Gratitude Beyond the Fourth of July

As the nation marked its 250th anniversary, the semiquincentennial, the Chicago Region found a fitting way to observe it: not with fireworks but with prayer and pen. 

Following the First Saturday Mass at the newly renovated Shrine of our Lady of Pompeii in the Little Italy section of Chicago, members gathered to pray the Patriotic Rosary, a devotion the region added a few years ago. In it, each of the 50 Hail Marys is offered for one of the 50 states, entrusting the country, its leaders, and its people to Our Lady's care. Having lifted the whole nation in prayer, the group turned to a more personal act of gratitude: writing thank-you cards to veterans. 

The card-writing grew out of an invitation from the American Association to work beside them on their veterans project at Rush University Medical Center, a ministry of appreciation for the men and women who have served. When American Association Hospitaller Matthew Knotts asked the Federal Association to join them, the answer was easy. Our veterans deserve acknowledgment, and not only on the Fourth of July, but on every day of the year. 

That conviction carried the afternoon. Cards were written by hand, one at a time, each carrying a word of thanks to someone who gave years in service to the country. When the gathering ended, the work continued. Members took stacks of cards home to finish, unwilling to let a single veteran go without a note. 

There is a fittingness to knights and dames taking up this cause. The Order's own history is woven into the American founding. More than 20 knights served in the Revolutionary War, and Admiral Joseph Paul de Grasse's victory off the Virginia Capes made the American victory at Yorktown, and ultimately American independence, possible. To honor American veterans today is, in a real sense, to continue a tradition nine centuries old: the Order's care for the sick, the suffering, and those who have given themselves for others.

Two hundred fifty years on, the gratitude is the same. In pairing the Patriotic Rosary with a simple stack of thank-you cards, the Chicago Region offered veterans both the strength of prayer and the warmth of a personal word—a reminder that appreciation, like service itself, is meant to be lived out every day.