A prayer from Edgewater observing 24 years since 9/11

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Eternal God, on this solemn day of remembrance, we lift our voices from Edgewater, a lakeside neighborhood that awoke twenty-four years ago to sirens, to screens flashing smoke and ash, to the news that our world was not as safe as we believed.

We remember being young—some of us students here at Loyola or other schools, far from home for the first time, walking these very streets or staring out dorm windows, planning to take the Red Line downtown to classes just across from one of the tallest towers in America, and wondering what could come next.

We remember those who perished, their names etched into steel and stone but also into our hearts.

We remember the firefighters, police officers, medics, and ordinary neighbors who ran toward danger.

We remember families torn apart, and the millions whose lives were forever changed.

We pray for all who carry the weight of that day’s trauma, for those who still mourn, and for a nation that continues to feel its aftershocks.

God of all nations, we lift up this city we love. We pray for Chicago—for its neighborhoods, its schools, its streets, its lakefront.

We pray for safety and peace in every block, for healing where there is division, for wisdom for leaders and all who serve the public good.

We pray especially for the neighborhoods of Edgewater, Rogers Park, Uptown, and all the communities where immigrants and asylum seekers have found shelter.

May Chicago remain a sanctuary for the weary and a place of new beginnings, just as so many of our families once found refuge here.

We pray against hatred and political violence, Lord, in a time when public debate has grown heated and voices are quick to wound.

Quiet our hearts, and teach us to be peacemakers.

Help us to remember that every person is made in Your image and loved by You.

Where fear tempts us to close our hearts, give us courage to open them.

Where anger tempts us to harm, give us strength to forgive.

Bless this Edgewater community, its mosaic of languages, faiths, and faces, that we may be a witness to Your kingdom where swords are beaten into plowshares and none shall make us afraid.

Teach us to honor the memory of September 11 not only with words but with lives committed to justice, mercy, and love of neighbor.

Through Christ, who is our peace, we pray.

Amen.