STUART | To mark the 25th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Knights of Columbus from Council 12322 and others led a patriotic rosary Sept. 11 following morning Mass at St. Andrew Church in Stuart.
Msgr. Blase Gintoli, who serves the parish in retirement, was celebrant of the Mass for the preservation of peace and justice. He recalled how Americans’ sense of security was shattered that day by terrible acts of violence.
“We still remember the thousands of innocent lives that were taken on that day. We remember the husbands and the wives, the mothers and the fathers, the sons and daughters, friends, neighbors whose lives ended on that day,” he said. “But we also remember the courage, the courage of those men and women who ran toward danger while others were running away. The first responders, the military personnel, and even ordinary men and women who sacrificed their lives to save others.”
He urged the faithful to move beyond fear, despair and vengeance to faith, forgiveness and love, to which Jesus is calling everyone. Though Satan had a hand in what occurred, “Forgiveness means that we refuse to allow evil that we have experienced to take possession of our hearts.”
Let’s pray for those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and the many more whose physical and emotional suffering continues to this day, Msgr. Gintoli said. Don’t allow this remembrance to end in sorrow.
“Rather, let it lead us to prayer. Let it lead us to compassion. Let it lead us to forgiveness and, above all, let it lead us to Jesus,” he said. “For in Jesus, death is not the end. In Jesus, hatred does not have the final word. In Jesus, sorrow can become hope, and in Jesus, the light will continue to shine in darkness.”
During the patriotic rosary, there were special intentions for Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, priests and religious, for the conversion of the nation, the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, state governors, and county and municipal offices. Excerpts were read from the preamble of all 50 state constitutions demonstrating their founders’ clear commitment to praise, honor and serve God.
Each decade of the rosary began with a quotation from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers invoking belief in and gratitude for God’s providence. Praying the sorrowful mysteries, the first decade included these words from George Washington:
“No one can rejoice more than I do at every step the people of this great country take to preserve the union, establish good order and government, and to render the nation happy at home and respectable abroad. No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America.
“Wondrously strange then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means, and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass. The Great Governor of the Universe has led us too long and too far on the road to happiness and glory to forsake us in the midst of it. By folly and improper conduct, proceeding from a variety of causes, we may now and then get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right path before we shall be entirely lost” (George Washington, June 29, 1788).
To learn more about St. Andrew Parish in Stuart, visit https://saintandrewcatholic.org or call 772-781-4415. For news on state Knights of Columbus councils, go to www.floridakofc.org.
