 |
Diane Miller, interim minister, Carlisle, MA,
conducting a vigil on 9/11/01
photo by Ellen Huber |
Chalice / Candle Lightings
We kindle this flame as a symbol of the light
we would keep glowing in our lives:
of appreciation for those who
differ, loving kindness for
those who suffer,
esteem for all who remind us
of our heritage and calling
as agents of the Most High.
Philip Randall Giles
Opening Words
We, whose journeys are always beginning
We, whose mission always awaits us
We, whose visions are bent on loving,
We gather together here.
We gather as a community drawn together
out of common need,
each toting our own carpetbag of treasures and dreams.
We gather together seeking meaning,
yearning to understand life in all its dimensions-
as it challenges and expands,
as it burdens
as it consoles and heals.
We gather together with questions-
the kinds of questions that
provoke us to the path of action.
We gather with hope,
the kind of hope that pulses on through uncertainty.
We gather with tenderness,
the kind of tenderness that can only be born from
knowing
human capabilities
as well as human imperfections.
We gather wanting certainty, and having none,
but we are wakeful to possibilities
as we seek discernment and gentle judgment.
We gather, then, unbounded-but close.
We gather thirsting.
We gather, drawn to our Source, our Creator. Amen.
Marni Harmony, adapted
Prayers
Even when the gates of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to tears.
The Talmud
The human spirit has enormous resilience.
But it is pushed to the limit by grief following the tragedy we have witnessed:
sudden and unexpected death,
the loss of so many lives.
These vicious attacks defy our understanding.
It hurts.
We grieve.
We do not understand, nor do we accept the logic of terrorists
who go
about a path of willful destruction.
It is an assault on the very soul of our nation, and for some, it is a
personal assault as well.
We begin to go through the torturous journey of weeks and months until
somehow the scattered pieces of our souls slowly move forward from the
painful shadows.
And so we are here with mixed emotions:
deep sadness
numbness
anger
grief
helplessness
fear.
We come seeking
answers
comfort
understanding
hope
peace.
"Our spirit's healing temple is someone else's available and
understanding heart" says the writer (Howard Thurman).
And so we pray that there will be those who offer
a listening ear, a healing touch.
We pray that there will be those who will not shrink from our untidy
suffering,
for it is through the support of these souls that we might find a balm,
a salve, and begin to heal our pain.
We pray for strength, for
a few more morsels of faith
a few more nuggets of time when we can empty our minds of it all
and little spaces in our days and nights when we can touch another soul,
and be held in someone else's embrace.
Help us to find the hope that lies
beneath what our eyes can see and our ears can hear.
Help us to hold fast to the belief
that there is still goodness in this world.
Help us to respond out of love rather than out of fear.
Help us to trust again, knowing that
"the ark of the
moral universe is long" and that it does indeed "bend toward
justice."
Mend once again our brokenness,
and guide us toward the path of peace.
Blessed be. Namaste. A' Salaam Alakim. Ashe, Shalom, and Amen.
Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley
The Inescapable Divine
Waiting is a window opening on many landscapes. For some, waiting means
the cessation of all activity when energy is gone and exhaustion is all
that the heart can manage. It is the long, slow panting of the spirit.
For some, waiting is a time of intense preparation for the next leg of
the journey. Here, at last, comes a moment when forces can be realigned
and a new attack upon an old problem set in order. Or it may be a time
(for) reassessment of all plans and of checking past failures against
present insight.
Waiting may be the long moment ahead when the landscape stretches far
in many directions and the chance to select one's way among many choices
cannot be denied.
For some, waiting is a sense of disaster of the soul. It is what Frances
Thompson suggests in the line, "Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted
stroke." The last hiding place has been abandoned because even the
idea of escape is without meaning. Here is no fear, no panic, only the
sheer excruciation of utter disaster. It is a kind of emotional blackout
in the final moment before the crash. It is the passage through the zone
of treacherous quiet.
For many, waiting is something more than all of this. It is the experience
of recovering balance when catapulted from one's place. It is the quiet
forming of a pattern of recollection in which there is called into focus
the fragmentary values from many encounters of many kinds in a lifetime
of living. It is to watch a gathering darkness until all light is swallowed
up completely without the power to interfere or bring a halt. Then in
that darkness, to continue one's journey with one's footsteps guided by
the illumination of remembered radiance. This is to know courage of a
peculiar kind, the courage to demand the light to continue to be light
even in the surrounding darkness. To walk in the light while darkness
invades, envelopes, and surrounds. This is to wait on the Lord. This is
to know the renewal of strength. This is to walk and faint not.
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Whither shall I flee from Thy
presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell,
behold, Thou art there ... If I say, "Surely, the darkness shall
cover me," even the night shall be light about me. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee. (Psalm 139, KJV)
Howard Thurman (excerpt from a sermon)
I am afraid of nearly everything:
of darkness,
hunger,
war,
children mutilated.
But most of all, I am afraid of what I might become:
reconciled to injustice,
resigned to fear and despair,
lulled into a life of apathy.
Unchain my hope, make me strong.
Stretch me towards the impossible, that I may work for what ought to
be: the hungry fed,
the enslaved freed,
the suffering comforted,
the peace accomplished.
Anonymous
I feel the suffering of millions.
And yet, when I look up at the sky,
I somehow feel that everything will change for the better,
that cruelty too will end,
that peace and tranquility will return once more.
Anne Frank
Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is sadness, joy;
where there is darkness, light.
O Divine one,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
not so much to be understood, as to understand;
not so much to be loved, as to love.
(more)
For it is in the giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
I Want to be Better
The concern which I lay bare before God today is my need to be better:
I want to be better than I am in my most ordinary day-by-day contacts:
With my friends--
With my family--
With my casual contacts--
With my business relations--
With my associates in work and play.
I want to be better than I am in the responsibilities that are mine:
I am conscious of many petty resentments.
I am conscious of increasing hostility toward certain people.
I am conscious of the effort to be pleasing for effect, not because it
is a genuine feeling on my part.
I am conscious of a tendency to shift to other shoulders burdens that
are clearly my own.
I want to be better in the quality of my religious experience:
I want to develop an honest and clear prayer life.
I want to develop a sensitiveness to the will of God in my own life.
I want to develop a charitableness toward my fellows that is greater
even than my most exaggerated pretensions.
I want to be better than I am.
I lay bare this need and this desire before God in the quietness of this
moment.
Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart
Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment, my future associates in
the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will
make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in
this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.
Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and
allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws
of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for the people
regardless of station, race, or calling.
May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under
the concepts of our Constitution, hold to different political faiths;
so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory.
Amen.
President Dwight David Eisenhower
from his 1953 inauguration address
Out of the depths I cry:
Who will hear my voice?
Out of the pain I cry:
Who will make space for my living and my dying?
Out of the years I cry:
Who will remember?
Who will remember?
My soul awaits:
More than those who watch for the morning.
More than those who watch for the morning.
Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley
Inspired by Psalm 130 and Maya Angelou
REST IN PEACE, by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
(based on the poem "Call Me by My True Names" by Thigh
Nat Hahn)
I am a World Trade Center tower, standing tall in the clear blue sky,
feeling a violent blow in my side, and I am a towering inferno of pain
and suffering imploding
upon myself and collapsing to the ground.
May I rest in peace.
I am a terrified passenger on a hijacked airplane not knowing where
we
are going or that I am riding on fuel tanks that will be instruments
of
death, and I am a worker arriving at my office not knowing that in just
a moment my future will
be obliterated.
May I rest in peace.
I am a pigeon in the plaza between the two towers eating crumbs from
someone's breakfast when fire rains down on me from the skies, and I
am a bed of flowers
admired daily by thousands of tourists now buried under five stories
of rubble.
May I rest in peace.
I am a firefighter sent into dark corridors of smoke and debris on
a mission of mercy only to
have it collapse around me, and I am a rescue worker risking my life
to save lives who is very
aware that I may not make it out alive.
May I rest in peace.
I am a survivor who has fled down the stairs and out of the building
to safety who knows that
nothing will ever be the same in my soul again, and I am a doctor in
a hospital treating
patients burned from head to toe who knows that these horrible images
will remain in my mind
forever.
May I know peace.
I am a tourist in Times Square looking up at the giant TV screens
thinking I'm seeing a disaster
movie as I watch the Twin Towers crash to the ground, and I am a New
York woman sending
e-mails to friends and family letting them know that I am safe.
May I know peace.
I am a piece of paper that was on someone's desk this morning and
now I'm debris scattered
by the wind across lower Manhattan, and I am a stone in the graveyard
at Trinity Church
covered with soot from the buildings that once stood proudly above me,
death meeting death.
May I rest in peace.
I am a dog sniffing in the rubble for signs of life, doing my best
to be of service, and I am a
blood donor waiting in line to make a simple but very needed contribution
for the victims.
May I know peace.
I am a resident in an apartment in downtown New York who has been
forced
to evacuate my home, and I am a resident in an apartment uptown who
has walked 100 blocks
home in a stream of other refugees.
May I know peace.
I am a family member who has just learned that someone I love has
died, and
I am a pastor who must comfort someone who has suffered a heartbreaking
loss.
May I know peace.
I am a loyal American who feels violated and vows to stand behind
any military action it takes
to wipe terrorists off the face of the earth, and I am a loyal American
who feels violated and
worries that people who look and sound like me are all going to be blamed
for this tragedy.
May I know peace.
I am a frightened city dweller who wonders whether I'll ever feel
safe
in a skyscraper again, and I am a pilot who wonders whether there will
ever be a way to make
the skies truly safe.
May I know peace.
I am the owner of a small store with five employees that has been
put
out of business by this tragedy, and I am an executive in a multinational
corporation who is
concerned about the cost of doing business in a terrorized world.
May I know peace.
I am a visitor to New York City who purchases postcards of the World
Trade Center Twin
Towers that are no more, and I am a television reporter trying to put
into words the terrible
things I have seen.
May I know peace.
I am a boy in New Jersey waiting for a father who will never come
home, and I am a boy in a
faraway country rejoicing in the streets of my village because someone
has hurt the hated
Americans.
May I know peace.
I am a general talking into the microphone/s about how we must stop
the terrorist cowards
who have perpetrated this heinous crime, and I am an intelligence officer
trying to discern
how such a thing could have happened on American soil, and I am a city
official trying to find
ways to alleviate the suffering of my people.
May I know peace.
I am a terrorist whose hatred for America knows no limit and I am
willing to die to prove it, and
I am a terrorist sympathizer standing with all the enemies of American
capitalism and
imperialism, and I am a master strategist for a terrorist group who
planned this abomination.
My heart is not yet capable of openness, tolerance, and loving.
May I know peace.
I am a citizen of the world glued to my television set, fighting back
my
rage and despair at these horrible events, and I am a person of faith
struggling to forgive the
unforgivable, praying for the consolation of those who have lost loved
ones, calling upon the
merciful beneficence of God/Yahweh/Allah/Spirit/Higher Power.
May I know peace.
I am a child of God who believes that we are all children of God and
we
are all part of each other.
May we all know peace.
From SLT: #463
My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
So much has been destroyed.
I have to cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.
Adrienne Rich
#496
From arrogance, pompousness, and thinking ourselves more important
than we are, may some
saving sense of humor liberate us. For allowing ourselves to ridicule
the faith of others, may
we be forgiven.
From making war and calling it justice, indifference and calling it
tolerance, pollution and
calling it progress, may we be cured.
For telling ourselves and others that evil is inevitable while good
is impossible, may we stand
corrected.
God of our mixed up, tragic, aspiring , doubting, and insurgent lives,
help us to be as good in
our hearts [as] we have always wanted to be.
Harry Meserve
Additional recommendations:
The following from Peace Prayers: Meditations (San Francisco: Harper,
1992)
- p. 13 Henri J.M. Nowen [a prayer for peace]
- pp. 28-29 Lament [of a mother], Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki
- p. 35 Jim Wallis (the necessity of prayer for one's enemies as
a deterrent to war)
- pp. 38-39 Oscar Romero
- p. 40 Martin Bell
- p. 75 Singing with Angels
- p. 85 Oscar Romero
and In Every Tiny Grain of Sand: a Child's Book of Prayers and Praise
(Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2000)
- p. 12 Muslim
- p. 17 Hindu
- p. 23 Chandogya Upanishad
- p. 31 Julian of Norwich
- p. 41 Gaelic
- p. 56 Reeve Lindbergh (based on Psalm 139)
- p. 60 Psalm 121
- p. 67 Jewish
Sacred Texts
My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is.
Judaism, Lamentations 3:17
Deliver me, O God, from the wicked;
preserve me from the violent,
from those who plan evil in their hearts
who stir up conflicts every day,
who sharpen their tongues like serpents,
venom of asps with their lips.
Judaism and Christianity, Psalm 140
Do not take life - which God has made sacred - except for just cause. And
if anyone is slain wrongfully, we have given his heir authority to demand
retribution; but let him not exceed bounds in the matter of taking life,
for he is helped by the law.
Islam, Qur'an 17.33
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Judaism and Christianity, Psalm 22
Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart
for the will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the children of God.
Christianity, Matthew 5:3-9
Anyone who kills a believer intentionally will have his reward in hell,
to remain there. God will be angry with him and curse him, and prepare
awful torment for him.
Islam, Qur'an 4.92
O sons of 'Abdul Muttalib, let there be no retaliation for the act of
murder. Do not roam about with a drawn sword…and do not start a massacre
of my opponents and enemies. See that only one man, that is my murderer,
is killed in punishment for the crime of murder, and that nobody else
is molested or harmed or harassed. The punishment to the man who attempted
the murder shall take place only when I die of the wound delivered by
him, and this punishment shall be only one stroke of the sword to end
[his] life.
Islam, Nahjul Balagha, Letter 47
Conquer anger by love.
Buddhism, Dhammapada 223
Nor do I absolve my own self of blame; the human soul is certainly prone
to evil, unless my Lord do bestow His mercy.
Islam, Qur'an 12.53
Never does hatred cease by hating in return;
Only through love can hatred come to an end.
Victory breeds hatred;
The conquered dwell in sorrow and resentment.
They who give up all thought of victory or defeat
may be calm and live happily at peace.
Let us overcome violence by gentleness;
Let us overcome evil by good;
Let us overcome the miserly by liberality;
Let us overcome the liar by truth.
Buddhism, Dhammapada, SLT #597
In wars to gain land, the dead fill the plains; in wars to gain cities,
the dead fill the cities. This is known as showing the land the way to
devour human flesh. Death is too light a punishment for such men [who
wage war]. Hence those skilled in war should suffer the most severe punishment.
Confucianism, Mencius IV.A.14
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the
still waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for
his name sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou
anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
Judaism and Christianity, Psalm 23
Readings
The more we try to say precisely what is in our hearts, the more we find
that we are speaking for multitudes of strangers the world over. The deeper
we get down to our own fundamentals, the more deeply we represent those
of other people. Like all human beings, I live on borrowed time. I never
know when my time will run out, but I do know that it will run out. I
have no way of knowing what tragedies will befall me at the next step,
the next ring of the telephone, the next rising of the sun. My notion
of spiritual fulfillment is learning how to accept this fate with a ringing
affirmation of all that makes life worth living.
The liberal spirit is my inspiration to be a creative, cooperative human
being, in spite of the fact that life may crush me at any moment and death
may blot me out. As a skeptic about such matters, I cannot comfort myself
with supernatural promises. I know that human existence contains irreducible
elements of tragedy and incompleteness. I know that I can never really
comprehend the totality of things. I am finite. For me the fundamental
question of life is not why but how. How shall I live while I live? This
is the bedrock question. In answering it, it matters very much what I
believe.
Rev. Jack Mendelsohn, Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age
from "Singing the Living Tradition (SLT)"
SLT #657 - It Matters
What We Believe
Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness, and
the feeling of being especially privileged.
Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.
Some beliefs are like shadows, clouding children's days and fears of
unknown calamities.
Other beliefs are like sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of
happiness.
Some beliefs are divisive, separating saved from unsaved, friends from
enemies.
Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences
beautify the pattern.
Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one's
own direction.
Other beliefs are like gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.
Some beliefs weaken a person's selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness.
Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal
worth.
Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing
world.
Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with
the upward thrust of life.
Sophia Lyon Fahs
SLT #658 - To Risk
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self.
To place our ideals--our dreams--before the crowd is to risk loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
To live is to risk dying.
Anonymous
SLT #609 To Serve the People
To worship God is nothing other than to serve the people.
It does not need rosaries, prayer carpets, or robes.
All peoples are members of the same body, created from one essence.
If fate brings suffering to one member
The others cannot stay at rest.
Saadi (Sufi Muslim)
SLT #468 - We Need One Another
We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted.
We need one another when we are in trouble and afraid.
We need one another when we are in despair, in temptation, and need to
be recalled to our best selves again.
We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and
cannot do it alone.
We need one another in the hour of success, when we look for someone
to share our triumphs.
We need one another in the hour of defeat, when with encouragement we
might endure, and stand again.
We need one another when we come to die, and would have gentle hands
prepare us for the journey.
All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.
George Odell
The Body is Humankind
I am a single cell in a body of four billion cells. I am a single cell.
My needs are individual but they are not unique.
I am interlocked with other human beings in the consequences of our actions,
thoughts, and feelings.
I will work for human unity and human peace; for a moral order in harmony
with the order of the universe.
Together we share the quest for a society of the whole equal to our needs,
A society in which we need not live beneath our moral capacity, and in
which justice has a life of its own.
We are single cells in a body of four billion. The body is humankind.
Norman Cousins
#584 - A Network of Mutuality
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single
garment of destiny.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to
be maladjusted.
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can
do that.
We must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge,
aggression, and retaliation.
The foundation of such a method is love.
Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamations
of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war.
One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that
we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
We shall hew out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In a world with so much hatred and violence,
We need a religion that proclaims the inherent worth and dignity of every
person.
In a world with so much brutality and fear,
We need a religion that seeks justice, equity, and compassion in human
relations.
In a world with so many persons abused and neglected,
We need a religion that calls us to accept one another and encourage
one another to spiritual growth.
In a world with so much tyranny and oppression,
We need a religion that affirms the right and conscience and the use
of the democratic process.
In a world with so much inequity and strife,
We need a religion that strives toward the goal of world community with
peace, liberty, and justice for all.
In a world with so much environmental degradation,
We need a religion that advocates respect for the interdependent web
of all existence of which we are a part.
In a world with so much uncertainty and despair,
We need a religion that teaches our hearts to hope, and our hands to
care.
Scott W. Alexander
Cherish Your Doubts
Cherish your doubts, for doubt the attendant of truth.
Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery.
A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is
incompleteness and imperfection in every belief.
Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.
Let no one fear the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a
testing of belief.
The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing:
For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure.
Those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are
built on shifting sands.
But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock.
They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their
hands shall endure.
Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help:
It is to be the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant
of truth.
Robert T. Weston, SLT #650
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting
the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies
it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the
lie, nor establish truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you
do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. … Returning
violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a
night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
…
The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists
we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists
for the preservation of injustice or for the extremists of justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Closing Words / Benedictions
[And now],
Since the struggle deepens
Since evil abides, and good does not yet prosper.
Let us gather what strength we have,
what confidence and valor
that our small victories may end in triumph,
and the world awaited be a world attained.
Barrow Dunham
In addition to the traditional concept of true commitment that means you
are willing to die for what you think is right, make equal space for the
womanly concept of commitment that means you are willing to live for what
you believe.
June Jordan
Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
Nancy Wood
Hymns from Singing the Living Tradition
1 May Nothing Evil Cross This Door
2 Abide with Me
115 God of Grace and God of Glory
123 Spirit of Life
131 Love Will Guide Us
134 Our World is One World
135 This is My Song (recommended as a closing hymn)
136 Precious Lord, take my hand
206 Amazing Grace
318 We Would be One
352 Find a Stillness
360 Here We Have Gathered
354 We Laugh, We Cry
396 I Know This Rose will Open
401 Kum ba Yah
WHAT CAN I OFFER?
words by the Reverend Elizabeth "Kit" Ketcham
written April 1999, revised, Sept., 2001
TUNE: # 34 in "Singing the Living Tradition," Gift of
Love 8.8.8.8.
What can I offer to repair
those human souls so torn and bared
by violence and deep despair?
Where can God be in this dark hour?
The children cry, all parents fear,
Our lives are shattered, then we hear
the voices calm and kind and clear.
Might God be near in this dark hour?
Our hearts are breaking, yet our grief
brings saints and heroes, brings relief,
Brings hands and hearts in firm belief
that God be here in this dark hour.
When evil comes and lives are torn,
When wicked deeds cause us to mourn,
In human hearts hope is reborn
for God is here in this dark hour.
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