[Remembering 9-11] AND THE AGE OF TERROR Part I
September 11,2001, is frequently compared to December 7, 1941,as a day that will '' live in infamy''. But a more appropriate analogy might might be Aug 24,410,when the city of Rome was besieged and pillaged by an army of 40,000 barbarians'' led by the Osama Bin Laden of late antiquity,a wily warrior named Alaric. One can still see the effect of this cataclysmic event when walking through the ruins of the Roman Forum today . The Basilica Aemilla was the Wall Street of ancient Rome a beautiful structure in the Forum with a marble portico. One can still see the green stains of copper coins melted into the stone from the conflagrations set by Alaric and his marauders.
It had been more than 800 years since the Eternal City had fallen to anenemy's attack. In many ways. Rome was like America prior to 9/11 the world 's only superpower. But in 410, Rome 's military power could not prevent its walls being breached its women raped, and its sacred precincts burned and sacked.
When Jerome heard about the fall of Rome in faraway Bethlehem he put aside his Commentary on Ezekiel and sat stupefied in total silence for three days. ''Rome was besieged ,'' Jerome wrote to a friend. The city to which the whole world fell has fallen. If Rome can perish,what can be safe ? The British monk Pelagius, who was in Rome when the attack occurred, gave this report;" Every household had it's grief, and an all-pervading terror gripped us. Responding to those who said Rome fell as the God's punishment against the ascendant christians, Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, began writing The City of God, an opus mangnum et arduum,as he called it a great and ladborious work'' Augstine completed the book shorthy before his death in 430. Christian philosophy of history.
God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Psalm 46:1-2

its sad that something that tragic transpired and it seems like the only ones who REALLY made it a memory were those who were touched by it literally.. every 9-11 i say a prayer for the families and the united states because I STILL LIVE HERE!