Pope Benedict's prayer at Ground Zero

by Dennis Coday on Sep. 11, 2009

On its Facebook page, CatholicTV.com has a photo of Pope Benedict's April 2008 visit to Ground Zero in New York and reprints the prayer he prayed there. It begins:

O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths
and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

The prayer ends with:

Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

Compare and contrast this

Submitted by frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco) (not verified) on Sep. 11, 2009.

Compare and contrast this powerful prayer for peace with Mark Twain's famous posthumously published War Prayer.

The intent is similar. Twain tries through parody to reveal the absurd sin of praying for vengeance and victory in war. The Pope prays directly for peace, and for love, for comfort and consolation, for the wisdom and the courage of nonviolence.

So, let us now do at last as the Pope prays:
Love thy enemy.

Beat swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks.

No Catholic can go to war.
Dorothy Day taught us no Catholic can pay taxes which overwhelmingly go to war.
No Catholic can bear any weapon other than peace, and compassionate love.

God Bless Pope Benedict XVI

Submitted by Dave Mattozzi (not verified) on Sep. 11, 2009.

God Bless Pope Benedict XVI

Post new comment

NCR Comment code:

  1. Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  2. Use appropriate language. Avoid vulgarities and slurs.
  3. Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.

For more detailed guidelines, visit our User Guidelines page.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
(if you have one; if not, leave this blank)
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <font> <swf> <swf list>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may use <swf file="song.mp3"> to display Flash files inline

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This is to prove you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.