"It is a difficult time for the Church, with scandals, religiously inadequate Catholic higher education in many places, and the decline in vocations. It is also a beautiful time. During my first program last Sunday, with the support of prayer from several communities of cloistered nuns around the country, I was able to speak to an audience of perhaps a million people in the United Sates alone, as well an unknown number in other countries. People from all over the U.S. phoned in with intelligent, well-thought-out questions.
While this is a time of battle and conflict, it is also a time to be hopeful. We must never enter a conflict with a hangdog, depressed attitude. That is the loser's way. "If the trumpeter sounds an uncertain note, who will follow?" is an old saying. Now is a time for the sounding of sure and certain notes. Whatever happens in the immediate future, we must be absolutely convinced that the cause of God will triumph. It would be spiritually helpful to many people at this point to read the first psalm, which has much to say about the current political situation. Read it, and you will know what to do as you go into the voting booth--no matter what the outcome. "
Here is Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does,
he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
