Pro Deo et Pro Patria

First, a big thanks to you my readers and friends, for indulging me on that last post. I’ve had that thought on my mind for a while and was looking for a slow news day to write it.

Today we celebrated the 4th of July. My family and I are very fortunate – blessed beyond measure in many ways. These days, that could simply mean (as it does) that we can still fill our car several times a week. But one particular area of life stands out; and that is the city in which we live.

Anyone who really knows me knows that I’ve had my heart set on returning to my native east coast for as long as I’ve lived in Texas. That is not a disparaging commentary on Texas. Some of the greatest blessings I’ve ever had have been precisely because I live here. Take for instance my mother-in-law, who in many ways is like a best friend. We get along so well. She brought me into the Latin Mass. We see each other every day (at Latin Mass). This place has its downsides too. It’s 105 degrees in the shade at 9AM this time of year. So there’s a definite trade off. In fact, it’s mostly the climate (and a desire to help take care of my own dear mother in her older years).

One thing this town does right, however, is that somehow it has maintained a stereotypical small town feel despite being a rather large sized city. At no other time is this more apparent than on the 4th of July. Before mass we headed out to the city’s Independence Day parade. The color guard, the fire truck, civic groups tossing candy from floats… There was no Uncle Sam on stilts but I can’t expect everything.

It is an annual tradition that I actually like a lot. It reminds me of an America that once was great and of the greatness that once was America.

If your intellect hasn’t been completely darkened by unrepentant mortal sin (that is, if you’re not driving around alone in a car with two masks on) you know what I’m talking about. To borrow some phrases from President Trump’s 2020 stump speech, this is the nation that built the railroads and reached the moon. We freed the slaves and freed Europe. This land gave us Harriet Tubman and Fulton Sheen. I could go on. All of these things make me proud. Of our past.

We also export abortifacients and pornography like they’re going out of style. We are the new Sodom. We imprison political dissidents. We have murdered generations of our own people. We turn men into boys and then boys into girls and then declare that a woman is whatever anyone wants a woman to be. We cannot escape the freemasonic foundations of this place…

We are Rome.

For a brief moment this morning I forgot all the bad things and was taken back to a happier time – that “shining city on a hill” President Reagan talked about so cheerfully.

Then we went to Mass.

I was reminded here that our home is no country on this earth. The state should exist to support the Church – the Catholic Church – in Her mission of saving souls because those souls were created for our true home in heaven – our true native land, as the last line of O Salutaris reminds us. Nobis donet in Patria!

And yet the true virtue of patriotism still wells up in my heart on a day like this. I love my country. I love what she once was and what I pray she will become again. I pray for our leaders even if they are illegitimately reigning. I pray for the “Catholic” leaders who promote baby murder especially. But my focus must be on God and on His Incarnate Son who died so I might live with Him forever in my true home.

For God and for country.

Pro Deo et pro Patria.

May God bless the United States! And may we always focus on our eternal home above all else. The Immaculate Heart of the Virgin will triumph. Remember that.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Immaculate Conception, pray for us, the people of these 50 states under Thy patronage!