Remembrance - christiansquoting.org.uk

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The Larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Scarce days ago
We lived , felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved ,and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up your quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw ,
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.
In Flanders Fields, Major John McCrae, May 1915, at Ypres

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them.
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen, 1914.

If there is any substitute for love, it is memory. -Joseph Brodsky

There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on an on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
Here they talked of revolution
Here it was they lit the flame
Here they sang about 'tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn!
Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me
That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on.
Phantom faces at the window
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.
Marius, a character in _Les Mise/'rables_, a musical by Alain Boubilm and Claude-Michel Scho/:nberg, 1980 "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer Based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo

Two minutes silence

So we are had a national two minutes silence at noon. Am I alone in wondering why? I know what I am remembering on Nov 11 or Remembrance Sunday. I am giving thanks for those who sacrificed their lives for my freedom and praying for peace. But July 7? Is this any more than a Diana like piece of sentimentality?

Minutes silence proliferate at sporting events. Opposing fans often show their lack of respect for someone associated with another team. A minutes applause may be better. But 7/7? Will I be praying for suffering families, for the defeat of the Islamists? For significant inroads by the gospel into Muslim hearts? If, God forbid we have another even worse bombing, will days with silent minutes be multiplied? Am I alone in thinking evil events should not be so remembered? To do this when 52 died devalues what we do on November 11 remembering millions who died for freedom.