Almighty God,

the events of September 11th will be indelibly inscribed in our memories.

We looked with horror on the terrorist attack.

But we looked with honor on acts of courage by ordinary people
who sacrificed themselves to prevent further death and destruction.

We shed our tears in a common bond of grief
for those we loved and lost.
We journeyed through a dark valley,
but your light has led us to a place of hope.
You have turned our grief into determination.
We are resolved to do what is good, and right, and just.

Help us to remember what it means to be Americans—a people endowed with abundant blessings.
Help us to cherish the freedoms we enjoy
and inspire us to stand with courage,
united as one nation in the midst of any adversity.

Lord, hear this prayer for our nation. Amen.

source: U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

- Abraham Lincoln