Benediction for the 2004 Republican National Convention
Sept 09, 2004
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery at the 2004 Republican National Convention on Thursday, September 2, Evening Session 7:45 - 11:15 P.M. EDT.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is the Benediction by Cardinal Egan, remarks as prepared for delivery at the 2004 Republican National Convention:
My dear friends:
As you conclude the work of this national convention, allow me to invite you for a brief moment to set aside all other thoughts and concerns, so that together we might raise our minds and hearts in prayer to the One God and Father of us all.
Almighty and Eternal Lord, our lands are fertile.
Our towns and cities are enriched with the wonders of science, industry,and commerce. We are a splendid blend of peoples and cultures from every corner of the earth.
Even more, we are creatures of Your hand, fashioned in Your image, and placed here to live as You would have us live, so that, when the course of our lives has run, we might spend an eternity in Your presence.
Filled, Heavenly Father, with gratitude for all of this, we come before you humbly and lovingly to ask You to make us what You wish us to be.
Make us, Lord, a people of wisdom and understanding who resort to conflict only when all hope of peace is lost.
Make us, Lord, a people of justice who revere the rights of others, and especially that precious right to live which resides in children coming into this world and in the aged and infirm departing from it.
Make us, Lord, a people of genuine compassion who, feeling within ourselves the pain and hurt of the hungry, the homeless, the abandoned, and the stranger, come willingly and generously to their aid.
Make us, Lord, a people who at all times and in all circumstances, live lives that bespeak virtue, modesty, and cleanness of heart.
In a word, Merciful God, make us "holy," as You are holy.
All of this we ask with the utmost of confidence in Your loving providence, as we pray on this occasion a most special prayer for those who in this noble land guide, serve, and lead us - our President and Vice President here with us this evening, our legislators and judges, our police-officers and fire-fighters, our clergy, our educators, our social-workers, our medical practitioners, our public servants, the myriad of volunteers who give of themselves in every area of human need, and, in a most particular way, our brave and devoted military in lands across the sea, whose loved ones yearn and pray for their return, as do we.
Lord of all, we are Your children, "one nation under God," a people called to be a light of righteousness in a troubled world, a city set on a mountain- top from which all humankind might draw strength, inspiration, and hope.
Help us to measure up to this wondrous calling, this unique vocation, as You send us forth from this place in peace, justice, compassion, virtue and holiness now and forever.
Benediction for the 2004 Republican National Convention