorrow, comfort those who mourn, and guide our hearts toward healing and hope. Remind us of the love of Christ, love which leapt over cultural and ethnic boundaries to feed the hungry, seek the lost and care for the least. Make of Your children, no matter how we name You, one human family, bound together in the work of justice and peace-making. Make us one with the Light that shines in the darkness and illumines a path toward understanding and reconciliation. Let love be our genuine call.

Amen.

– Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis

[Mr G. 13th September 2026]

*Cross of Nails, Coventry Cathedral photo by Mr. G*

On November 14^th, 1940, the Luftwaffe blitzed the City of Coventry with bombs. So fierce was the bombing that a new word was coined by the Nazi’s for wholesale destruction – to Coventrate.

A victim of the bombing was the medieval Cathedral. It also had a word : Forgive.

Today, if you visit Coventry, the new Cathedral, designed by Basil Spence and opened in 1962, hugs the old. A remarkable fusion of death and re-birth, though truthfully, the symbol for both is of reconciliation and Resurrection.

Another symbol is the Cross of Nails.

On the morning after the destruction, a local vicar, whose own church had suffered much damage, picked up from the Cathedral ruins three sharp nails, which had been part of the roof, and with a bit of wire, bound them into a cross.
He was not to know then that his Cross would become the potent sign of what was to be a worldwide community of the Cross of Nails, dedicated to prayer and action, especially in dark and broken places.

Those three nails, now gilded and placed in the Sanctuary of the new part of the Cathedral, (see photo above) were to inspire a remarkable ministry.
It was, and is, a portent for good in a dark world so much in need of light and hope.

This ministry is summed up in the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation and in this weekend of special remembrance both of the atrocities of what happened 20 years ago, known forever as 9/11, and all that has transpired subsequently both bad and good, it is an appropriate Litany to pray, either alone or with others.

COVENTRY LITANY OF RECONCILIATION

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The hatred which divides nation from nation,
race from race, class from class

FATHER, FORGIVE

The covetous desires of people and nations
to possess what is not their own.

FATHER, FORGIVE

The greed which exploits the work of human hands
and lays waste the earth.

FATHER, FORGIVE

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,

FATHER, FORGIVE

Our indifference to the plight of
the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,

FATHER, FORGIVE

The lust which dishonours the bodies
of men, women and children’

FATHER, FORGIVE

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves
and not in God,

FATHER, FORGIVE

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
as God in Christ has forgiven you

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You may also like to ponder these prayers offered in remembrance of 9/11 and those whose lives were lost and the many whose lives were forever changed.

The prayers are from an array of faith leaders from many religious traditions. They were found in the internet from Huffington Post, Prayers for Peace & Healing on 9/11 Anniversary.

Jesuit Prayer:

In times of pain, give me comfort, in times of despair, give me hope. In times of hatred, give me love. In times of doubt, give me trust. And even when I feel far from you, be close to me, Loving God.

Fr. James Martin, S.J.

Jewish Prayer:

We pray to live with memory, with constant love, with the promise both to combat evil and to cherish goodness. Do not let our pain cloud our hopes or crush our hearts. Help us grow through this tragedy, keep faith with its victims, and sustain our trust in you.

Rabbi David Woipe

Hindu Prayer:

While our landmarks collapsed in a cloud of smoke and debris, beneath a surge of shock and rage, something awakened in our hearts: compassion.

Radhanoth Swami

Sikh Prayer:

Universal Creator, grant us resilience in the face of hate, and the courage to face it with dignity. May we all unite and share one another’s pain and tears. May the hatred in the world melt away in Your boundless and everlasting love. And living in Your Will, may all find peace, harmony and serenity.

Dr. Satpal Singh

Christian Prayer:

Dear God: We seek your grace to strengthen us as we commemorate the lives of loved ones who have been lost on this day of anguish for our country and our world. Lord, teach your children to love each other as much as they profess to love you.

Bishop T. D. Jakes

Muslim Prayer:

There was a prayer from an Imam but this picture, of a young Muslim holding up cardboard signs, is to my mind, one of the most powerful expressions of hopeful prayer.

Pray for him and all that he stands for.

[Mr G]