Happy 4th of July!

However you and your family are celebrating our nation's birth this year, we hope that you have a wonderful (and safe) day!  With baby so close to the due date we will be sticking close to home, hopefully taking a short walk and throwing some rocks in the river this evening.

Although today wraps up the Fortnight for Freedom, the bishops of the United States encourage all faithful Catholics to continue praying and working for the preservation of religious freedom.  The USCCB's website has more information.

Here is a brief snippet of Archbishop Chaput's homily for the closing Mass of the Fortnight for Freedom, delivered earlier today at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC:

Today, July 4, we celebrate the birth of a novus ordo seclorum - a “new order of the ages,” the American Era. God has blessed our nation with resources, power, beauty and the rule of law. We have so much to be grateful for. But these are gifts. They can be misused. They can be lost. In coming years, we’ll face more and more serious challenges to religious liberty in our country. This is why the Fortnight for Freedom has been so very important.

The entire homily is definitely worth reading!  You can find it over at God and the Machine.