Opening Reflection
On this cloudy morning, I returned once again to the invocation that has become a refuge on my days off — a place set apart from the falling-away, ill-tempered, and unclean speech that now fills the airwaves of our communities and our society.
Invocation
“Good morning, coming to you from beneath our beautiful and mighty flag.”
Today’s Invocation Video
Expanded Meditation
Today, I call upon all Americans to speak with courage from the depth of the American well. Refrain from speech that is not rooted in the first principles of this nation. Reject any word that is not abundantly full of those principles.
Speak with courage.
Speak to strengthen.
Speak to defend the weak and those encapsulated in fear.
Speak to raise up those around you.
And do not let a single opportunity pass — today or in the coming days — to exercise your First Amendment right to be exceptional through the leadership of your speech.
“Today I call upon all listeners to speak — and to speak with courage.”
Perhaps this invocation is more than a ceremony. Perhaps it is a centering — a way to stand firm in the mud of uncertainty that so many across this country feel trapped in, struggling to free themselves.
This place has become a place of identity for me — a place where I can exercise my exceptional First Amendment right to speak in the fullness of my calling, my identity, and my participation in an open and inclusive society. Here, I do my part to help forge a path toward the city on a hill, just as others have done before us.
Our nation was first tested on the principles of speech so that all may participate in the great journey of exceptionalism — rising up and out of the muddy waters of uncertainty and into the identity of the republic we have been called to stand within.
I tell you now: the escape is speech.
Let your speech be the forge drawn from the depth of courage that has been demonstrated across the history of this great nation.
Image of the Morning Invocation
Closing Charge
Raise yourself into your calling.
Establish your threshold of speech.
Build your perimeter upon the first principles of this republic.
Let speech be your armament and your shield.
Let it be the path to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Let it be the path toward understanding the greatness of our right to speak — and to speak expressively — to bring forth abundance and prosperity for all.
Let your speech be a refuge.
Let it be a warning of magnitude: that the Proposition that all men are created equal is not a relic, but a living threshold of our existence.
And we will not move from the first principles that brought us into the age of American exceptionalism.
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