Early today, Pope Benedict XVI visited the memorial site at Ground Zero in New York City:
NEW YORK, April 20 — Pope Benedict XVI transformed a four-story-deep hole at the bedrock of Ground Zero into a prayer site Sunday morning, lighting a candle symbolizing resurrection and praying with victims of the Sept. 11 attacks for “peace in our violent world.”
Drizzle and heavy mist shrouded the tops of skyscrapers as the pope, on his final day in the United States, knelt in the crater of what was the World Trade Center’s North Tower before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Despite the dramatic setting — essentially a massive construction site with dozens of police officers, media, bright lights, trucks and cranes — the service was an intimate one, with two dozen people who were directly affected by the attacks surrounding Benedict on a small temporary platform. Standing in a square around the pope were 16 family members of victims, four first responders and four survivors.
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The pope lit a Pascal candle, which is typically used during funeral services and the Easter season and symbolizes Christ’s resurrection and hope. He then knelt and said a prayer, his amplified words booming across the pit as flags lashed against the metal scaffolding flapped in the cold early spring wind.
Here’s the text of the prayer:
“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.
“We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to all who died here — the heroic first responders: our firefighters, police officers, emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel, along with all the innocent men and women who were victims of this tragedy simply because their work or service brought them here on September 11, 2001.
“We ask you, in your compassion to bring healing to those who, because of their presence here that day, suffer from injuries and illness. Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy. Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
“We are mindful as well of those who suffered death, injury, and loss on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our hearts are one with theirs as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.
“God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the Earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.
“God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events. Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain. 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.”
And the video:
