Weekly Meditation
We have just enjoyed our 4th of July weekend celebrating our independence and freedom as Americans and the gift of the country we love--America!. Family and leisure have probably been part of the weekend.
Hopefully also we have included some true awareness, recognition and gratitude for God's blessings on us and our country and a genuine "salute" of renewed commitment to live this reality of freedom as mature, thinking and grateful people.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
- Declaration of Independence"Four score and seven years our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...It is rather for us to be here dedicated to that cause...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
- President Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address"True freedom is a wonderful gift from God, and it has been a cherished part of your country's history. But when freedom is separated from truth, individuals lose their moral direction and the very fabric of society begins to unravel. Freedom is not the ability to do anything we want, whenever we want. Rather, freedom is the ability to live responsibly the truth of our relationship with God and with one another. Remember what Jesus said: ‘You will know the truth and the truth will set you free' (Jn 8:32)."
- Pope John Paul II
Address to Young People, St. Louis, 1999
May we always live the truth in private and public, in civic and religious life so that we Americans will help realize what we so frequently ask: God bless America!
Bishop William R. Houck
President Emeritus, Catholic Extension