Happy President’s Day. The observance commemorates the 22 February 1732 birth of the “Father of the Country,” George Washington. While Washington’s birthday has been marked as a national holiday since at least 1796 — the final year of his presidency — subsequent years saw Abraham Lincoln’s 12 February birthday added to the calendar as a separate observance.
I remember as a kid that one of the great things about February were the almost back to back three-day weekends we enjoyed. Sadly, the Lincoln holiday was suppressed about twenty years ago, but Washington’s anniversary widely became dubbed “President’s Day” in the years since.
In 1791, Archbishop John Carroll, the father of American Catholicism and our nation’s first Catholic Bishop, wrote and delivered his famous “Prayer for the Nation.” It is a reminder of our need to pray for our leaders, and for our country.