Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

Today we celebrate our national freedom, our independence from the tyranny of King George III of England.

But we need to keep in mind that the ultimate tyranny comes from enslavement to sin and the devil.

And God has given us the commandments and the teachings of Jesus that come through the church to keep us free individually and as a nation.

The Book of Exodus opens with the Israelites having been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years.

Now they did not become slaves all at once.

When they first came to Egypt under Joseph, they had all the freedoms they could want.

But little by little, they gave into the culture of the Egyptians,

they forgot their faith in God and turned away from him in disobedience.

Disobedience to the moral law.

It was then that they became just like the Egyptians and began to worship all the idols of the Egyptians.

So you see that the but you must grasp this. The spiritual slavery came first and the physical slavery came as a consequence.

When we forget about God, ignore his moral law, we become less free, not more.

We have this crazy idea that if we can become independent from God, we will become more free.

But that's precisely when we become slaves dependence on God.

In fact, by the moral law, we show our dependence on God.

So I guess this is really our dependence day.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallow would be your name.

Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us a stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver

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