For some reason, September 11 is resonating more this year than it did last as the anniversary approaches. Is it simply because of the current unease in the world, an uneasiness about a repetition?

There was certainly a spiritual dimension to it. The terrorist attack on America was part of a prophetic pulse and a watershed that reminded everyone that we are living in special times.

About that supernatural component: many images have been seen in the smoke which poured during that unforgettable Tuesday from the World Trade Center. So defined were some of the demonic formations in the fire and smoke (faces) that it was something that was reported on normally skeptical outlets such as CNN.

There were also interesting reflections or light "bleeds" in photographs taken of the Trade Center before and after the event. There was the famous one of the still-standing two towers with the sun rising between and slicing at where the planes would soon hit, and then, after, there were shots such as those on the left, which were taken by Nancy Berchtold from the Philadelphia area.

As Nancy tells it, more than a month after the event, on October 21, 2001, she and her daughter felt compelled to go to New York and when they got to "ground zero," as respectfully as they could, they took the pictures. The photos were all from the same view, but seemed to go from mystery to confirmation.

Is it just the refraction of light in a lens -- as can often so often -- or God using the refractions?

"The photos were developed in Lawrence, New Jersey, at a small, privately-owned photo lab," she wrote on a note accompanying the photos. "The manager of the shop and the technicians pointed out the amazing triangular cloud in the sky above the World Trade Center site. They asked if we saw it in the sky that Sunday. We didn't see it nor did the dozens of other photographers alongside us. The manager told us that it was not a lens flare or the angle of the sun; it is on the negative. It was not done in processing. He added, 'I've never seen anything like this in my years of photo developing. There is no way to explain this photo in a scientific way.'"

That's one view. Doubtless, there are others. We'll leave it to your discernment. Something to do with the shutter? For Nancy and others who saw it, it was more the feeling that went with it. We get such photos often. But coming to us now, they seem striking.

"The lab technician developed the last shot with greater density, making it dark in the foreground to lighten the sky," Nancy adds. "The density change exposed the vortex of light in the sky. The fact that it was still there an hour after I took the first picture is significant."

Nancy says that when she showed the photo at an photographic exhibit in lower Manhattan, there was similar reaction. A vortex of light above the smoldering remains of the Twin Towers. What was it?

God, of course, is associated with Light.

In Scripture it says, "Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house" (2 Chronicles, 7:1).

"It is even said that the Shekinah rests above 2,002 people or more," Nancy notes. "Sadly, many more than 2,002 were lost on September 11, 2001. Perhaps we can be comforted in knowing that they are embraced in the dazzling, radiant, and shining presence of the Shekinah."

There are those who have felt presences at the Trade Center. There are other photos  with what seem like etched faces of the dead. It is certainly now a spiritual "hotspot," and it is a shame it was not commemorated -- as one famous Catholic mystic, Maria Esperanza, proposed -- with a church dedicated to God the Father. It is a shame that 9/11 has not been perceived as the warning it was.

Maybe the memorial will always be in another realm. The Shekinah?

God is everywhere.

8/22/05

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