''I know this sounds horrible, but I would like to see public punishment,'' said Striebel, among a few hundred worshippers at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. ''Who hates us this much?''

Stunned by the malice that left multitudes dead, the nation turned to their clergy and to God as they struggled for understanding, filling churches and attending vigils, praying for U.S. leaders and the survivors of the attack.

Terry Walsh, who works for a company that sells discount airline tickets, attended a Mass at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Dallas ''to gain closeness to God and renew my strength.

''I pray for God to stop people who commit acts of violence, hatred and evil,'' Walsh said.

Archbishop Edward O'Brien, who leads the Catholic archdiocese for the military, was in an annual retreat in Washington with 50 armed services chaplains when word of the attacks reached them.

They held a special Mass meant for times of war, then tried to return to their military posts.

''We were all numb watching the TV,'' O'Brien said. ''We prayed for peace in our hearts, for peace in our community, for an end to the evil that does such tremendous and unimaginable damage.''

At a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Cardinal Edward Egan told worshippers the Rev. Mychael Judge, a Fire Department chaplain, died in the attack. But Egan warned against ''imaginings of retaliation.''

''Hate never begets peace,'' Egan said. ''Justice does.''

The prayer line run by Unity, a nondenominational Christian movement based just outside of Kansas City, was swamped, spokesman Tom Taylor said.

''Our prayer ministry normally gets several thousand callers a day, but we've been flooded,'' he said. ''I don't honestly think we'll be able to answer all the calls that come in.''

The Rev. Paul Akin, pastor of a First United Methodist Church in Iowa, spent the afternoon hurriedly typing his sermon for a special prayer service.

''I want to talk about that sense of brokenness and vulnerability we feel and a sense of God's abandonment of us in the face of great tragedy,'' Akin said. ''God's heart is the first to break and this is not God's vision for the world.''

President Bush asked the nation to pray for the families of the victims and quoted the Book of Psalms: ''Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.''

A special service was held at Bethany Church in Greenwood, N.H., the church attended by Tom McGuinness, co-pilot of one of the planes that smashed into the World Trade Center.

Bethany pastor Fred Cheney said when McGuinness' wife, Cheryl, got word of the crash, her first response was, '''My Tom is with Jesus.'''

One woman told the worshippers, ''We felt evil today. Lord, we pray for your mercy tomorrow.''