How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts? How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?

Franklin Roosevelt uttered those words exactly 60 years ago, but they are as applicable to Americans this Christmas Eve as they were when Roosevelt delivered them on the White House lawn in 1941.

Then, as now, the country had been shocked by an attack from a foreign enemy, its naïve notions about security shattered. Then, as now, the country wondered, as Roosevelt noted, how it could put the world aside and celebrate the season.

Certainly this country has been fundamentally changed during the past 12 months. Just think back to last Christmas. The nation was at peace. Prosperity looked unstoppable. Patriotism seemed almost quaint. The all-consuming story of the day was the disputed presidential election.

Today, we are essentially a world at war, with nations mobilizing against a common enemy. The economy is in a recession. Patriotism has been reborn, marked by everything from flag-filled holiday cards to red, white and blue Christmas lights.

But as much as the country has changed during the past 12 months, far more remains the same. The nation's triumphant spirit is unbroken. Even in the face of renewed terrorism, the vast majority of Americans are confident about the future, according to the latest USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll.

The country's innate generosity has only been reinforced by tragedy. So much so that, in the midst of an economic slump, the outpouring of money to help victims of the Sept. 11 attacks has proved an embarrassment of riches to the charities now struggling to distribute it.

For Americans of all religions, those fundamental virtues are worth remembering this holiday season. It was, after all, this ''unquenchable spirit'' that made Roosevelt so optimistic about the future. He knew then what many Americans are convinced of today: that ''our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies.''