9/11 Anniversary: Finding Hope And Healing At Ground Zero (VIDEO)

On the anniversary of 9/11, HuffPost Religion went to St. Paul's Chapel at ground zero to talk with clergy and lay people about where they find hope and healing 10 years later.

This video is part of a collection of interfaith reflections on 9/11 and the decade that followed.

Comments

[eddy joe]

07:05 PM on 09/11/2011

Over the day, there sems to have been a consensus reached by the majority of the people. Everyone mourns the day of tragedy, but will remember it in their own way, having no part of the empty commercial platitudes repeated by our leaders, and the media.

[eddy joe]

06:59 PM on 09/11/2011

Shawshank Redemption... Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies....I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope.

[Dan Stewart]

09:30 AM on 09/08/2011

The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 seems to me overwrought.  In the 20th century over 100 million people died in war, most civilians.  In WWII tens of millions died, most civilians.  In Vietnam millions died, most civilians.  In Iraq hundreds of thousands died, most civilians.  In Afghanistan thousands died, most civilians.

The US has killed more people in other countries in the last 50 years than any other country, without the slightest expression of remorse or contrition.  But when we lose citizens to attack, we cry the loudest as if it were among the greatest crimes of human history and construct a narrative that we are blameless victims, neither of which is true. 

Over the last 50 years we have become arrogant, strident and hypocritical, and have lost the humility and justness that was once the defining characteristics of our nation.

[see-ellen2001]

11:51 PM on 09/08/2011

Dan Stewart: well stated. I actually don't understand why people thought it could never happen in America and were shocked when it did. The world has gotten smaller: why would the chaos travel the world but not touch America?

[kenhamlett]

09:22 AM on 09/08/2011

I have lived in New York City for 38 years, and I cannot imagine that anyone loves the city more than I. But, I will not be taking part in the unending observance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. I remember the day vividly -- it was one of the most difficult of my life. I cannot, will not, would not ever forget the pain, suffering or heroism of that day. But, I do not need ceremony after ceremony or TV special after TV special to make the day meaningful to me. Our society today -- and especially our journalists -- seem to want to beat every story and every event into submission with too much coverage and too much repetition. I am happy the memorial is opening, and I hope the ceremony for those involved is helpful and uplifting. But, the ceremony and coverage of the ceremony is enough. We do not need a solid week of nonstop 9/11 programs and articles and commercials. My view may be unpopular with some, and if it is, so be it. I simply believe that we have read the names and shed the tears enough times. My city is rebuilding, and I want us to remember these events, but to look to the future, not exist in the past. I remember the friends and acquaintances we lost on 9/11 every day. I do not need a TV special to remind me.

[jhNY]

01:43 PM on 09/08/2011

The uses to which 9-11 has grafted for the promotion and publicity of the empty-hearted politicians who will over-populate every dais and remembrance they can get to, coupled with the breathless media's self-congratulatory awe of themselves and their predecessors on that fateful day overwhelms utterly any interest I might have had in public observances of this anniversary. And I've lived in NYC for 30 years, and saw the towers fall in real life, and knew a couple of people who were killed.

I will, however, buy a round for the firefighters who stop by my local. It's the least I could do to express my undiminished gratitude for their heroics, and the sacrifice of those who died, on that terrible day.

[nightingale23ks]

03:11 PM on 09/08/2011

I will join you with these sentiments. The media always uses every event to hype their own agenda, create contraversy and make assumptions about whatever everyone thinks and feels about a given event. Like you, I am forever changed by this tragedy, not because I lost anyone or knew anyone involved, but simply because I am an American and this touched all our lives. I will release memorial doves on that day as a symbol of memory and hopefully, a symbol of peace. No pomp and circumstance, just my own reflection. All these people do is look for photo ops and ways to capitalize on someone else's pain. Makes me sick.

[kenhamlett]

04:20 PM on 09/08/2011

I agree completely. I will avoid the ceremonies and concentrate in remembering in my own fashion.

[hungryaardvark]

08:27 AM on 09/08/2011

The Iraqis are trying to do the same in Baghdad after Shock and Awe, in Fallujah after we killed tens of thousands there and made the city of over 300,000 mostly uninhabitable, and in dozens of other cities. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Iraqi grief should be honored as much as ours. And with profound and profuse apologies from bended knees.

[Dan Stewart]

08:54 AM on 09/08/2011

Well said.  Thank you.

[Weirdo]

12:06 AM on 09/08/2011

Time heals. I don't feel the need to go back in time and reopen my wounds, just because it's ten years later. I'm doing everything I can to avoid stories this week. Anyone else doing the same?

[MIKEinNYC]

08:22 AM on 09/08/2011

Yes.I agree. I can't watch 9/11 material. I watched it on TV as it was unfolding from just before the 2d plane hit the 2d tower. That was enough. Maybe in a few years.

Same with Holocaust material.

I can't stand watching it when the good guys lose.

[Dan Stewart]

08:55 AM on 09/08/2011

Totally agree.

[chaapai]

11:59 PM on 09/07/2011

Samuel Clemens said of hope

It is like any other agriculture: if you hoe it and harrow it and water it enough, you can make three blades of it grow where none grew before. If you've got nothing to plant, the process is slow and difficult, but if you've got a seed of some kind or other--any kind will answer--you get along a good deal faster.
- "Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes"

[hadafaone]

08:34 PM on 09/07/2011

Hope and healing are found with the belief in religions of different faiths and when all who suffered come together to pray for our loved ones and for our future.

[enstncls]

07:02 PM on 09/07/2011

YOu are not going to prevent another 9/11 with "hope and healing". Only with kicking a.. and counting heads. If you do not get rid of the extremists, you will be "hope and healing" over and over everytime they slam you.

[hungryaardvark]

08:28 AM on 09/08/2011

Great way to make infinite enemies and convince the world that America truly needs to be attacked. Self-fulfilling prophesy.

[Dan Stewart]

09:33 AM on 09/08/2011

Your policy will create far more "extremists" than it will eliminate.  The only way to stop terrorism is to leave other people in other countries alone.  If we impose our prerogative on other people, someone will inevitably push back.

[GeoNorth]

04:50 PM on 09/07/2011

I have nothing to say.

[darquelourd]

04:35 PM on 09/07/2011

Government mandated mourning, eh?

[Jim NLN]

04:06 PM on 09/07/2011

We are not to call it Ground Zero any more. We should just call it New York! As in the following sentence: New York is so full of its self since New York!

[Catriona]

06:07 PM on 09/07/2011

Then you will celebrate 9/11 and thank the terrorists for killing NYers.

[Dan Stewart]

09:34 AM on 09/08/2011

What???

[SameBoat]

09:35 AM on 09/08/2011

New Yorkers have always been full of themselves. With good reason. That's what makes it one of the greatest cities in the world, and unique in many ways. And, no I am not a New Yorker. I just enjoy visiting.