be happy for this moment.

You can be sure that the American spirit will
prevail over this tragedy.
Colin Powell

Like I sure all of you did this morning, I took a moment to think about where I was and what I was doing this day eight years ago.

I also stopped to remember all of those lost and their families who are thinking about them today.

Today, we gather to be reassured that God hears the lamenting and bitter weeping of Mother America because so many of her children are no more.

Let us now seek that assurance in prayer for the healing of our grief stricken hearts, for the souls and sacred memory of those who have been lost.

Let us also pray for divine wisdom as our leaders consider the necessary actions for national security, wisdom of the grace of God that as we act, we not become the evil we deplore.

Rev. Nathan Baxter, Dean of Washington National Cathedral