An Unsettling Horizon: A Father’s 9/11 Prayer

As we approach the 15th anniversary of 9/11, I’d like to share an essay just published in America magazine, and linked here: “A Father’s 9/11 Prayer: Hopes for Children in a World Marked by Violence.”

It was written for my son, Isaiah, for my students, and really for young people across the world, in light of the question of God – Who is God? Where is God? Is God? – in view of the post-9/11 world we inhabit. The image accompanying the article, which I created some months after the attacks, amid the “sound and fury” that would eventually lead to the launch of the Second Iraq War, still stirs something ineffable in me. I hope you find the essay and image touch something in your own heart, and might even be resources for prayer.

My essay in America five years ago, marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 – a meditation on Bruce Springsteen’s post-9/11 album “The Rising,” is here.

As ever, thank you for reading, and I welcome your comments below.