Grace and peace to you and your loved ones,
I trust that you and your loved ones have been well and blessed.
“America, America, God shed his grace on thee.” Those lines are both a statement and a prayer. Indeed, God has shed his grace on this country. When leaders of our new country gathered to declare independence, when they gathered to write a constitution, God gave them grace. A hundred years later, when our country was threatened with civil war, God gave us grace—even in bloodshed—to avoid secession. The twentieth century saw the United States become a world leader in commerce and trade. When our country was drawn into wars abroad, God gave us grace to overcome dictatorship and totalitarianism.
Katherine Lee Bates recognized what was right with America. In 1893 a group of teachers decided to visit Pike’s Peak, elevation 14,000 feet. Katherine wrote of that trip, “We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the ways on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy: All the wonder of America seemed displayed there with the sea-like expanse.
It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country, spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind. When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were penciled into my notebook.”
“O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain’s majesties, Above the fruited plain, America, America, God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.”
Continue to strengthen your home altars by praying together as a family and sharing the word of God. This practice will produce strong individuals.
Please find a link to our 5th Sunday after Pentecost service and sermon here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyfRte9s4vg If this does not work please find it our website https://saintpeterschurch.net/category/sermonvideoarchive/. Our bulletin is also attached here.
Sincerely,
Fr. Samuel K. Ndungu