Happy Independence Day!

Considering our flag we find two virgin saints begging us to accept their patronage. In the thirteen red and white stripes we find St. Philomena. (Thirteen is her number and red and white are her colors.) In the blue square with fifty white stars we find Our Lady, Queen of Virgins and of Saints. (Blue is her color, she is often symbolized by stars, and there are fifty Hail Marys in the Rosary.) In these two Virgins we see what our country must become once again:

• They are Virgins and call our country to repent of its many impurities (sodomy, sexual abuse, mistreating of women, fornication, pornography, divorce and remarriage, etc.).
• Our Lady, who conceived the Christ Child by the Holy Spirit while yet an unmarried virgin and therefore experienced a sort of “unplanned pregnancy”, risked being stoned to death and yet welcomed the life of her Divine Child. (Though abortion wasn’t a legal and common practice in her society as it is in ours, there were those who found ways of ending the life of their unborn child anyway.) She calls to us to take courage and defend our unborn children through thick and thin.
• St. Philomena refused to compromise her Faith even when tortured and martyred by the emperor of Rome. She reminds us of the value of religious liberty and calls us to be uncompromising Catholics who vote their Faith and will “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) no matter the consequences.

Holy Mary and St. Philomena, pray that we may once again be a nation that respects life, true marriage, and religious freedom!

In Faith and Hope and Love!
Together we fight on!
For one nation in God!
And His most flawless law!
Of Truth and Purity!
Life for ev’rybody!
And liberty to be
Ever growing holy!
To Saint Philomena
and the Virgin Mary,
We pray for our country
to be what it should be!

Immaculate Conception, Patroness of America, pray for us!

Immaculate Conception Novena https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/novena/immaculate.htm

Novena Prayer to St. Philomena O Faithful Virgin and glorious martyr, St. Philomena, who works so many miracles on behalf of the poor and sorrowing, have pity on me. Thou knowest the multitude and diversity of my needs. Behold me at thy feet, full of misery, but full of hope. I entreat thy charity, O great Saint! Graciously hear me and obtain from God a favorable answer to the request which I now humbly lay before thee… (Here specify your petition.) I am firmly convinced that through thy merits, through the scorn, the sufferings and the death thou didst endure, united to the merits of the Passion and death of Jesus, thy Spouse, I shall obtain what I ask of thee, and in the joy of my heart I will bless God, who is admirable in His Saints. Amen.

This post is dedicated to St. Maximilian Kolbe.