As we celebrate the Fourth of July this coming week, three thoughts come to mind: the preservation of what makes this nation worth preserving, recent developments, and God.

   It goes without saying events internally and abroad are a bucking bronco – a wild or semi-wild horse that tends to buck or kick while being ridden. But the desire for a nation of peace has need to go back to look at what our Founding Fathers saw as important. Our Founding Fathers based our nation on something called the natural law – a law God implanted in all human hearts. It is a law that for the good of humanity that all should respect. And in this lies the heart of nation that we should revere, protect, and defend with our hearts. The ability of our nation to grow, prosper, and survive depends on this God-given gift. In short, we have need to stand by her – come what may. The Western Roman Empire fell when it lost its hunger to exist; the Eastern Roman Empire survived when its emperor reignited the hunger to exist.

   As we see the recent developments in our world: war and rumor of war, there is need for us to have the courage to defend what we have with heart as well as to know when to not fight. War does not come with any guarantees. For our nation to be ready and survive whatever happens in the world around us, there has need to be a hunger for our nation’s growth, prosperity, and survival. It was this sort of hunger that brought our nation into existence. And may God bless us that we never see war again, but should it come: we will need this hunger: never again will this homeland be an island bastion. Should war come home to us; we will feel it directly. It is a hunger for what this nation once held as sacred that will allow us to navigate the future.

   And to navigate the future, we will all the more have need of God. We have need of Divine Wisdom… not human wisdom, Divine Wisdom for our nation to walk in our world today. Pray to God for the gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Perseverance, Prudence, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Pray to God that Peace – Shalom, right relationship with God – shall prevail. God bless our nation.

   Let us be careful out there!



  - Father Tim