Let Freedom Ring!

Celebrating Independence Day is a wonderful occasion, especially when you consider what men and women have done to preserve that independence. Yet, we all need an "Independence Day" for ourselves, a day when we step away from our neediness and begin to realize just how strong we are as persons in faith.

The 13 colonies stepped away from Britain because they felt their God given rights were being violated. But each soul has its own God given privileges, its journey, its purpose particularly its own. From your mother's womb I knew you, says God to Jeremiah. Before you were brought forth, I consecrated you.

What prevents us from enjoying that freedom of soul that finds its joy so deeply embedded in God? Usually our dependencies on material and emotional ties. They don't have to be bad to prevent us from being free. They usually are just our distractions from a serious interior life.

Freedom is part and parcel of being an American. It is also expected through our life with God, as St Augustine says in his Rule, we should be free, in the liberty of Divine Grace.