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Greetings!,
During this season of Lent, we'll be sending out to you various resources for prayer, study and action. Below, you'll find a reflection for today, Ash Wednesday, by Colleen Kelly, a founding member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and the 2011 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. Colleen's booklet, authored for Pax Christi USA, is entitled From Ashes to Resurrection, Dust to New Life: Reflections for Lent 2012 and is available for purchase by download on the PCUSA website.
We have also set up a page for Lent 2012 on the site where we will archive reflections throughout the season and organize additional resources for individuals and groups, including prayers, prayer services, action opportunities, and information on undertaking a Way of the Cross event for Good Friday. You can find the page by clicking here. More resources will be posted in the days to follow.
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REFLECTION FOR ASH WEDNESDAY
By Colleen Kelly, PCUSA Ambassador of Peace
Joel 2:12-18 | 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 | Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
By the evening of September 11th, 2001, my mother had called several times asking me to go to Manhattan to search for my brother Bill. Unbeknownst to our family, Bill had attended a one-day breakfast conference at Windows on the World--the famous restaurant situated in the North Tower of the World Trade Centers. Every family that day wanted to believe that by some stroke of fate, its loved one was not inside the burning buildings. Our family was no different.
Nearing midnight, a friend and I went by subway to Grand Central Station. We then began the long, sorrowful walk from hospital to hospital asking for news of survivors. Each emergency room nurse told us the same thing--any survivors had been brought in earlier that morning. There was no further news...
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