September 2026
Dear Friends:
Summer is nearly over, and fall will be here soon. As we are now entering into the month of September, we are focusing on the great feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14. We are invited as Catholics to deepen our faith through the lens of Christ’s Holy Cross. This feast commemorates the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena in Jerusalem (c. 326), the dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in 335, and the recovery of the Cross from Persian captivity in 628.
This is the history surrounding the authentic True Cross, but more importantly we draw attention to and affirm the Cross as the instrument of Christ’s offering of Himself for our salvation. As the Council of Trent rightly teaches, Christ’s Passion on the Cross is a mystery that is certainly historical, but essentially theological. This is the very means by which God reconciles humanity to Himself.
There is a paradox involved herein: this very Cross is both an instrument of death and the sign of life, and the source of shame and the gateway to eternal life. This is the very thing that brought death to Christ, yet it is spiritually the very means of our resurrection. Jesus’ instruction was simple and direct: those who wish to follow Him must take up the cross and follow Him. The Cross is also linked with the past, as in the book of Numbers 21:4-9, where God’s healing sign in the wilderness prefigures Christ’s lifting up for salvation. The Cross is showing us that it is not a new idea, but the fulfillment of God’s saving acts throughout Scripture.
This is an invitation to embrace the Cross not out of fear, but out of love and gratitude. St. Rose of Lima reminds us, “Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.” It is the path to holiness and union with God. The Cross should not be seen as a reprimand but as a proof of God’s love. This is emphasized by St. Faustina and St. Padre Pio: in difficult moments, we should fix our gaze on the Heart of Jesus on the Cross for renewed strength and power. Then we need to draw on this mercy to overcome sin and live in holiness.
To reinforce this mystery in our lives we can recite the Sign of the Cross daily while meditating on its meaning as a sign of salvation, and spend some valuable time meditating on John 3:13-17—especially verses 16 and 17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
We have in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross not just a remembrance of history but a spiritual invitation to see the Cross as the center of our faith, the source of salvation, and the ladder to heaven.
Abbot Sharbel Ewen, OSB
Prince of Peace Abbey
Homily for the 250th Anniversary of Our Nation
July 4, 2026
Fr. Bede Clark, OSB
Long ago, when I was in college, 30 years ago if you must know, I took a course in Social and Political Philosophy. I still remember the essay question on the final exam. What is the best form of government? Filled with the idealism of youth and the zeal of Catholic conviction, I argued that the best form of government would be a Christian theocracy. What better laws could we have, I posited, than God’s Law?
My professor, a very solid Catholic and locally renowned pro-life debater, took a dim view of my essay. A C-, as I recall, and that might have been generous. Perhaps because I did not successfully or sufficiently make the argument over the 20 or 30 minutes I had remaining, but probably at least partially because, as I have come to see subsequently, my thesis was flawed.
Flawed for practical reasons: As I had already heard in high school, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A theocracy is run not by God, but by men, who are never as good and pure and holy and wise and understanding and perfect as God. Further, given the divisions among Christians and divisions among Catholics, some of them legitimate differences, the question arises of which strain of Christianity or even of Catholicism would hold sway, and who would determine that?
But my collegiate essay promoting Christian theocracy was flawed also for a more fundamental, philosophical and theological reason: it’s not how God Himself holds power. It’s not how He governs the world. He doesn’t govern by force. He doesn’t make us do the right thing. He doesn’t force us to choose the True, the Good, the Beautiful, the just and the right.
He certainly could have done so. He is, after all, Almighty, all-powerful. He could have made Adam and Eve stay away from that tree and certainly from that serpent. He could have made us always walk in the ways of goodness, of righteousness, of justice, of peace. He could have made us obey His Laws and follow His ways, and preserved the Garden of Eden for all time.
But He didn’t. He gave us free will to cooperate with His grace, with His infinite gifts, with His Will, with His Plan… or not. He gave us the freedom to use His many gifts to serve Him and our brothers and sisters, or to throw them back in His Face. He gives us plentiful opportunity, until our dying breath, to convert to His ways, to repent of our selfishness, to accept the consequences of our mistakes and to learn from them and to come ever closer to Him, or not. He gave us, fundamentally, the opportunity and the freedom to use or to abuse His gifts to us.
Perhaps in our dealings with one another, both personally as individuals and on the political level of city, state, and country, we can learn from how God governs things. How to respect the God-given dignity of each person. How to respect their free will to worship, to believe, to think, to vote as they see right and just. How to love the person, even if we must sometimes judge their beliefs, opinions, actions, and behaviors to be misguided or evil. How to hope and pray and work toward our mutual ongoing conversion to the Way, the Truth, the Life of God that He seeks to make ever clearer to each and every one of us. How to rejoice in the progress made by one another toward the ways of goodness and Truth and right. How to serve one another and to mutually upbuild each other, so that this life, this world becomes an ever better and more faithful reflection of the next, of the eternal life of heaven.
This freedom, this liberty given us by God Himself was only made the law of a land, of any land anywhere, 250 years ago, when our Founding Fathers risked their necks, their lives, by declaring it the law of our land with their signing of the Declaration of Independence. Independence from tyranny, from monarchy, from theocracy (even Christian theocracy!), from unjust taxation, from having to believe whatever the ruler believes, from having to do whatever a ruler tells you to do. When they recognized and proclaimed, for the first time ever on a political, legislative level, our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When they chose to reflect in our governing principles and in our laws, the freedom and liberty that God grants each of us with His gift of free will.
Freedom must be accompanied by responsibility. Liberty is not license to do whatever we please. We use our free will to choose the right, to choose the just, to choose the good. And we give thanks today for the millions of Americans, from the Founding Fathers to those present here today, who have chosen in whatever ways, large or small, to serve others, to build up our communities and our nation, to use their freedom and liberty to do good and not evil. To give thanks today for those who have given their lives, especially on our battlefields but also in other fields of service, to help others toward the even greater homeland of heaven, and to make the foretaste of heaven ever more present here in this land. To give thanks to those who, long before and long after President Kennedy, have taken to heart and put into practice His commission to Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
In the words of our Collect for Independence Day: Father…for what has been achieved we give you thanks, for the work that still remains we ask your help. And for that constant help, we pray to Mary Immaculate, the Patroness of these United States:
Blessed Mother Mary, we turn to you in prayer for all the people in these United States. We again place ourselves in your care, in the gentle hands that cradled the Child Jesus.
We ask you to make us more alive in your faith, more generous in your love, more trusting in your hope. Teach us to imitate Jesus, as you did, and always to follow him with courage.
Mother Mary, help us to become a people who hunger for justice and who burn with compassion for those who suffer in our midst. Make us a people who cherish and defend the dignity of every human person. Free us from all selfishness and self-interest, that we truly might be the builders of the Kingdom of God.
Immaculate Mary, help us to stand among the family of nations as a people of compassion, generosity, and peace. Make us a people of vision and courage, who will gift this world with new life, new hope, and the unity for which your Son died.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who turn with confidence to you today. Amen.
