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Baptized Patriots
A democratic republic such as ours can remain
strong only as long as it rests on a balance of individualism and
community; that is, where each person is responsible for self, but
also knows that he or she is part of the fabric of humanity around
them.
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Freedom
consists not in doing what we like, but in having the
right to do what we ought. -Pope
John Paul II |
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Prayers for Freedom
Gracious God, when the struggles of life hem me in on every side, open me to the freedom of your presence that can help me see beyond every restriction, every limit that binds me.
O God, give me the wisdom to see the subtle ways people can be enslaved and the courage to speak for those who have no voice. I ask this for the sake of your love.
Gracious One, may we honor the freedom you have given each of us, by refusing to judge those who are different from us.
O God, when we wake to yet another day of wonder and joy in the beauty of your creation, give us the heart to keep our needs simple, our desires soft, our wills pliable, so that we never participate in the exploitation of the earth, which is the work of your hands.
O God, wash my eyes clean, so I see the ugliness that steals life and hope from others. Do not let the insistence on my own liberty be the ground upon which others are denied freedom.
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Spiritual
Freedom
On Independence Day we will be thinking about freedom, and I submit to you
that Easter and Passover are like a spiritual Independence Day. What I'm getting
at is that Easter provides all of us every [day] with some basic freedoms that
are very worth celebrating...
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TRUE IN-DEPENDENCE “Great
nations,” writes essayist Eboo Patel “are made of
righteous strivings.”…[Yet] it is not only great
nations that are made of righteous strivings, but also great
humans, and healthy relationships. So when we think of independence
in terms of our country or in terms of our own personal lives,
or in terms of our relationships, we need to ask, “What
are we seeking independence from and what are we seeking independence
for?”
At
first blush we could easily assume that we want independence from
slavery, injustice, oppression and domination. Those are certainly
an important part of independence, but are we not also seeking
independence from all those negative qualities that hold us imprisoned
in tombs of our own making?
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