These Americans will give because so many were taken from us. And there are thousands standing in Afghanistan, standing in the very place where evil grew, giving their service to ensure that evil never rises again. Men and women in Memphis will give and build wheelchair ramps for the disabled. Businessmen from Long Island will give and take sick kids to a ball game. In 'a day's payment of service,' New York City firefighters will give and fly to California to help rebuild homes destroyed in the fires. In memory and in the hope that goodwill and grace will always triumph out of tragedy, they will give. And in a place where smoke once rose, you and I we will see that cedar rising.Īt this hour and all day long, strangers will follow the Lord's wish. And they will lay a wreath where Flight 93 fell. They come together, as their loved ones did, to find hope in the middle of the Lord's green field. Those who never gave up so that evil never had the chance to finish its plan. They will read the names of those who charged. To that field in Pennsylvania where-the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors of that day's warriors-will stand in the middle of all things beautiful. And they will pray for those whose wounds have not healed-the burns that cause them great pain every time they reach out to hold their wife's hand until the stars rise and the night falls on this day in September. They will pray onward soldier you answered your calling here but your work is not done in the Lord's house. And it will toll for those who rejoice in life's great gifts.Īnd across our great river, the men and women who stood at their posts at the Pentagon who helped rescue the wounded and carried the dying, and who still guard their post at this moment will pause in a sea of stone and valor. They want it to ring from the bell tower to ensure that 'sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' That bell will toll for the souls gone home. And for that moment when just missing their wife, their husband and the love of their life was the greatest pain they'd ever known.īut today, they are there to ring a new church bell-a gift born out of their grief. That night when the silence inside the house was too much to bear. The Lord's doors were open for that hour of loneliness just before dawn. For a week after that September day, the Lord's doors were open.

It is a town where so many-53-were taken before their time. Today, a town gathers in front of their church. And they return home still in their Sunday bests after a Saturday of sorrow. Then, they head downtown to place a flower where he died-the once tall tower where he left his first, last and only message addressed to her. On this day, they go to Central Park to remember with the other families. She can say his name, 'Dad.' She can point to his picture, but she does not know him. And they are ready to start their long walk through this day. Walk with me through this day and you will see that this is a season of hope.įor at this moment, just outside of New York, a mother laces up her daughter's shoes. 'The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.'Īnd let me show you how we are building and putting cedars in those three hallowed places-the footprints of the Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania.

Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord's word to get us through.

9 11 firefighter remembrance quotes