Cardinal Dolan’s Benediction at the GOP Convention

on August 31, 2012

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s website has a shorter version of the benediction he gave Thursday evening at the Republican Convention in Tampa. Below is the full text based on video.

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With firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, let us pray. Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, we beg your continued blessings on this sanctuary of freedom, and on all of those who proudly call America home. We ask your benediction upon those yet to be born, and on those who are about to see you at the end of this life. Bless those families whose ancestors arrived on these shores generations ago, as well as those families that have come recently, to build a better future while weaving their lives into the rich tapestry of America.

We lift up to your loving care those afflicted by the recent storms, drought and fire. We ask for the grace to stand in solidarity with all those who suffer. May we strive to include your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the production and prosperity of a people so richly blessed.

Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us, and on those who would govern us: the president, and vice-president, the Congress, the Supreme Court, and on all those who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office, especially Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. And Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself.

Almighty God who gives us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank you as well for the singular gift of liberty. Renew in all of our people a respect for religious freedom in full, that first most cherished freedom. Make us truly free by tethering freedom to truth and ordering freedom to goodness. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope and love, prudently and with justice, courageously and in a spirit of moderation. Enkindle in our hearts a new sense of responsibility for freedom’s cause and make us ever grateful for all those who for more than two centuries have given their lives in freedom’s defense. We commend their noble souls to your eternal care as even now we beg your mighty hand upon our beloved men and women in uniform. May we know the truth of your creation, respecting the laws of nature and nature’s God and not seek to replace it with idols of our own making.

Give us the good sense not to caste aside the boundaries of righteous living you first inscribed on our hearts even before inscribing them on tablets of stone. May you mend our every flaw, confirming our soul in self control, our liberty in law. We pray for all those we seek honest labor as we thank you for the spirit of generosity to those in need [with] which you so richly blessed this nation. We beseech your blessing on all who depart this evening and on all those in every land who seek to conduct their lives in freedom. Most of all, Almighty God, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country. For we are indeed one nation under God, and in God we trust. Dear God, bless America, you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

  1. Comment by Tom Arr on August 31, 2012 at 10:42 am

    He equated the Begotten One with the ones who were begat!

  2. Comment by jamatta on September 4, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    We’re still wondering this same thing: If one of the heads of the RC in America equates the One Who spoke to the patriarchs has no different parentage, why are they calling themselves Christian? In reality, it is a personality cult built around the papacy as Charlemagne founded it to be (800 a.d.) See St. Boniface, (and Methodios later) letters about “germanic” latin bishops from Franks who were “lewd, adulterers, and killed Christians (Orthodox already there) like pagans”. And ever so…

  3. Comment by jamatta on September 4, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Editing problem …sorry…Should read “If one of the heads of the RC believes that the One Who spoke to the patriarchs has the same parentage…etc.”

  4. Comment by Tom Arr on September 7, 2012 at 2:21 pm

    We can’t just single out the Roman church for it’s carefully worded prayers that have appeared at both conventions. Christians from all stripes have done the same kind of lingual acrobatics to keep from offending. I only know of one group that both takes extreme unction with the mere mention of His name in the proper form and have an inordinate amount of power on the national stage in relation to their representative size of their population.

  5. Comment by Tom Arr on September 7, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    *umbrage, not unction.

  6. Pingback by Katolsk Vision » Är Gud republikan ? Kardinal Dolan mer naiv än lovligt on September 1, 2012 at 4:48 am

    […] http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/08/31/cardinal-dolans-benediction-at-the-gop-convention/ […]

  7. Comment by Fr Robert Pearson on September 1, 2012 at 9:10 am

    Isn’t Cdl. Dolan a Christian? What happened to petitioning the Father through the Son?

  8. Pingback by Cardinal Dolan Prays with Democrats « Juicy Ecumenism on September 7, 2012 at 2:59 am

    […] stronger with Democrats than with Republicans. You judge for yourself. Here’s his GOP prayer: http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/08/31/cardinal-dolans-benediction-at-the-gop-convention/. And below is his prayer last […]

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