"Students of Faith" Video
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“As we prepare to celebrate two and a half centuries of freedom, I am inviting America’s great religious communities to pray for our nation and for our people. From the beginning, this has always been a country sustained and strengthened by prayer. So, as we chart our course for the next 250 years, let us rededicate ourselves to one nation under God.” -President Trump, Iowa, July 3, 2025
From the earliest settlers in the New World of America throughout the 250 years of the growth of this great nation, Americans have come together in prayer for their country. Whether it was the pilgrims or the attendees at the First Continental Congress, political leaders from presidents to local officials have often called for prayer from our citizens for the good of our nation.
When the First Continental Congress convened in 1774 in Philadelphia to respond to British actions one of the first considerations was that their sessions should begin with prayer. In spite of denominational differences, the opening prayer was a unifying success and the Congress established prayer as the essential opening to each session. That precedent still holds today as opening prayers before each session of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
From that first Congressional prayer: Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people.
When the time came to write a Constitution for the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin reminded the Congress that prayer should begin their deliberations remembering they had all observed in the revolution “ frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.” When the Constitution was completed, George Washington spoke of the “invisible hand” which brought about a system of United Government through “ tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities…”
In celebration and thanksgiving for 250 years of God’s providence and in petition for the next 250 years, Americans are invited on May 17 to the National Mall in Washington D.C. or in their communities, to pray and rededicate the United States as “One Nation under God.”
Read more details at https://freedom250.org/
Join in the May 17, 2026 Rededication of America as “One Nation Under God”
Click here for a printable copy
of the Rosary for America
Join us now:
Pray the Rosary for America
O God, Our Creator, we pray for President Donald J Trump.
We beseech you to bless, protect and guide President Trump, his family and his administration to the good of our nation and of the whole world.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen
A PATRIOT'S PRAYER
I am one American.
I strive to be an American patriot.
Sometimes, Lord, I feel alone and discouraged.
Sometimes the work of defending my country is too hard
and I am not adequate to the task.
I pray that you, Lord, who inspired America’s Founding Fathers,
who strengthen our soldier sons and daughters,
who bless this country to the good of its citizens and the world,
would open my eyes to the light of your truth.
That You ask nothing of me without giving me the way.
That You put nothing before me without giving me the strength.
That I need only open my heart to Your love and Your will.
America trusts in God and on You I can rely.
I am strong enough.
You have made me so.
I am wise enough.
You have made me so.
If You are with me, who can prevail against me?
I will stand as the American Patriot You guide me to be.
Amen.
©2024 by Barbara Samuells
STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
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Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
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AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.
Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
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To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
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To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
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To invite and include other faith communities
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To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
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To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
