Gracious God, our Good Shepherd, we remember to you the events of 20 years ago - a day on which we knew ourselves to be walking in the valley of the shadow of death. We did fear evil.
We remember before you the nearly 3,000 dead, the families torn open, the selflessness of first responders and helpers who gave their lives for their friends, as well as for those they did not know, still knowing that they were giving their lives.
We pray your continuing balm on wounds of so much loss and love and grief. We pray your balm on wounds of mistrust and accumulated habits of fear, many of which we have forgotten we carry. Heal these broken bones.
We pray you would anoint our heads and every tender, fragile part of us. Touch our anxieties with your compassion. Still our seas of desperate violence.
Good Shepherd God, who sets a table before us in the presence even of our enemies, we remember before you the day we discovered that even our attempts to be nice cannot prevent our having enemies. God of Jesus Christ, open our hearts and give us your help to love our enemies well. Hold us in the truth that belonging to you we belong to each other and incline our hearts to seek you in every face on earth.
Hold us in your promise, Lord, that we may surely see the goodness of our God in the land of the living. Make us instruments of your peace and people of your truth, and so people who listen with patience, who come to share as freely as we have known the wideness of your mercy, beyond the measures of our minds.
We thank you, we love you, and we pray this in Christ's Name.
Amen.
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