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| Never Forget. Never Despair. | "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea." (Psalm 46:1–2) | Father, today marks 25 years since the towers fell, the Pentagon burned, and Flight 93 went into a field in Pennsylvania. We remember the 2,977 who died that morning, the 441 first responders among them, and the more than 9,000 who have died since from illnesses the day produced. And we bring You two more stories: 170 people baptized in the sea on a Devon beach last weekend because a young man with a social media channel asked who wanted to be baptized, and the Obama Presidential Center hosting a Planned Parenthood fundraiser to celebrate the killing of children. Hope and grief. Courage and outrage. All of it laid before You today. In Jesus' name, Amen. | Today's issue covers the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and how the Church is marking the day, 170 baptisms at a Devon beach organized entirely through social media, and the Obama Presidential Center hosting a Planned Parenthood gala. Go well, and never forget. | Smarter CRM. Less Busywork. | | Disconnected data and tools make it harder to understand your customers. HubSpot's Agentic Customer Platform brings your data, teams, and tech stack together with AI built in to help your business work faster and create more personalized customer experiences. | Why HubSpot and what's new | Use AI powered tools to take action faster Unify your data, teams, and tech stack in one place Create one shared view of customer data Connect teams around the same customer context Bring your business tools into one place
| Connect more of your business in one place and give every team a smarter way to work. Get set up quickly and start checking off your hardest tasks. | Get started free | | | Three Headlines to Watch | 1) Twenty-Five Years. 2,977 Dead. 441 First Responders. 9,000 Gone Since. The Church Gathers to Pray and to Remember. | Twenty-five years ago this morning, members of the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft and turned them into weapons. Two struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. One struck the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth, United Flight 93, went into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers overpowered the hijackers and prevented the plane from reaching its intended target in Washington. In total, 2,977 people were killed immediately, including 441 first responders. As of June 30 of this year, more than 9,000 people tracked by the federal World Trade Center Health Program have died since from attack-related illnesses, and more than 57,000 first responders and survivors have been certified with related cancers. On September 8, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released 170,000 pages of documentation showing that city officials knew dangerous toxins from the attacks remained long after the air had been officially declared safe. Across the country today, the Church is gathering to pray. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks celebrated a vigil Memorial Mass last night at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, livestreamed for the nation. Bishop Mark Bartchak is at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. Multiple Masses are being offered at cemeteries where victims are buried. At St. Philip Neri Church in the Bronx, the congregation is honoring three firefighters who were together in 1967 when they risked their lives to save the Blessed Sacrament from a fire in that same church. On September 11, 2001, two of them, Lt. Michael K. Healey and firefighter Donald J. Regan, died at the World Trade Center. The third, Lt. Mickey Conboy, who survived, will be present today as a plaque is dedicated honoring all three. Read the full story at OSV News → | Doorpost Reflection: The Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the United States, writing for this anniversary, said that September 11 confronts us with the terrible reality of the capacity of fallen humanity for evil. They are right. When hatred is allowed to take possession of the human heart, when another person is no longer seen as a child of God but as an enemy to be destroyed, the consequences can be horrifying. We saw that on a Tuesday morning twenty-five years ago. But the bishops also said this: September 11 revealed an even greater capacity for goodness, courage, compassion, sacrifice, and love. We saw strangers helping strangers. We saw firefighters climbing stairways toward almost certain death. We saw ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage. Healey and Regan had already saved the Blessed Sacrament from a burning church in 1967. On September 11 they gave their lives saving members of the body of Christ in a burning tower. That is not a coincidence. That is a pattern of men who knew what was worth running toward. The bishops also said something that the Church needs to hear on days like this: despair is not the language of the Gospel. Hope is. In the face of death, we proclaim with confidence the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life. That is not a platitude. It is the single most defiant statement the Church can make in the presence of mass murder and grief. Evil did not have the last word on September 11, 2001. It does not have the last word today. The 2,977 who died that morning were known by name to the God who made them, and He has not forgotten a single one of them. Today the Church gathers, not only as separate denominations or traditions, but as one body under the Lord Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Catholic and Protestant, mainline and evangelical, the Church unites today around the grief of a nation and the hope of the Gospel. Whatever divides us on other days, September 11 is a day to remember that we kneel before the same God, pray to the same Savior, and stand against the same evil in His name. Pray for the families of the 2,977 who have carried this grief for 25 years. Pray for the first responders who are still fighting illness from that day. Pray for the people of New York, Washington, and Shanksville. And pray that the faith that sustained America in the hours and days after the attacks would sustain the Church in whatever comes next. |
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| Scripture: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." — Psalm 23:4 | | 2) A Young Man With a Social Media Channel Asked Who Wanted to Be Baptized in the Sea. 170 People Showed Up at a Devon Beach. God Was in It. | One hundred and seventy people were baptized in the sea at Bigbury-on-Sea on the Devon coast of England last weekend, in an event organized entirely through social media by Merlin Kraft, founder of the Christian channel BibleLadUK. Kraft, who describes himself not as a pastor but as a follower of Christ, put out an open invitation online and people traveled from across the United Kingdom to be baptized, including from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, and the Isle of Wight. One couple from Leeds could not secure transport all the way to the beach and walked the final three hours through fields to reach Bigbury-on-Sea in time. The event was partnered with local churches, pastors, and volunteers, who helped perform the baptisms and provided free food and Bibles to everyone who attended. Reflecting afterward, Kraft said he was still in disbelief at what he had witnessed. He said God was in it the whole way, and that all he could do was give God the glory. He said he thinks people respond to him because of his willingness to be bold about his faith and because there is so much doom and gloom in the news. Read the full story at Premier Christian News → | Doorpost Reflection: A couple from Leeds could not get transport all the way to the Devon coast, so they walked the last three hours through fields to be baptized in the sea. That tells you everything you need to know about what happened at Bigbury-on-Sea last weekend. Merlin Kraft did not organize a conference or launch a ministry campaign. He posted an invitation on social media and people came from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and across England because they wanted to make a public declaration that they belong to Jesus. On the same day we are marking 25 years since nearly 3,000 people were killed by men willing to die for what they hated, here are 170 people willing to walk three hours through fields and wade into a cold ocean for what they love. The harvest is not over. The Spirit is still moving. Sometimes all it takes is someone bold enough to invite people in. Pray for the 170 who were baptized at Bigbury-on-Sea, that each of them would find a local church where they are discipled and grown in the faith they publicly claimed last weekend. Pray for Merlin Kraft, for continued boldness and the wisdom to steward well what God is doing through his platform. And pray for the Church across the UK today, that the same hunger that filled that beach would fill every congregation in the country. |
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| Scripture: "And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" — Acts 2:38 | | 3) The Obama Presidential Center Is Hosting a Planned Parenthood Fundraiser. They Are Calling It a Celebration. It Is Not. | Planned Parenthood Illinois Action is holding its signature fall fundraiser, called the Fighting Forward gala, at the Sky Room of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The event runs from 6 to 9 PM. Pro-Life Action League protesters gathered outside the building from 5:30 PM with signs reading Abortion is Nothing to Celebrate, and banners documenting that Planned Parenthood kills more than 43,000 babies annually in Chicagoland abortion facilities alone. Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League said directly: President Obama ran on a platform of hope and change, but what could be more hopeless than offering nothing but abortion to women in need? He added that real hope would mean encouraging a woman's capacity to mother her child, and that real change would mean dismantling the pressures that make women feel abortion is their only option. Planned Parenthood's own most recent annual report recorded 434,450 abortions, an all-time high, representing approximately two in five of all abortions performed in the United States. The same report listed 3,038 adoption referrals, meaning Planned Parenthood performed more than 143 abortions for every adoption referral it made. Pro-life groups have long cited Obama's record as hostile to the unborn, noting his votes against born-alive protections for infants who survive abortion, his repeal of the Mexico City Policy barring U.S. funds from groups that perform or promote abortion overseas, and his repeated efforts to keep taxpayer funding flowing to Planned Parenthood. Read the full story at LifeNews → | Doorpost Reflection: A building named for a president who ran on hope is hosting a black-tie fundraiser for an organization that performed 434,450 abortions last year and made 3,038 adoption referrals. That is not hope. It is the abortion industry dressed in evening wear calling itself a cause worth celebrating. Planned Parenthood does not need to be celebrated. It needs to be shut down. Every dollar raised at this gala will fund the killing of more unborn children. That is what the event is for. The Church should say so plainly, and Christians in Chicago and across the country should support the Pro-Life Action League and every organization pressing for accountability. Pray for the Pro-Life Action League protesters who showed up outside the Obama Center last night. Pray for the unborn children whose lives will be ended by the money raised at this gala. Pray for the women who will enter Planned Parenthood facilities in Illinois this week believing they have no other choice, that they would find the pregnancy centers and the people who will tell them the truth. And pray for Eric Scheidler and every pro-life leader in Illinois who is still standing after decades in this fight. |
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| Scripture: "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." — Proverbs 24:11 | | Free email without sacrificing your privacy | | Gmail tracks you. Proton doesn’t. Get private email that puts your data — and your privacy — first. | Ditch the Gmail data grab | Verse of the Day | "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea." — Psalm 46:1–2 | On the morning of September 11, 2001, people ran out of burning buildings into the streets of New York and reached for their phones to call someone they loved. Churches that had been half-empty the week before were full the following Sunday. The nation stopped what it was doing and remembered that it was not, in fact, in control of anything. Psalm 46 was written for exactly that moment: the earth giving way, the mountains moving into the sea, kingdoms tottering, the world in an uproar. And the answer is not that none of it is happening. It is that God is a very present help in trouble. Present in it. Not outside it looking in. | Father, on this 25th anniversary we remember the 2,977 and give thanks for every life that was lived fully before that morning and for every name You know by heart. We give thanks for the 170 who were baptized in a cold sea in Devon last weekend because they wanted everyone to know whose they are. We pray for the unborn children who will die because of the money raised tonight at the Obama Center. And we rest today in Psalm 46: You are our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. We will not fear. In Jesus' name, Amen. | | Scripture Stumper | Question: Today's story about the Devon beach baptisms mentions that 170 people were baptized in the sea after seeing an invitation on social media. The New Testament records the single largest mass baptism in the history of the early Church, which took place on the Day of Pentecost following Peter's sermon in Acts 2. How many people were baptized that day, and what did Peter say they needed to do to be saved? | A) About 3,000 were baptized; Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit | B) About 5,000 were baptized; Peter told them to believe in the Lord Jesus and they would be saved, along with their households | C) About 120 were baptized; Peter told them to pray without ceasing and to wait for the promise of the Father to come upon them | D) About 2,000 were baptized; Peter told them to confess their sins publicly before the congregation and to fast for seven days as a sign of repentance | |
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