Best Ignatian Songs: My City of Ruins

“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.

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