Some Christians worried about a faith that was so embracing as to be meaningless, that exalted not the Almighty so much as the American way of life. When civil religion bleached the challenge from faith and left behind a watery patriotism, there was room for concern.

If Heaven is willing to sing to us, it is little to ask that we be ready to listen.

On a normal day, we value heroism because it is uncommon. On Sept. 11, we valued heroism because it was everywhere.

I would like to see every newspaper and every magazine have a network of bureaus all over the world, gathering news.

Death will never be pretty - its sights and smells too close and crude. And it will never come under our control: it gallops where we tiptoe, rips up our routines, burns our very breath with its heat and sting.

Eisenhower advocated a variety of strong actions which he had never taken when he was president. Maybe this was just the pattern of former presidents; maybe it reflected how much the circumstances had changed on the ground.

Illusions are the truths we live by until we know better.