An image from 9/11...

St. Paul's Chapel (Episcopal) in NYC stood beside the World Trade Center.

After the attack on September 11, 2001, which led to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, St. Paul's Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site.

For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs.

Learn more here.

Prayers for 9/11 Anniversary

Prayers for 9/11

Merciful God, be with us and all the people of the world as we remember those who died 7 years ago because of the attacks. We remember their lives and give thanks for the time that they lived among us and we pray that you will comfort their families and friends who miss them so much. Amen.

God the compassionate one, whose loving care extends to all the world, we remember this day your children of many nations and many faiths whose lives were cut short by the fierce flames of anger and hatred. Console those who continue to suffer and grieve, and give them comfort and hope as they look to the future. Out of what we have endured, give us the grace to examine our relationships with those who perceive us as the enemy, and show our leaders the way to use our power to serve the good of all for the healing of the nations. This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord who, in reconciling love, was lifted up from the earth that he might draw all things to himself. Amen.

For our Enemies

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Human Family

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For those in the Armed Services of our Country

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Peace

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Poems to live by...

On the eve of 9/11, a few poems...

Survivors--Found by Joan Murray

We thought that they were gone--
we rarely saw them on our screens--
those everyday Americans
with workaday routines,

and the heroes standing ready--
not glamorous enough--
on days without a tragedy,
we clicked--and turned them off.

We only saw the cynics--
the dropouts, show-offs, snobs--
the right- and left- wing critics:
we saw that they were us.

But with the wounds of Tuesday
when the smoke began to clear,
we rubbed away our stony gaze--
and watched them reappear:

the waitress in the tower,
the broker reading mail,
a pair of window washers,
filling up a final pail,

the husband's last "I love you"
from the last seat of a plane,
the tourist taking in a view
no one would see again,

the fireman, his eyes ablaze
as he climbed the swaying stairs--
he knew someone might still be saved.
We wondered who it was.

We glimpsed them through the rubble:
the ones who lost their lives,
the heroes' doubleburials,
the ones now "left behind,"

the ones who rolled a sleeve up,
the ones in scrubs and masks,
the ones who lifted buckets
filled with stone and grief and ash:

some spoke adifferent language--
still no one missed a phrase;
the soot had softened every face
of every shade and age--

"the greatest generation" ?--
we wondered where they'd gone--
they hadn't left directions
how to find our nation-home:

for thirty years we saw few signs,
but now in swirls of dust,
they were alive--they had survived--
we saw that they were us.

*****

"Time does not bring relief..." by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt from every mountain-side,

And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year's bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!

There are a hundred places where I fear

To go,--so with his memory they brim!

And entering with relief some quiet place

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

I say, "There is no memory of him here!"

And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

*********

PAX by D.H. Lawrence

All that matters is to be at one with the living God
To be a creature in the house of the God of Life.

Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
and at one with the master of the house, with the mistress
at home, at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth, and yawning before the fire.

Sleeping on the hearth of the living world,
yawning at home before the fire of life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart
a presence
as of a master sitting at the board
in his own and greater being,
in the house of life.

Let's talk about Sex

Let’s Talk About Sex By CHARLES M. BLOW, NY Times

Sarah Palin has a pregnant teenager. And, she’s not alone. According to a report published in 2007, there are more than 400,000 other American girls in the same predicament. In fact, a 2001 Unicef report said that the United States teenage birthrate was higher than any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. tied Hungary for the most abortions. This was in spite of the fact that girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active. Denmark held that title. But, its teenage birthrate was one-sixth of ours, and its teenage abortion rate was half of ours. (See image below)

If there is a shame here, it’s a national shame — a failure of our puritanical society to accept and deal with the facts. Teenagers have sex. How often and how safely depends on how much knowledge and support they have. Crossing our fingers that they won’t cross the line is not an intelligent strategy. To wit, our ridiculous experiment in abstinence-only education seems to be winding down with a study finding that it didn’t work. States are opting out of it. Parents don’t like it either.

According to a 2004 survey sponsored by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, 65 percent of parents of high school students said that federal money “should be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives.”

We need to take some bold steps beyond the borders of our moralizing and discomfort and create a sex education infrastructure that actually acknowledges reality and protects our children from unwanted pregnancies, or worse.

Read it all here.

Blood Donors Needed

Connecticut Faces Shortage of Type O Blood

* Connecticut is currently experiencing a shortage of Type O blood.

* Type O negative blood is the universal blood type, which can be safely transfused to all patients, especially in times of emergency.

* As a result, the Connecticut Blood Services Region has cut shipments of Type O negative to area hospitals throughout the past few days.

* We need all O donors to donate blood.

We need your help!
Please make an appointment today and donate blood.

1-800-Give-Life

www.bloodct.org

Apple Festival Sermon

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD - Exodus 12:14

As I read this phrase, I thought about our Apple Festival. Although, not commanded by the Lord, this Apple Festival and its predecessors these 50+ years have been a day of remembrance and celebration for St. Peter’s.

So many of you talk about fairs and festivals of past years or many years…
-of the events that took place
-of the storms and other interruptions
-of the people who have worked here

For me, the sacredness of this event is the parishioners and friends who year in and year out, plan and participate in our festivities. And in that work you do today, is your ministry to this world.

I am reminded of words from Archbishop Oscar Romero:

How beautiful will be the day when all the baptized understand that their work, their job, is a priestly work, that just as I celebrate Mass at this altar, so each carpenter celebrates Mass at his workbench, and each metalworker, each professional, each doctor with a scalpel, the market woman at her stand, is performing a priestly office!

How many cab drivers, I know, listen to this message there in their cabs; you are a priest at the wheel, my friend, if you work with honesty, consecrating that taxi of yours to God, bearing a message of peace and love to the passengers who ride in your cab. From The Violence of Love by Archbishop Oscar Romero, November 20, 1977

No matter where you are at our Apple festival, parishioner, crafter, through your work you can communicate the love of God to all those we encounter this day. It is a priestly work to living our baptismal faith every day, through our every-day work. Not some big production, just our work.

Why do people come back each year? Pies, sure. Moonbounce, maybe. Or is it because people come and enjoy themselves and feel a love from God through us that they can’t quite put their finger on and yet know it is there. It is you who make this event, as someone said to me just a few years ago, “our parish could never pull this off, you have an amazing parish.” Indeed!

But we don’t do it just for ourselves, I think it really is part of the community. So many people look forward to our event and we want to make it a great festival. Even if someone tomorrow gave us a million dollars, wouldn’t that be nice! We would still do this festival and we still would be exhausted because this place and our time together is indeed sacred.

Let me end with a true story from Tanzania:

Many years ago, two brothers prepared to leave their village to make their fortune in a distant country. Their father gave them his blessing, with this advice: “On your way put marks on the trees lest you get lost.” The two brothers set off. The first brother entered the forest and, as he made his way, cut down some of the trees and marked others with deep gashes. He did this the whole length of his journey. The second brother took a different route. Each evening as he came to a house, he would stop knock on the door. He would be invited in and made friends with the family. He would help with the work and contribute to the family table. Then he would continue on his way, making friends all along his journey.

Finally the two brothers returned home. Their father welcomed them warmly. He then asked his sons to show him the marks they had made on their journey. The first son showed his father the trees he had cut down and marked. Father and son traveled a long way before returning home hungry and exhausted. The next day the father set out with the second son. Retracing his route, the son returned to the homes he had visited and both son and father were welcomed warmly with good food and drink and comfortable places to sleep.

When they returned home, the father summoned the two sons. “Dear sons, I have seen the work you have done. The time has come for me to entrust our family’s fortune to one of you.” To the first son, he said: “I told you to put marks on trees as you traveled. You have cut down many trees and destroyed many others. Where is the profit in all these felled trees?” But he praised the second son: “You left important marks on your journey. You made friendships and established relationships of trust and generosity. These will serve you well.”

The father then ordered a great feast and invested the second son as his principal heir and patriarch of the family. [Adapted from ‘Once Upon a Time in Africa’: Stories of Wisdom and Joy, compiled by Joseph G. Healey.]

And isn’t that what Archbishop Romero is talking about, our everyday encounters, like that second brother who made friendships, who made life, that is a priestly office, what it means to follow Christ, to take up our cross and follow him. Let us celebrate our feast at this altar today and let us remember that what we do today is part of our Godly ministry to reach out our hands with God’s love, welcoming everyone into our midst. Amen.

One image from Gustav

Tree limbs and part of the church bell tower facade lay around the grounds of St. Matthews Episcopal Church after Hurricane Gustav stormed through Houma, La., on Monday, Sept. 1, 2008.

(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)