October 27, 2024
Our country, the upcoming election and the importance of prayer.
If you remember, last year we featured the novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe in our bulletin, and I asked you all to participate in that along with me and millions of other Catholics in our country. We know what kind of shape our country is in, especially the moral poverty of our society today and the abject blindness to the gifts of God. The disdain and lack of appreciation for the most basic of gifts and the first among the liberties – life. In particular the defenseless unborn who cry out to us for help, protection and our consideration of them in making our choices societally and politically. George Washington wrote that “It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”
We are responsible before God and those who have gone before us in ensuring that the gifts of freedom and liberty are not only enjoyed, but protected and when necessary, sacrificed for. We will each stand before God, that is no surprise to any of us. The questions that should concern us are: what state will my soul be in and what I have I done to ensure God’s will and commandments are known and followed? What kind of witness to Him did I give? The taking of innocent human life is one of the sins that cries out to God for vengeance and that blood must be atoned for in some way by each person who assists in the shedding of it but also those who did nothing to stop it. In charity the responsibility of doing penance and reparation is often taken up by those who truly love God, that even when they played no part in the sin, they seek a way to help eliminate the evil from our country. Our freedoms come from God, and it is to Him that we should be directing not only our own lives, but also our country which was brought into existence by God’s Divine Providence. In a letter written following the end of the revolution, George Washington wrote: “Glorious indeed has been our Contest: glorious, if we consider the Prize for which we have contended, and glorious in its Issue; but in the midst of our Joys, I hope we shall not forget that, to divine Providence is to be ascribed the Glory and the Praise.”
Let us not forget the warning of Abraham Lincoln: “And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God ... and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
To close, I am asking all of you to join me in diligently praying for the upcoming election using the following prayer every day until the election. To pray for God’s will to be done and for us to strive in our homes and government to live according to His commandments.
God love you, Fr. Anthony
Prayer to Consecrate the 2024 US Election to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the eternal Wisdom lies hidden to be adored and served by angels and men, Queen of heaven and of earth, beneath whose sway are subject all things that are lower than God, Patroness of the United States of America, sorrowful and mindful of our own sinfulness and the sins of our nation, we come to Thee, our refuge and hope. Knowing that our country cannot be saved by our own works and mindful of how much our nation has departed from the ways of Thy Son, we humbly ask that Thou wouldst turn Thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion.
We consecrate to Thee the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome, so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished, and that all of those who are elected would govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of Thy Son. Give grace to the citizens of this land so that they will choose leaders according to the Sacred Heart of Thy Son, that His glory may be made manifest, lest we be given the leaders we deserve.
Trusting in the providential care of God the Father and Thy maternal care, we have perfect confidence that Thou wilst take care of us and will not leave us forsaken. O Mary Immaculate, pray for us.
Amen.
(Fr. Chad Ripperger)
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