“My City of Ruins” became both an elegy of grief and an anthem of hope in the months following the terror attacks on 9/11. It was the final song on Bruce Springsteen’s album “The Rising,” which was released not long after the attacks. The album, and especially “My City of Ruins,” spoke to pain of that time.
It’s an Ignatian song because of the remarkable prayer at the end for the strength, love, and faith to do the work of renewal:
Now with these hands,
With these hands,
With these hands,
I pray Lord
With these hands,
With these hands,
I pray for the strength, Lord
With these hands,
With these hands,
I pray for the faith, Lord
We pray for your love, Lord
We pray for the lost, Lord
We pray for this world, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord
We pray for the strength, Lord
Full lyrics here. Here is the Boss performing the song in Barcelona in 2002.
