2002. One year after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and another hijacked plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, the nation is still coming to grips with the meaning of September 11 — not just the deaths and the destruction but also what it told us about ourselves and our world.
As Anna Quindlen puts it in her foreword to Eugene Kennedy's poignant book of meditations (reviewed below): "The events of September 11 marked an unprecedented foreign policy crisis for the United States and its people. But it was also a great spiritual crisis, in which men and women who had perhaps been too otherwise engaged for soul searching found themselves blown by the explosion into the center of their own personal universe, forced into a face-to-face confrontation with mortality and meaning, the notion of God and the paradox of human existence, bounded on one side by great selflessness and on the other by mass destruction."
In anticipation of the anniversary, we have been reading and listening and watching responses to September 11. These spiritually literate perspectives on the event and its aftermath are sure to deepen your remembrance and your reverence for life in the days and months ahead.Books Photographs Audios
BOOKS
9-11: Meditations at the Center of the World: Eugene Kennedy, a former priest and syndicated columnist, probes the sacramental meanings of September 11.
Transforming Our Terror: A Spiritual Approach to Making Sense of Senseless Tragedy: Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk and co-founder of the Gaia House in Great Britain, offers ideas and practices for coping with suffering and loss in the wake of September 11.
The Transformation of Suffering: Reflections on September 11 and the Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee: Thomas Keating, founder of The Centering Prayer Movement, sees the tragedy of September 11 from the perspective of Christ-consciousness and its continuing presence in the world.
Writing in the Dust: After September 11: Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Wales and the newly designated Archbishop of Canterbury, asesses the events of September 11 and presents some of the difficult lessons that can be learned from the tragedy.
Safeguarding the Heart: A Buddhist Response to Suffering and September 11: Yifa, a Buddhist nun who serves as head of the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Center, sees September 11 as offering teachings on suffering, impermanence, and the interconnection of all things.
From the Ashes: A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America: Collected by the editors of Beliefnet, this book brings together essays, interviews, poems, prayers, and website discussion group comments to create a multifaith tapestry of reactions to the events of September 11.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photographs: This collection, first assembled in a New York storefront, presents nearly 1000 powerful and inspiring images that serve as windows into the experience and the emotions of September 11.
September 11: A Testimony: The Journalists of Reuters present the now famous images of the destruction of September 11 as well as many poignant photographs of a grieving world.
After September 11: New York and the World: The Journalists of Reuters through essays and images ponder the aftershocks of this infamous day in history.
AUDIOS
The Rising: Bruce Springsteen back with the E Street Band offers up a soulful album forged out of the deluge of feelings flowing from the tragedy and the trauma of September 11.
A Time of Choices: New Dimensions Radio is the premier independent producer of interviews and dialogues that give listeners both practical knowledge and perennial wisdom. Over the years, host Michael Toms has interviewed most of the major spiritual teachers of our time — and this year has been no different. Since September 11, Toms has interviewed more than 100 leading thinkers, social architects and creative artists, asking them to comment on the challenges of our times and to share their visions for the future. You can sample the "A Time for Choices" programming, learn about radio broadcasts and webcasts, and order tapes at the New Dimensions website: www.newdimensions.org