Prayer for the United States of America
This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America–for many of us, our cherished country. But anniversaries are not merely a time for nostalgia and celebration. As Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore wrote: an anniversary “calls us to consider not only who we have been, but who we are becoming…and by God’s grace, who we are called to be.” With that in mind, I offer you this prayer.
God and gracious God, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we offer you this prayer for our country, a country that is good, beautiful, and beloved… and a country that is wounded, flawed, and always in need of your help.
We are grateful for the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence… that all people are created equal… that they are endowed by You, our Creator, with certain unalienable rights… among these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. May we never take these rights for granted or forget the responsibilites these rights bestow upon all of us, especially the need for our vigilance and our participation to preserve these sacred rights into the future.
We thank you, Creator God, for the countless natural gifts of this land we call home: for rivers and lakes, mountains and valleys, forests and farmlands, oceans and grasslands and the wide diversity of animal life these resources support and sustain. Help us to remember this proverb from our Native American brothers and sisters: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” May we continue to work untiringly for the preservation of our precious natural gifts for generations to come.
We thank you for the people who were here long before most of our direct ancestors set foot on this land. We are grateful for their rich spiritual traditions and their deep respect for “the land.” And we ask forgiveness for the grave injustices these people endured–and in some places, still endure–from those of us who came much later to this land.
We thank you for the wide diversity of peoples who immigrated to this country throughout our 250 years–and who continue to come today. They came here fleeing religious persecution, wars, famine, and violence of all kinds. They came here seeking a better life for themselves and their families. And sadly, we remember those who were brought here in shackles, enduring brutal and inhumane conditions. We ask forgiveness for what some have called our country’s “national original sin,” the sin of slavery. And we ask your help to continue to remove barriers that prevent some of us from enjoying the rights our Constitution assures for all of us. May we as a nation incarnate more and more that word “United” in the official name of our country, the United States of America.
We thank you for the unique gift of our republic, our democracy, whereby the leaders of government derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We are justly proud of all those leaders throughout our history who served our country with personal integrity, courage, wisdom, justice, compassion and with a cooperative spirit. We ask for these same qualities in those who serve us in leadership today.
We thank you for the so-called “common man,” that is, for the countless ordinary men and women throughout our history who displayed qualities we like to say define “the American spirit,” qualities such as diligence, resilience, courage, hopefulness, generosity, and care and concern for one another. May we who follow them in time, follow them in spirit by continuing the hard work of insuring the rights of all.
We pray also for all other nations today. May we always remember that our nation is part of a world community, a global community. We are grateful for the ways our country in the past has worked hand-in-hand with other countries to preserve peace, to build beneficial partnerships, to care for our common planet, and to provide aid to those nations plagued by poverty, illness, food shortages and violence. May we continue our tradition of reaching out and sharing our wealth with our global community.
And finally, God, we pray that we may become the nation we pledge our allegiance to: “The United States of America: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Amen.
For reflection:
Is there anything that stands out for you in this prayer?
If you’re an American, what do you love the most about the USA?
If you could ask God for one thing for the USA today, what would it be?
How do you plan to celebrate this 250th anniversary?
PS: I will NOT post a blog next week on Monday June 29. My next post will be Monday July 6.
PS #2: Thank you for your prayers for the retreat last week for the SSJ’s in Erie. Special thanks to the retreat team, (Nancy, Mary Ann, Susan, and Linda) for helping to make the retreat such a blessed experience!
I chose “American the Beautiful” for our song today, a hymn written in 1905. It is based on a poem by Katharine Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, a women’s college in Massachusetts. Samuel Ward, an organist and choir director at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, composed the music. About 75 other composers set Bates’ poem to music, but Ward’s soon became the favorite. Bates and Ward never met. He didn’t live long enough to see how popular the song became, but Bates did. Bates always said she was inspired to write her poem as she traveled by train from Massachusetts to Colorado. Along the way she was mesmerized by the beauty of the country–the greenery, the tall buildings of Chicago, the rivers, the wheat fields, and the mighty Rocky Mountains. I chose this version below because it has all four verses plus the lyrics.
I welcome your comments below.
Quotes on Rest, Leisure & Play
It’s summer time here in the northern hemisphere. And when we think “summer,” we usually think vacation or enjoying more lesisure time–especially outdoors. Consequently, I thought it would be fitting to give you 20 quotations on rest, leisure and play from a variety of individuals. I invite you to reflect on these “leisurely.”
1) The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. G. K. Chesterton
2) Play is called recreation because it makes us new again; it re-creates us and our world. Stuart Brown
3) The Chinese pictograph for “busy” is composed of two characters: heart and killing. Br. David Steindl-Rast
4) Cease a moment, stop your work, and take a look around you. Leo Tolstoy
5) The opposite of play is not work. It is despondency… One imaginative interpretation of “God rested” is that on the seventh day God kicked back, opened arms wide, and laughed and laughed, making all things whole and holy. Rose Marie Berger
6) For five years I raced around digging ponds, chopping trees, clearing paths, pulling rocks, unclogging channels, planting–always making lists, plans, agendas; always “improving” things. One day, after finishing yet another important project, I made a list of all the things I had left to do. According to my schedule, I could begin enjoying my land twenty-five years down the line. Something was dreadfully wrong. John Taylor Gatto
7) Forget about productivity once in a while and give yourself permission to goof off. Amy Morin
8) Jesus knows we must come apart and rest awhile, or else we may just plain come apart. Vance Havner
9) A saint was once asked, while playing happily with his companions, what he would do if an angel told him that in a quarter of an hour he would die and appear before the judgment seat of God. The saint promptly replied, “I would continue playing, because I am certain that these games are pleasing to God. St. John Bosco
10) Cartoon character to a friend: “I’ve tried relaxing, but–I don’t know–I feel more comfortable tense.
11) Many church ministers see themselves as a lasting exception to the need for play and rest. They act–and often speak–as if… all the work of God rests on their Atlas-like back alone. Wayne E. Oates
12) I’ve lived too much of my life where people can reach me. Rumi (13th century Persian poet)
13) The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room, not trying to be or do anything whatever. May Sarton
14) Eutropalia is the virtue of being able to rest and play and have a good time. Anonymous source
15) There is no music in a “rest,” that I know of; but there’s the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life-melody. John Ruskin
16) Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Susan Ertz
17) We don’t stop playing because we grow old… we grow old because we stop playing. George Bernard Shaw
18) Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning. Diane Ackerman
19) Together with the culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport. Pope Francis
20) What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my grace period. Ellen Goodman
For reflection:
Did any of the quotes or pictures stand out for you? Let us know below. You don’t even have to tell us why–but you can if you want to.
What grade (from A to F) would you give yourself for how well you balance work and leisure in your life today? What about in your past?
What are some of the ways you rest, have leisure, or play?
Do you ever play with God?
Did Jesus ever rest, have leisure, or play?
PS: Next Sunday is Father’s Day. I want to wish all you fathers out there a beautiful day and thank you for all the love you put into your “vocation” of fathering! I hope this Father’s Day your celebration may include lots of rest, leisure, and play!
PS #2: I ask your prayers for a retreat I’m giving this week to the Sisters of St. Joseph and their associates in Erie, PA. Thank you very much!
Growing up on our small farm, we kids were lucky to have a beautiful woods in the back of our property as well as across the road from us. During summer especially, those woods were one of our favorite places to play and explore. So, the video I chose today is called “Through the Woods” by the Okee Dokee Brothers, two talented men who write mostly children’s songs. I hope you enjoy it!
For captions, click cc.
I’m eager to hear from you below! So are our readers!
The Peregrine Falcon Live Camera
(Please note: I am typing this Monday evening. This blog was posted Monday morning as usual, but for some unknown reason, it wasn’t sent out to our subscribers. Our IT department is looking into this glitch. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.)
For the past two years, I have been been watching the Peregrine Falcon live-cam on top of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I became acquainted with their falcon program while I was giving a retreat a couple of years ago for the Franciscan Sisters in Rochester. They are the Sisters who partnered with the Mayo brothers to establish the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. I wrote a blog on their incredible story. To access that post, go to the search box on the top right and type in “Mayo Clinic.”
I’ll begin by sharing a little history of the Mayo Clinic’s Peregrine Falcon program. In 1987, the Clinic partnered with the Midwest Peregrine Society to help save the peregrine falcon from extinction. The Mayo Clinic was a good site to put a nesting box. The tall buildings mimicked the falcon’s natural cliff habitat. In addition, there was ample food in the area–mostly pigeons and small birds–to raise a falcon family. So, a nesting box was placed on the roof of a 22 story Mayo Clinic building. The current falcon parents, Hattie and Orton, have been together for 11 years. During that time they have raised over 30 chicks. In fact, the couple likes their location so much, they no longer migrate. Instead, they stay in the area even during winter to prevent other birds from taking over their nesting site. Falcons usually claim a several mile radius around their nest.
the nesting box on April 7, 2026.
Last year Hattie and Orton raised two chicks. This year they have four. The live-cam runs 24/7 from February till about August. It features two alternating camera views: one from inside the nesting box looking out, and another from the outside of the box looking in. At three weeks, the “peregrine professionals” who operate the program, remove the chicks temporarily to assess their health, band them for future studies, and name them. This event is aired live. It takes considerable courage to remove chicks from a nest while their mother or father is screeching and swooping down on you with those razor-sharp talons. But everyone involved wears a hardhat and carries an umbrella to prevent the parents from doing them harm. The chicks are returned to the nest as quickly as possible to minimize the stress on the parents.
I enjoyed watching the banding and naming event. First, the chicks are weighed and their gender is determined. This year we have two girls and two boys. The chicks are then checked for parasites or infection. All four birds were deemed in fine health–a tribute to their hard-working parents who are providing excellent care 24/7. I enjoyed the naming ceremony too. Over 5,000 names were submitted from all over the world. This year’s names are (drum roll, please!): The two females: Vega meaning “bright star” and Belle in honor of the 100-year-old Clarrion at Mayo Clinic. The two males are: Mylo meaning “guardian” and Zephyr meaning “western wind.” The four chicks or nestlings pictured above now have many of their brown feathers.
Occasionally, I’ll visit other live-cams. I especially like the Big Bear Valley eagle cam in California. This year, the parent eagles are raising two females, Luna and Sandy. Their nest is perched 145 feet up in a tree, and the tree is on the side of a mountain overlooking Bear Lake Valley below. If you want to see a “house” with a million dollar view, just check out the information at the end of this post. Or you can also choose to watch tawny owls. There are live-cams for other animals such as beavers, fox, otters and many others.
You might be wondering, why do I devote a few minutes to watching these birds on a regular basis? Don’t I have more important things to do? I make time because the cameras allow me to get really close to wildlife–a closeness I couldn’t get in any other way. At the same time, the cameras do not interfer with the raising of the chicks. The birds get used to the cameras quickly. Watching live-cams also gives me a greater appreciation of how much time and effort it takes to raise a clutch of chicks successfully. (It also gives me a greater appreciation of the many years it takes for human parents to raise their baby homo sapiens!) And it feeds my sense of wonder just to watch the chicks go from little yellowish-white puff balls, totally dependent on their parents, to gorgeously feathered adult raptors. Then the parents have to teach them to fly and hunt for food (to make a living!) as fully independent adults ready to raise a family of their own. These life-cams unite me with a global audience too. Some sites tell you how many other people all over the world are viewing the website at the same time you are! Fascinating!
For reflection:
Did anything catch your attention in this reflection?
Do you ever watch live-cams? Or do you have a camera by your bird feeder? Or do you enjoy watching your bird feeder? If so, please share some of you experiences below.
How do you gain access to wildlife–in a park? while on vacation? in your neighborhood? in your own yard? or even outside your window?
Do you set aside regular time to connect with the natural world beyond the human world? If so, why? If not, why not?
Here’s what to google to go to the websites for Peregrine falcons, eagles, and tawny owls:
Falcons: search Mayo Clinic Falcons
Eagles: search Big Bear Valley Eagle cam
Tawny owls: search Tawny owl live-cams (Tawny owls [they’re so cute!] are found in Europe [except Ireland] Central Asia, and northern Africa. Alas, they are not found in the U.S. or Canada…)
Today’s video (5. mins.) is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It captures ordinary backyard birds landing on bird feeders. Their landings are too fast for the naked eye to see or appreciate, so much of this video is shot in slow motion. I think you might be as amazed as I was!
I’m looking forward to your comments below about this reflection, the pictures and video, and your own experiences with observing wildlife!
Four Short Prayers…
Today I have four short prayers for you. They are very different from each other, but perhaps you might find one of them expressing some of your own thoughts or feelings. Several years ago during my annual retreat, I was struggling with someone. I shared my struggles with my retreat director. We conversed about this situation for a little while, and then she said, “During this week, I suggest you pray for this person. Every day. Nothing long, nothing special. Just offer a sincere little prayer for her.” She added, “After all, we have no idea what she might be bearing right now in her own life.” I followed her suggestion. After a week, my prayer didn’t change that person. But I did sense a small change in myself… a slight shift toward greater patience. Here’s a prayer I wrote based on that experience:
Prayer #1: “And Jesus said, ‘Pray for Them'”
Instead of being angry with her, pray for her.
Instead of worrying about him, pray for him.
Instead of judging them, pray for them.
Instead of gossiping about her, pray for her.
Instead of pitying him, pray for him.
Instead of being afraid of them, pray for them.
Instead of belittling her, pray for her.
Instead of ignoring him, pray for him.
Instead of disliking them, pray for them.
Instead of giving up on her, pray for her.
Instead of forgetting about him, pray for him.
Instead of thinking there’s nothing
you can do about her, him, or them,
pray for them… pray for them.
Prayer #2: “If All I Ever Heard” (From my book Picking Strawberries)
If all I ever heard was the chirping of a single bird,
If all I ever smelled was the scent of one sprig of lilac,
If all I ever tasted was the sweetness of one strawberry,
If all I ever touched was the softness of one bunny’s ear,
If all I ever saw was the vastness of one starry night,
I would have reason enough to fall helplessly in love with Thee,
my Beloved Creator God.
Prayer #3: “Jesus, You Cleansed the Temple” (from my book When the Blue Heron Flies)
Jesus, you cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem.
Your flipped tables over, set doves and lambs free,
and chased out all the money changers,
while yelling, “My house shall be a house of prayer–
not a den of thieves!”
Jesus, come now and do the same in me.
For I too have set up clutter where sacred space was meant to be.
I too am caging living things with my excessive need to control.
I too am enamored with glitz and power and material gain.
Come, Jesus, and reclaim me as your own.
Come cleanse the temple of me.
Prayer #4 “Prayer of the Tuckered Out” (from my book Just Because)
O God, look down upon me, so weary, worn, and stooped,
And hear the humble prayer of one who’s really pooped.
I ask not for good fortune, nor for serenity.
Instead one thing I beg you for: how ’bout some energy?
Sometimes I’m not so good, God, I fight, complain, and shout.
I offer no excuses, except I’m tuckered out.
My spirit is so willing. It wants to do what’s best.
The problem is my flesh, God, for all it wants is rest.
This prayer should be much longer, but what else can I say when
I’m too dog-tired to stay awake? Have pity, God. Amen.
For reflection:
Did any of these prayers resonate with your thoughts and feelings at times in your own prayer life? If so, which one(s)?
What people, events, or things in your life make it easier for you to believe and trust in God?
Prayer can come in all shapes and sizes, can be done in all kinds of places and for all kinds of reasons. What are some of the places you pray? When is prayer easy for you… or when is it challenging for you?
What helps you to persevere in prayer?
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PS: Last week I was working on a future blog on falcons. When I went to save it, I forgot to type in the date I wanted that reflection to be posted. As a result, my rough draft was instantly posted and an alert was sent out to most of you. As soon as I realized my mistake, I screamed “Yikes!” and removed it immediately. So, if you went looking for it, you found “page cannot be found” instead. Thank you to those who wrote asking me where the reflection was or if I had been hacked. All I can say is: Mea culpa! And I’m SO sorry for the confusion!
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I found this little song by Shawna Edwards. It expresses to me the great variety of ways we can pray… the many different forms our prayer can take… how we can pray anywhere, alone or with others… We sometimes make prayer too complicated. This song suggests, “Just Pray.”
Please share a thought or two with us below…
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Embracing the Times in which We Live
There are certain phrases I hear or read frequently that annoy me. One phrase is this: “in our troubled times.” It seems to imply that other times in the past were not troubled or, at least, not as troubled as our times are today. Other phrases are “in our polarized times,” “our violent times,” “our uncertain times,” or “our unprecedented times.” I am not denying the polarization, violence, and uncertainty of our times. And I even acknowledge that in some ways our times are unprecedented. But we do ourselves (and our Christian faith) a grave disservice if we think we are the only human beings who ever lived during “troubled times.” That’s why I believe a basic familiarity with history is essential for us to get a much needed perspective on our current times.
Take polarization. If we view Ken Burns’ incredible documentary on the American Revolution, we will learn how deeply divided the colonists were on declaring their independence from England. Neighbors argued with or even fought against neighbors over this issue. Violence and uncertainty? Read first-hand accounts of the Civil War and you will see unimaginable violence and terrifying uncertainty. And wasn’t the Great Depression “unprecedented” for the people (such as my grandparents and parents) who lived during those times? And what about World War II? Most historians describe those times in words such as these: “World War II was the largest, deadliest, and most destructive conflict in human history.” It took the lives of 60-80 million people–most of them civilians! Virtually every human being on earth was somehow impacted by the global devastation of that war–whether you lived on an island in the Pacific (think Pearl Harbor) or in Timbuktu in West Africa (I verified this fact!) or Willoughby Hills, Ohio–where I was born during the final year of the war. Upon birth I was issued a ration book which I still have. Uncle Sam was inviting me to join the war effort! My weight was listed as 7 lbs. 3 ozs. and my height was 20 inches!
If we think our times are unprecedented, we might be tempted to throw a “pity party,” for ourselves, moaning, “Poor us! No one ever had it so bad!” Or we might try to escape from our awful world. Several “escape hatches” are readily available. One is denial: “Things aren’t as bad as they seem.” Well, unfortunately, SOME things ARE as bad as they seem–or maybe even WORSE. Or we can try to escape the pains of our times through addictions to such things as alcohol, other drugs, gambling, the internet, food, shopping, gaming, social media, and work. Ironically, even religion can be used as an escape hatch: “I don’t care about what’s happening on this earth. I’m thinking only about getting to heaven!”
To escape from the real world is not only impossible, it is tragic. Why? Because, our faith teaches us that human life is a gift from God. And we believe (as I’ve said before) that “REALITY is God’s home address.” That means God is with us in our times. Even more, God is alive and active in whatever times or circumstances we find ourselves. But God is with us not simply to console or comfort us. God is with us urging us to get involved with the troubles of our day. How? By calling us to ever greater love, goodness, justice, and care for one another in our real world. To illustrate what this involvement looks like, Jesus himself gave us a few concrete examples in Matthew 25:31-46: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill, visit the imprisoned.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who became deeply involved in one of the primary “troubles” of his day, a trouble that continues to plague us: the injustices spawned by deep-seated racisim. King once said this about Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. When the Levite and priest saw the wounded man by the side of the road, they asked themselves, “If I stop and help this man, what will happen to me?” But the Samaritan reversed the question. He asked, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” King labeled the Samaritan’s decision and subsequent actions as “unselfish sacrificial loving.” It is the kind of loving Jesus showed throughout his life–especially on the cross.
Sometimes this “unselfish sacrificial loving” is dramatic and newsworthy: think Mary saying “yes” to God at the Annunciation… the early Christians being slain in the Coloseum, and countless other unselfish loving people such as Francis of Assisi, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Cabrini, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa. But often this sacrifical loving is less dramatic–yet no less real:
The young couple welcoming a new baby into the world–despite our “troubling times”… Parents or grandparents who are doing the daily hard work of raising children… Teachers enthusiastically devoted to their students… Medical professionals caring for the ill among us… Scientists in their labs doing vital yet often tedious research to improve the quality of life…. The woman who just donated a total of 20 gallons of blood… Pastors responding generously to the many needs of their parishioners… Married couples remaining faithful to each other “in sickness and in health”… Picketers peacefully demonstrating for their neighbors who are being treated unjustly… Retirees volunteering for years with Meals on Wheels… Lawyers doing pro-bono work for the poor of their local community… And the teenage boy who mows his elderly neighbor’s lawn in summer and shovels her sidewalk in winter–for free. (She repays him with cookies and brownies!)
So rather than lamenting the times in which we find ourselves, let us ask ourselves, “Where can I help? How can I help? Whom can I help?” And also ask, “If I do not stop and help this man, this woman, this child, these people, what will happen to them? And consequently, what will happen to us?” I agree with the words of Bishop Michael Curry who spoke at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle in 2018. In essence he said,”Only unselfish, sacrifical love has the power to heal us and change our world for the better.”
For reflection:
Has your knowledge of history ever given you a better perspective on a current issue or event? In what way?
Do you ever get overwhelmed or depressed by the bad news you encounter frequently? If so, what are some of the ways you prevent yourself from becoming totally hopeless?
Did you ever feel “the call” to help someone in need, a call you felt you couldn’t resist? Could you share that experience with us?
Can you think of any other examples of “unselfish sacrifical love”–whether dramatic or small–that you have seen or been involved in? Could you share your example(s) with us below?
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P.S. Wishing you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, the official beginning of summer! May we take a few moments to pray for all our service members throughout our history who gave the ultimate gift of their lives for our precious blessings of freedom, peace, and justice for all. And may we ask our Beloved God for the gift of unselfish, sacrificial love in ourselves to ensure these same blessings for our future generations.
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I have two videos for you today. The first is a song by Jesse Manibusan entitled “Hold on to Love.” The second is a short, short story in cartoon form called “Helping Others Is the Key to Happiness.”
Song: “Hold on to Love” – 4:21 mins.
Cartoon short story: – 2:09 mins. Notice the main character’s hands (and eyes) in the film… and when is the first time you see him smile? And what do his hands do in the rest of the film?
I invite you to respond below to the reflection, the questions, the photos, or the videos. I’m always eager to hear from you!
