+ Ite ad Joseph! + Go to Joseph! +

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph's intercession

your Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of 
human salvation, whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. 

Collect ~Today's Liturgy

Solemnity of St Joseph 

+ Patron of the Universal Church +
+Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary +

+ Protector of the Divine Infant and Mary +

March 19*
*celebrated March 20 in 2017 since March 19 fell on a Sunday

"Saint Joseph believed unhesitatingly in the mystery of the Incarnation, in the fruitful virginity and in the divine maternity of Mary. He believed without seeing the miracles that were to fill Judea with his glory and renown of his holy name.

We too should recognize Jesus in the frail Host that is offered to us at the altar. Here He is even smaller than at Bethlehem, more hidden than in Saint Joseph's workshop. Still it is He, 'I believe all the Son of God has spoken, than Truth's own word there is no truer token.'"

  Bishop Pierre-Anastase Pichenot

“He [St. Joseph] nourished with the greatest solicitude

Him whom the faithful were one day to receive

as the Bread of Life on their homeward journey.”   ~ Pope Pius IX  

“Saint Joseph  joined with Mary in adoration and  united himself to Christ, Whose heart surged with sentiments of adoration, love and praise for the Father and of charity for men. St. Joseph’s adoration kept pace with every stage of our Lord’s life, drawing upon the grace, the spirit, and the virtue of each mystery. In the Incarnation he adored the self-annihilation of the Son of God; at Bethlehem, the poverty; at Nazareth, the silence, the apparent weakness, the obedience, and all the other virtues of Christ.…

Because his faith was so strong, Joseph’s mind and heart bowed in perfect adoration. Imitate his faith as you kneel before the  humble Christ annihilated in the Eucharist. Pierce the veil which covers this furnace of love and adore the hidden God. ”

St Peter Julian Eymard

   

"To other Saints our Lord has given power to help in one sort

of need , but this glorious saint, as I know by experience,

helps us in every need." - St Teresa of Avila

 St Joseph, pray for us!

"When Egypt was laid waste by the great famine,

Pharaoh told his people,

Ite ad Joseph! - Go to Joseph! (Genesis 41:55)

So if we are in trouble, let us listen to the word of the Lord and take Pharaoh's advice; let us go to Joseph if we wish to be consoled." - St Alphonsus de Ligouri

 Click here: St Joseph: A Hidden Life from "Who Cares About The Saints?"Fr. James Martin, S.J. - YouTube  (7 mins)

Click here: Prayer to St. Joseph in Any Urgent Need - YouTube

Click here: Why St. Joseph? Patron of the Church and Spiritual Father

Our abiding Bethlehem...

Behold, when the fullness of time had come,

God sent his Son into the world. – Gal 4:4

“Above all else, 

this is what Christmas bids us to do: 

give glory to God, for He is good, He is faithful, He is merciful. 

...Let us allow ourselves to be warmed by the tenderness of God; 

we need His caress. God’s caresses do not harm us. 

They give us peace and strength. We need His caresses. 

God is full of love: to Him be praise and glory forever! - Pope Francis

 

"The Bethlehem of that night … 

has never passed away.  

…It lives a real, unbroken, unsuspended life, not in history only, or in art, or in poetry, or even in the energetic 

fertile worship and fleshly hearts of the faithful, 

but in the worshipful reality of the Blessed Sacrament. 

Round the Tabernacle, which is our abiding Bethlehem, goes on the same world 

of beautiful devotion which surrounded the new-born Babe, real, out of real hearts, and realized by God’s acceptance. "

Fr Frederick W Faber

Bethlehem

 

"The mystery of Bethlehem is renewed upon the altar,

and the cry goes forth:

'Christ is born to us.  Come, let us adore!' "

Fr Karl Adam

Ite ad Joseph! - Go to Joseph!

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph's intercession

your Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation, whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. 

Collect ~Today's Liturgy

Solemnity of St Joseph 

Patron of the Universal Church + Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

+ Protector of the Divine Infant and Mary +

March 19

"Saint Joseph believed unhesitatingly in the mystery of the Incarnation, in the fruitful virginity and in the divine maternity of Mary. He believed without seeing the miracles that were to fill Judea with his glory and renown of his holy name.

We too should recognize Jesus in the frail Host that is offered to us at the altar. Here He is even smaller than at Bethlehem, more hidden than in Saint Joseph's workshop. Still it is He, 'I believe all the Son of God has spoken, than Truth's own word there is no truer token.'"

  Bishop Pierre-Anastase Pichenot

“He [St. Joseph] nourished with the greatest solicitude

Him whom the faithful were one day to receive

as the Bread of Life on their homeward journey.”   ~ Pope Pius IX  

“St. Joseph joined with Mary in adoration and united himself to Christ, Whose heart surged with sentiments of adoration, love and praise for the Father and of charity for men. St. Joseph’s adoration kept pace with every stage of our Lord’s life, drawing upon the grace, the spirit, and the virtue of each mystery. In the Incarnation he adored the self-annihilation of the Son of God; at Bethlehem, the poverty; at Nazareth, the silence, the apparent weakness, the obedience, and all the other virtues of Christ.…

Because his faith was so strong, Joseph’s mind and heart bowed in perfect adoration. Imitate his faith as you kneel before the  humble Christ annihilated in the Eucharist. Pierce the veil which covers this furnace of love and adore the hidden God. ”

 
St Peter Julian Eymard

   

"To other Saints our Lord has given power to help in one sort

of need , but this glorious saint, as I know by experience,

helps us in every need." - St Teresa of Avila

 St Joseph, pray for us!

"When Egypt was laid waste by the great famine,

Pharaoh told his people,

Ite ad Joseph! - Go to Joseph! (Genesis 41:55)

So if we are in trouble, let us listen to the word of the Lord and take Pharaoh's advice; let us go to Joseph if we wish to be consoled."   

- St Alphonsus de Ligouri

 Click here: St Joseph: A Hidden Life from "Who Cares About The Saints?"Fr. James Martin, S.J. - YouTube  (7 mins)

Click here: Prayer to St. Joseph in Any Urgent Need - YouTube

+JMJ+ Feast of the Holy Family +JMJ+

FEAST* of the HOLY FAMILY of

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

 

*The Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day.

If both are Sundays, the feast is celebrated on December 30.

 

A Prayer to The Holy Family, for Assistance 

Lord Jesus Christ, who, being made subject to Mary and Joseph,

didst consecrate domestic life by Thine ineffable virtues;

grant that we, with the assistance of both, may be taught by the example

of Thy holy Family and may attain to its everlasting fellowship.

Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.

  

 

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had only one life, one purpose:

To glorify the Heavenly Father.  That is what we also must want. 

To achieve it, we have to enter into union with Mary and Joseph, share their life - family life, the intimate interior life of which God alone is secret. 

What happiness to be called to this life.  Our love will consist in living with Mary and Joseph on the love of Jesus Eucharistic.”

 

St. Peter Julian Eymard

 

 

 "The family has the mission to 

guard, reveal and communicate love,

and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for humanity

and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church, His bride. 

Every particular task of the family is an expression

and concrete actuation of that fundamental mission.” - St John Paul II

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

533 The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life:

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us. . . A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character... A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work. . . To conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern their brother who is God. (Pope Paul VI at Nazareth, January 5, 1964)

534 The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus (Lk 2: 41-52). Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from His divine Sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?" (Lk 2:49) Mary and Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in faith. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus remained hidden in the silence of an ordinary life.

Holy Family of Nazareth, help us to willingly enter the hidden life of Nazareth, the school of Nazareth, that allows us to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life.  Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us. Amen.

Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us!

 

CONSIDER THIS:   

Perhaps a 2015 resolution might include resuming or beginning the practice of writing/typing JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) atop or at the close of your papers (emails) of correspondence.  

It symbolically illustrates a worldview, a mindset that reminds that we follow an example, 

a way that is sanctified and greater than ourselves. 

 

+JMJ+

Let us go to Joseph!

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph's intercession

your Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation, whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. 

(Collect ~Today's Liturgy) 

FEAST of ST JOSEPH 

Patron of the Universal Church

Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Protector of the Divine Infant and Mary

March 19

"Saint Joseph believed unhesitatingly in the mystery of the Incarnation, in the fruitful virginity and in the divine maternity of Mary. He believed without seeing the miracles that were to fill Judea with his glory and renown of his holy name.

We too should recognize Jesus in the frail Host that is offered to us at the altar. Here He is even smaller than at Bethlehem, more hidden than in Saint Joseph's workshop. Still it is He, 'I believe all the Son of God has spoken, than Truth's own word there is no truer token.'"

  Bishop Pierre-Anastase Pichenot

 

“He [St. Joseph] nourished with the greatest solicitude

Him whom the faithful were one day to receive

as the Bread of Life on their homeward journey.”   ~ Pope Pius IX  

 

 “St. Joseph joined with Mary in adoration and united himself to Christ, Whose heart surged with sentiments of adoration, love and praise for the Father and of charity for men. St. Joseph’s adoration kept pace with every stage of our Lord’s life, drawing upon the grace, the spirit, and the virtue of each mystery. In the Incarnation he adored the self-annihilation of the Son of God; at Bethlehem, the poverty; at Nazareth, the silence, the apparent weakness, the obedience, and all the other virtues of Christ.…

Because his faith was so strong, Joseph’s mind and heart bowed in perfect adoration. Imitate his faith as you kneel before the humble Christ annihilated in the Eucharist. Pierce the veil which covers this furnace of love and adore the hidden God. ”

St. Peter Julian Eymard

   

"To other Saints our Lord has given power to help in one sort

of need , but this glorious saint, as I know by experience,

helps us in every need." - St Teresa of Avila

 

 St Joseph, pray for us!

  

"When Egypt was laid waste by the great famine,

Pharaoh told his people,

Ite ad Joseph! - Go to Joseph! (Genesis 41:55)

So if we are in trouble, let us listen to the word of the Lord and take Pharaoh's advice; let us go to Joseph if we wish to be consoled." 

St Alphonsus de Ligouri

+JMJ+ Feast of the Hoy Family +JMJ+

FEAST* of the HOLY FAMILY of

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

 

*The Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day.

If both are Sundays, the feast is celebrated on December 30.

 

 

 

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had only one life, one purpose: To glorify the Heavenly Father.  That is what we also must want. 

To achieve it, we have to enter into union with Mary and Joseph, share their life - family life, the intimate interior life of which God alone is secret. 

What happiness to be called to this life.  Our love will consist in living with Mary and Joseph on the love of Jesus Eucharistic.”

 

St. Peter Julian Eymard

 

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

533 The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life:

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us. . . A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character... A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work. . . To conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern their brother who is God. (Pope Paul VI at Nazareth, January 5, 1964)

534 The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus (Lk 2: 41-52). Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from His divine Sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?" (Lk 2:49) Mary and Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in faith. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus remained hidden in the silence of an ordinary life.

 

Holy Family of Nazareth, help us to willingly enter the hidden life of Nazareth, the school of Nazareth, that allows us to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life.  Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us. Amen.

CONSIDER THIS:  Perhaps a 2014 resolution might include resuming or beginning the practice of writing/typing JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) atop your papers (emails) of correspondence.  This beautiful practice and devotion  just might stir up some good conversation. It symbolically illustrates a worldview, a mindset that reminds that we follow an example, a way that is sanctified and greater than ourselves.