Happy Independence Day!

How often do you think of independence? Freedom?

I confess that I take my freedom for granted. This morning, I took a few hours away from work (I'm self employed so it required just a bit of schedule juggling) to go to St. Theresa for Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. I ran some errands, dropped clothes off at Good Will, then met a friend for lunch.  Never once did I stop and think about freedom although I caught myself smiling and singing along with the car radio as I zoomed past the sunny fields of Virginia. Freedom sang in my blood, freedom glowed from the candlelit altar as I freely entered my church, knelt and prayed with my church family our first Friday devotions. I never once thought, all that time I was there, of the many people around the world who cannot worship freely;  in some countries you could be killed for kneeling and saying a rosary, or owning a pair of rosary beads.


Like many people, I gripe about politics. I don't like any politicians at the moment here in America; those I held out a glimmer of hope for turned out to be shallow and feeble, and I yearn for the days of Reagan (or maybe just the fashions, child of the '80s that I am.)  But I am free to complain; free to vote!  I remember reading of the early suffragettes. Many were declared insane for wanting to vote! Why should I complain when just three or four generations ago, women were thrown in jail, beaten and declared insane because they wanted....to vote?

As we head into a three-day weekend....oh, glorious three day weekend! Sun, friends, barbecues, fireworks, parties, relaxation...let's not forget that the freedom we have to enjoy all of these things - freedom from a state-imposed religion (which is really what 'freedom of religion' means, not 'an atmosphere free from any mention of religion because it might offend someone'), the freedom of speech, self expression, the right to vote - let's give thanks to Almighty God for the America of the past that spawned a new concept of freedom and human dignity; the America of today that remains the most visible symbol of freedom in the world; and the American of tomorrow that may help others realize that dream, too.