09/12/2026
🩵💡⛪ A Tribute of Lights
September 11 profoundly changed our country and our people. The anniversary is a sad moment to mark, it has also opened windows for many to a deeper connection to God and a renewed spirituality. The parable of the lost coin teaches that spiritual light is required to find what is lost. We need illumined those nooks and crannies of life which our normal patterns of daily observation would miss—the blind spots too dark for our natural power of sight. Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Sean Rowe, reminds us that "even in the face of unimaginable evil and suffering God calls us to be repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in".
There is now a vulnerability that we feel as everyday Americans; a sense that we and those we love cannot be safe. As a people of faith, what we find in prayer is that as we beat upon the breast of our seemingly silent enigmatic God, we are being gently enfolded into the arms of that love which has been frustrated, and our soul begins to heal. And in God’s arms the light becomes brighter, enabling us to see the goodness of God in the spirit of good people, risking their very lives for others. People reach out beyond race, culture and class, religion and personal safety to confront the tragic effects of evil. I find our faith and our prayers portrayed in the words of W.H. Auden’s World War II poem:
“Defenseless under the night,
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of fight
Flash out wherever the just
exchange their message:
May I, composed like them,
of Eros and of dust
Beleaguered by the same,
negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”
Tonight the exterior lights of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral pay tribute to all those who lost their lives on 9/11 and the thousands of selfless acts of love that took place on behalf of ordinary citizens as well as our first responders. By illuminating the Cathedral in Sky Blue we pray that those who see the blue light will be drawn to reflection, reconciliation and prayerful remembrance of those lives lost that day and challenge us all to be an" affirming flame".
