To the victims of the tragic events of September 11,
Words cannot begin to express the sorrow and grief I feel for you and your families. I pray that you have found peace and that your families will find peace in the coming days. I wish in some small way that I could show you that your lives were not lost in vain.
For you I pledge:
I will seek to come from a place of compassion, love, and understanding when I deal with others.
I will seek always to increase the love in the world that it may decrease the hatred.
I will be open-minded.
I will strive to be the best person that I am capable of being.
I will tell the people I care about how much they mean to me.
I will do all the things I dream of doing.
I will strive to always act in a way that is consistent with my morals and values.
I will become more active in speaking out to our government.
I will speak out when I see injustice.
I will strive to do no harm.
I will seek to consider others before I act.
I will recognize how precious life is and treat each day as a gift.
In the words of St. Francis of Assisi;
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.
I will keep a candle burning constantly for the next week to show you that you are in my thoughts and prayers.