My Dear Friends:
Once again, I invite all of you to prayer this week for our nation as we approach Election Day. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for adoration in the church from 7:00am -7:00pm while the polls are open on Tuesday, November 5th. Come and spend time with Our Lord in this most pivotal point in our history.
I want to share with you the words of Pope St. John Paul II as he left our country in September 1987 just one week after visiting his here in Miami. His plea and prayer for America is one of his most moving speeches delivered on American soil. May these words give you solace in the coming days, and remember that the one constant that will never change is Jesus Christ really present in Body, Soul, and Divinity at our altar. To Him always be the glory!
From Pope John Paul II’s Farewell Address in Detroit, Michigan on September 19, 1987:
As I go, I take with me vivid memories of a dynamic nation, a warm and welcoming people, a Church abundantly blessed with a rich blend of cultural traditions. I depart with admiration for the ecumenical spirit that breathes strongly throughout this land, for the genuine enthusiasm of your young people, and for the hopeful aspirations of your most recent immigrants. I take with me an unforgettable memory of a country that God has richly blessed from the beginning until now.
America the beautiful! So you sing in one of your national songs. Yes, America, you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways:
¨ in your majestic mountains and fertile plains;
¨ in the goodness and sacrifice hidden in your teeming cities and expanding suburbs;
¨ in your genius for invention and for splendid progress;
¨ in the power that you use for service and in the wealth that you share with others;
¨ in what you give to your own, and in what you do for others beyond your borders;
¨ in how you serve, and in how you keep alive the flame of hope in many hearts;
¨ in your quest for excellence and in your desire to right all wrongs.
Yes, America, all this belongs to you. But your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter.
For this reason, America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenceless ones.
The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! All the great causes that are yours today will have meaning only to the extent that you guarantee the right to life and protect the human person:
¨ feeding the poor and welcoming refugees;
¨ reinforcing the social fabric of this nation;
¨ promoting the true advancement of women;
¨ securing the rights of minorities;
¨ pursuing disarmament, while guaranteeing legitimate defense; all this will succeed only if respect for life and its protection by the law is granted to every human being from conception until natural death.
Every human person – no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society – is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival-yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.
With these sentiments of love and hope for America, I now say goodbye in words that I spoke once before: “Today, therefore, my final prayer is this: that God will bless America, so that she may increasingly become – and truly be – and long remain one Nation, under God, indivisible. With liberty and justice for all”
May God bless you all. God bless America!
St. John Paul II, pray for us!
God bless you all,
