Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Monday, September 11, 2017

A Litany inspired by 9/11

Monday, September 11, 2017

This is an extended reflection in two parts. The first part is a litany for 9/11. The second is a commentary on the Gospel of the day. Both parts are being posted separately, and yet there is a subtle relationship between the two.

I.
The world was changed on September 11, 2001, and not for the better. Since then we have been undergoing a time of trial and suffering, and in so many instances, the feeble attempts of those in power have only served to increase the trials and the suffering for so many in so many parts of the world.

Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, come to our aid; Lord, heal us.

Hatred and revenge have broken through any barriers that charity and peace would have wanted to erect, and it is something we live with every day. “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword” is one Biblical teaching that has not been heeded, and the cost has been uncalculablely horrifying.

Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, come to our aid; Lord, heal us.

Over the past two years or so in the USA, and most especially since the rise of Donald Trump, hatred, bigotry and violence have become normalized that the darkest parts of men’s souls have been brought out into the daylight with a force not seen since the rise of Nazi Germany in the last century.

Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, come to our aid; Lord, heal us.

And how about y-o-u? How have the events of the past 16 years--and most especially the events of the past year—how have these things affected you? What have they possibly been done to your soul?

Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, come to our aid; Lord heal us.


May God have mercy on us and bless us all in the ways that only He knows we need.

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