So here he is, delivering a message so counter to the stated beliefs and platform of the Democratic Party! Small wonder that the major networks did not carry it. Here is a prime example of showing Catholic courage, delivered with charity and compassion.
This is the closing benediction at the Democratic National Convention by Timothy Archbishop Dolan on YouTube video.
Here is a link to the text shown below should you care to forward it on. You might want to print this out and read along with him as he gives this. Perhaps we should be praying this, along with the prayer for religious freedom given to us by the USCCB (and reprinted in today's bulletin at OLM) daily.
Full Text of Cardinal Dolan's Benediction at the DNC
"With a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence,” let us close this convention by praying for this land that
we so cherish and love:
Let us Pray.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed
to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your
blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all
across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of
your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering,
may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s
greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and
neediest among us.
We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this
noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion
of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you: life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us
the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure.
We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed
and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your
holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and
cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.
We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May
this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic
freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious
liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our
Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness
and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love.
Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their
lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care,
as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in
uniform.
We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the
liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is
found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower
us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral
law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have
given us for the nurturing of life and community. May we welcome those
who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom,
adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.
We praise and thank you for the American genius of
government of the people, by the people and for the people. Oh God of
wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us:
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme
Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan,
who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office. Make them all
worthy to serve you by serving our country. Help them remember that the
only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself.
With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future
course of public policy.
And finally Lord, we beseech your benediction on all of us
who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn
to conduct their lives in freedom and justice. We beg you to remember, as
we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s
cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are
persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.
And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great
gift of our beloved country.
For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we
trust.”
So dear God, bless America. You who live and reign
forever and ever.
Amen!"
Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Closing Benediction
DNC Convention 2012
Wow.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the text, as of course, it was not in any coverage that I have seen or read.
Am surprised that no one at the convention turned the power off early on in the prayer.
Indeed...I wonder why they did not think of that! But of course with our "Non-partisan" media coverage they might as well have turned off the power. But we can publish it here and pass it on for those who can not or will not look for themselves.
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