A verse and a prayer for The Fourth

“America the Beautiful” is one of my favorites for today. It’s a prayer offered that America will be preserved in virtue by God’s grace; that America will have self-control and freedom within the law. It’s so easy to take a look around and be discouraged by the world – war, abortion, and a hedonistic culture – but focus your view a bit and I promise hope will flicker. See your family, your parish, your priest – and take heart that God is constantly writing his plan.

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” She promises a refuge and hope.

Which to me, sounds an awful lot like “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). There is always hope for Americans because in God we trust.