A Word about Fear
One of my favorite banners that has emerged here at St. Paul's
Chapel [at Ground Zero] is a red banner with one word on it, one
large word anyway, and the word is "Courage." I love that banner
so much that when people started signing it on the fence, I wanted
to take it off the fence, because I didn't want it to be signed.
I wanted it to remain intact just the way it was created. But people
have signed it, and I think it's all the more special now. The
reason I bring up the Courage banner is because down at the bottom
right-hand corner of that banner is a quotation by Anne LaMott that
says, "Courage is fear that's said its prayers."

It's okay to have fear. It's quite natural to have fear. It's very
human. But we're called to a different place. We're called to live
a life of love and not of fear. God calls us forth from that place.
God invites us to offer our fears and say our prayers, so that we
too might be encouraged and empowered to take that next step. It's
never easy, or at least, rarely is it easy. But I trust that God
is at work even now, leading you into the next chapter of your
life.
--The Rev. Lyndon Harris, Priest-in-charge, St. Paul's Chapel
Ground Zero, New York

--from the feature "Hope: Rising from the Destruction of Ground Zero"

Read the essay in its entirety.