Today marks the 10th anniversary of an event that has re-defined our nation in this age. 9-11 should be remembered, not because of the horrific act of terror against innocent men and women but because of the heroic virtue shown by so many who responded to the act and the continued spirit of selfless giving that is a hallmark of the American people.

Beverly and Thomas Burnett, Sr., saw their son Thomas Burnett, Jr., and others "drafted unknowingly as the first citizen-soldiers in the war on terrorism," they said. "Little more than one hour into the war, America won its first battle against terrorism," the couple said. They described their son speaking via cell phone to his wife of a plan to take back a hi-jacked plane and his last words: "We‘re going to do something." Young Burnett and others died fighting terrorists over the skies of Shanksville, Pennsylvania and brought down a plane thought to be headed for the nation‘s capital.

Jesuit Father James Martin, culture editor of America magazine, aided rescue workers. "In this hell I found grace," he said. "I thought 'what is God like? God is like the firefighter who rushes into a burning building to save someone. That‘s how much God loves us.‘ And I saw this love expressed in the great charity of all the rescue workers who gathered at the American Golgotha."

Msgr. Anthony Sherman, a Brooklyn pastor, led funerals for parishioners lost in the inferno. There were firefighters, and a woman whose marriage he had officiated at a year before, and who had announced on 9/10 that she was pregnant. "9/11 led us all into the very depths of the mysteries of human suffering, death and resurrection. We discovered that we cannot obtain nor find all the answers to the atrocities we experienced. Yet with God‘s grace we also experienced the height of human sacrifice and the ability of our brothers and sisters to manifest heroic love"

Franciscan Father Joseph Bayne, chief chaplain of New York‘s Erie County Emergency Services, traveled from Buffalo, New York, to support his fellow rescue workers sent downstate. "I did not see the devil‘s face at Ground Zero. I saw the face of God in the people working, caring, sweating, crying, rescuing, recovering and being very spiritual in their very humanness."