July 6, 2025

July 6, 2025  • Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parish Family:

As we continue to celebrate the birth of our nation this weekend, here’s a little Catholic history. Archbishop John Carroll was the cousin of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1789, Pope Pius VI named him the first bishop of the United States. He would later become the first archbishop when the Diocese of Baltimore, Maryland, the mother diocese of the United States, was elevated to the status of archdiocese. Archbishop Carroll wrote the following prayer in 1789 for use on the occasion of the inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States. It is a good prayer to pray not only for Independence Day, but every day.  

We pray you, O God of might, wisdom, and justice,
through whom authority is rightly administered,
laws are enacted, and judgment decreed,
assist with your Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude
the President of these United States,
that his administration may be conducted in righteousness,
and be eminently useful to your people, over whom he presides;
by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion;
by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy;
and by restraining vice and immorality.
 
Let the light of your divine wisdom direct
the deliberations of Congress,
and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws
framed for our rule and government,
so that they may tend to the preservation of peace,
the promotion of national happiness,
the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge;
and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
 
We pray for the governor of this state,
for the members of the assembly,
for all judges, magistrates, and other officers
who are appointed to guard our political welfare,
that they may be enabled, by your powerful protection,
to discharge the duties of their respective stations
with honesty and ability.
 
We recommend likewise, to your unbounded mercy,
all our fellow citizens throughout the United States,
that we may be blessed in the knowledge
and sanctified in the observance of your most holy law;
that we may be preserved in union,
and in that peace which the world cannot give;
and after enjoying the blessings of this life,
be admitted to those which are eternal.
Grant this, we beseech you, O Lord of mercy,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

  May God bless America! 
Father Neil Sullivan