LET US PRAY

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked and ultimately crashed.  Two crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and one crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.

LET US PRAY.

Dozens of people in each of four airplanes living in terror as their hijacked planes are flown to destinations unknown to them. Each ends in a terrible fiery crash.

LET US PRAY.

Unsuspecting people in three buildings, struck by airliners, are killed or injured at the moment of the unsuspecting attacks.

LET US PRAY.

Trapped people seeking escape from the heat and flames finally choose the final alternative and leap 100 floors to their death.

LET US PRAY.

Brave firefighters, law enforcement officers, and many other brave persons risk their lives and enter two stricken buildings to help people escape. When the buildings collapse, those brave persons, along with thousands of others still in the towers, perish.

LET US PRAY.

Untold thousands try and phone lower Manhattan and the Pentagon, trying to find friends and loved ones.

LET US PRAY.

A stunned nation listens to the shocking news on the radio and watches horrific images on television. Shock. Anger. Disbelief. Grief. Fear. 

LET US PRAY.

Angry and unthinking persons call in to talk shows and blame “foreigners” and ethnic groups, and one person even blames the U.S. government for planning the attacks as an excuse to go to war to stimulate the economy.

LET US PRAY.

Some will escape for answers into religious and ethnic bigotry.

LET US PRAY.

Joyful Palestinians in the West Bank take to the streets to celebrate what has happened in the United States.

LET US PRAY.

Heads of state in many nations decry the terrible attacks on innocent people and vow that terrorism must come to an end.

LET US PRAY.

Rescue workers do their best to help the people they can reach, and wait until the time they can search for more.

LET US PRAY.

For a long time to come, rescue workers will have the difficult task of recovering the bodies.

LET US PRAY.

Thousands of families will mourn the loss of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers.

LET US PRAY.

Millions of persons will gather tonight and tomorrow and in the days to come, to remember and to grieve.

LET US PRAY.

Brave passengers on United Flight 93 learn on their cell phones what happened to the other three hijacked airplanes and decide they will prevent their plane from becoming a fourth instrument of attack and destruction.

LET US PRAY.

Accused terrorist Osama bin Laden denies responsibility but declares the actions as the “judgment of Almighty Allah.”

LET US PRAY.

Two U.S. Christian leaders declare the attacks as the judgment of God on the United States. One of them later publicly apologizes and repents.

LET US PRAY.

As the death toll rises, it is reported that citizens of at least 62 countries died in the attacks.

LET US PRAY.

As horrible as the events of September 11 are, they are the latest outrages in a long history of evil and violent acts against hundreds of thousands of persons in many nations in recent years.

LET US PRAY.

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And suffer us not to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
                                   –  Matthew 6