Mychal's Prayer
Lord, take me where You want me to go,
let me meet who You want me to meet,
tell me what You want me to say,
and keep me out of Your way.
Saint Mychal Judge
There were many heroes on September 11th, including Father Mychal Judge.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Most of us first heard of Father Mychal Judge, the late New York fire chaplain, from that iconic photo of his body being carried from Ground Zero.
Yet even prior to his heroic death on 9/11, Father Mychal was widely seen by many New Yorkers as a living saint for his deep spirituality and his extraordinary work not only with firefighters -- but with the homeless, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and others rejected by society.
This often annoyed the church hierarchy. But like his spiritual father St. Francis of Assisi, Mychal reported directly to a Higher Authority, as evidenced by several miraculous healings through him.
This is the last sermon he gave, on Sept. 10, 2001, at a Mass for firefighters. How prophetic was this?!
“You do what God has called you to do.
You go out and do the job.
No matter how big the call, no matter how small,
you have no idea of what God is calling you to, but
God needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us.
God needs us to keep supporting each other,
to be kind to each other, to love each other.
“We love this job, we all do. What a blessing it is!
It’s a difficult, difficult job, but God calls you to do it,
and indeed, He gives you a love for it
so that a difficult job will be well done.
“Isn’t God wonderful?
Isn’t He good to you, to each one of you, and to me?
Turn to God each day --
put your faith, your trust, your hope and your life in His hands.
He’ll take care of you and you’ll have a good life.
And this firehouse will be a great blessing
to this neighbourhood and to this city.
Amen.”
from
http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com
I saw a 9/11 video that had footage of the first tower coming down. You could see Father Mike in the backround, inside the tower concourse of the other tower??? and he was looking up with his hands held out and he was praying. You could hear the sound of bodies hitting the pavement outside and debris was falling all around him. This image has stuck in my mind and I think about it more than I care to do...I truly believe that he is a saint...something about that image I can't shake....
At one point Mychal Judge climbed up on a balcony overlooking the North tower lobby, and began pleading outloud, "Jesus, please stop this! God, end this right now!" -- as he saw hundreds of people plunge to their deaths to escape the flames on the upper floors.
In his final moments of life, Mychal Judge pleaded with his Best Friend for Divine intervention to save lives.
God didn't do it quite the way Mychal asked, but in fact, a majority of the people did safely escape the WTC that day.
I truly believe that God granted Mychal Judge a glorious death to show us that He had not abandoned us, and to bring the world's attention to Mychal's whole lifetime of heroic peacemaking.
May peace and justice -- the ways of Mychal, Jesus, and all the great spiritual leaders, find place in our world, our communities, our homes, and in our hearts.
Post a Comment