My Opening Blog – NO BETTER DAY

What better way to launch a blog than REMEMBERING 9/11...
...and to so dedicate this site, as if it were my very own 
Memorial of the Heart, to preserving the MEMORY of GOODNESS 
in my life (yes, amid all of its ills.) Some of these good-
thoughts are infinitesimally small, as even grains of sand, 
though even they are capable of creating waves of greater 
good if remembered. A tiny stump found in that rubble still 
stands for every million Survivor who strolls by. When I was 
studying to be a priest many years ago, my best professor of
all was Rabbi Leon Klenicki, who carved it into my soul, that 
there is no word in our language more precious than Remember.
Memory restores, nurtures and expands the GOOD.
	Strange to say, there is in me no greater memory of 
GOODness than that day, 9/11. In a real sense, no BETTER day! 
The goodness arose from US in such perfect contrast to those 
passing hours of evil and the falling of the towers!! Easily 
we recall even now every aching minute of that day. At 9:58 
I stood on the porch of the hospital where I worked, 33 miles 
up river - and watched the smoke rise!
	But my own hour of hours came later in the day when I 
attended what I call “the Greatest Liturgy” of my life. Having 
been a priest, I've been part of many doozies of public prayer, 
going back to my very first - at the Basilica of St. Joseph in 
Montreal. Thousands stood before me in that incredible church,
as someone announced, “This boy was just ordained!” After Mass 
I was lovingly mauled like some rockstar! Equally fantastic 
were two times in which I stood aside the altar of Pope SAINT 
John Paul II, once at Yankee Stadium, the other at St. Peter’s 
in Rome. And yet nothing can compare to that September 11, as 
I returned home from working and crying, scooped up my little 
family and took them to our favorite getaway of Steak & Stein, 
just to unwind.
	My little boy of 5, Van, was cuddling extra close, and 
Molly, not yet 3 months old, was able to rest center-table in  
car seat. Like so many other fathers on that day, I seriously 
considered gobbling her up from toes to eyes! Yes, we who had 
survived were FEASTING on FAMILY that evening. The restaurant 
was quite filled with people worn out by grief, and just as 
our hot meals were being delivered, the warmest of managers 
and waitresses suddenly approached us and invited everyone to 
pray. No one refused, no matter how hungry or how ready their 
food for eating. One sweet waitress suggested we draw closer,  
so the entire crowd moved outside to the parking lot, where we 
formed a giant circle - about 60 of us, from a baby Molly to a 
very elderly woman who took out of her pocketbook a tiny book 
of prayers with which to lead us. We were all so different, so 
many nations and creeds, and yet all the same and linked hand 
to hand and heart to heart round a fresh flowing pool of tears.
At the end we all said together “Our Father Who art in Heaven."
	September 11, 2001, had brought out the Beast in a few 
but the Best in the rest! And I dedicate my blog to its memory 
and to the memory of so many goodnesses that have come from God 
especially through the hearts of humans, who bear His likeness, 
whether they know it or not. But never was it seen more clearly 
than in our ability to turn something so horrible as the tragic
events of 9/11/01 into so much good. “No Worse Day” became, in 
a real way, “No Better Day!”

Author: friardad

what's it like having a wife and six kids after having been a friar for many years and being still married to St. Francis' Lady Poverty? View all posts by friardad