December 5

PATRIOTISM is Duty, Honor, Country

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people chosen as his very own.  ~ Psalm 33:12

These words were excerpted from a speech General Douglas MacArthur delivered at West Point on May 12^th, 1962.  Every cadet entering the military academy receives a copy of the General’s address in its entirety. 

Duty.  Honor.  Country.  Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.  They are your rallying points, to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn…
They mold you for future roles as the custodians of the nation’s defense.  They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge…  They teach you to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength…  They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

These are great words for every soldier.  Are they great words for every Knight?  Are you the kind of Knight that would have made Father McGivney proud?

Patriotism means to stand by the country.  It does not mean to stand by the president or any public official, save exactly to the degree he himself stands by the country.  ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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