A Prayer on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary



God our Father,
You gave to us the just-man Saint Joseph,
who was completely obedient
to the call of the Holy Spirit,
by being spouse of the
Virgin Mother of God
and watching like a father over Jesus,
Your Only Begotten Son.


Gracious Father,
charge once again Saint Joseph,
to watch over us as he watched over
Mary and Your Son, Jesus:
to know Your Will,
to be given the grace to carry it out faithfully, and
the wisdom to respond to Your love for us.

Saint Joseph,
guard and protect us from all that keeps us
from following more closely
Jesus
in the unfolding mysteries
of the Father’s plan for our salvation
and the salvation of the world.

As in all things,
we make this prayer through
our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.






Solemnity of Saint Joseph,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary



“... when your days have been completed and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom.” (2 Samuel 7:12.)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's First Reading:

“However, the tribe of Judah did not fail until he came for whom it was reserved, who did not himself sit upon a material throne, for the kingdom of Judea had now been transferred to Herod, the son of Antipater, the Ascalonite, and to his sons, who divided Judea into four provinces when Pilate was governor and Tiberius held the power over the whole Roman province. But his indestructible kingdom he calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He himself is “the expectation of nations,” not of the least part of the world. “For there will be the root of Jesse,” it is said, “and he who rises up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles will hope.” “For I have placed you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” “And I shall establish,” it is said, “his seed forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.” (Letter 236)



Collect
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.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 


The faithful foster-father and guardian



Priest

An excerpt from his On Saint Joseph (Sermon 2)

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being. Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand.

This general rule is especially verified in the case of Saint Joseph, the foster-father of our Lord and the husband of the Queen of our world, enthroned above the angels. He was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of his greatest treasures, namely, his divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife. He carried out this vocation with complete fidelity until at last God called him, saying: Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.

What then is Joseph’s position in the whole Church of Christ? Is he not a man chosen and set apart? Through him and, yes, under him, Christ was fittingly and honorably introduced into the world. Holy Church in its entirety is indebted to the Virgin Mother because through her it was judged worthy to receive Christ. But after her we undoubtedly owe special gratitude and reverence to Saint Joseph.

In him the Old Testament finds its fitting close. He brought the noble line of patriarchs and prophets to its promised fulfillment. What the divine goodness had offered as a promise to them, he held in his arms.

Obviously, Christ does not now deny to Joseph that intimacy, reverence and very high honor which he gave him on earth, as a son to his father. Rather we must say that in heaven Christ completes and perfects all that he gave at Nazareth.

Now we can see how the last summoning words of the Lord appropriately apply to Saint Joseph: Enter into the joy of your Lord. In fact, although the joy of eternal happiness enters into the soul of a man, the Lord preferred to say to Joseph: Enter into joy. His intention was that the words should have a hidden spiritual meaning for us. They convey not only that this holy man possesses an inward joy, but also that it surrounds him and engulfs him like an infinite abyss.

Remember us, Saint Joseph, and plead for us to your foster-child. Ask your most holy bride, the Virgin Mary, to look kindly upon us, since she is the mother of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns eternally. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent



“Yet it is better for me not to do it and to fall into your power than to sin before the Lord.” (Daniel 13:23.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“It is better for me not to escape your hands than to sin in front of God.” She refused the proposals she heard because she feared him who she could not see and to whose divine gaze, however, she was very visible. Because she did not happen, in fact, to see God does not mean that God did not see her. God saw what he was building up: he inspected his work, inhabited his temple. He was there; he was answering their insidious trap. If the giver of chastity had abandoned her, chastity also would have been extinguished. Therefore she said, “I am trapped on every side.” But she waited for the one who would save her from weakness of spirit and from the fury of the false witnesses who were like stormy winds. Between these winds and that storm, however, chastity did not suffer shipwreck because the Lord guided the route. She screamed. People came. The process began, and the case came up for judgment. The servants of Susanna believed what the imposter elders said against their mistress. It seemed to them that it would be against their religion not to believe the elders, even though the innocent and stainless life Susanna had led up to this point seemed to offer valid testimony of her chastity. No such chatter had been made on her account. There they were, false witnesses, but God noticed. The household believed one thing; God saw another. But what God saw, human beings did not know, and it seemed right to believe the elders. Therefore she had to die, but if her flesh were to die, her chastity still would have triumphed. Instead, Lord was present to whom she prayed, and he heard because he knew her.” (Sermon 343)



Collect
O God, by Whose wondrous grace
we are enriched with every blessing,
grant us so to pass
from former ways to newness of life,
that we may be made ready
for the glory of the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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If anyone has sinned,
we have an advocate with the Father



Bishop and Martyr

An excerpt from a Commentary on Psalm 129

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Our high priest is Christ Jesus, our sacrifice is his precious body which he immolated on the altar of the cross for the salvation of all men.

The blood that was poured out for our redemption was not that of goats and calves (as in the old law) but that of the most innocent lamb, Christ Jesus our Savior.

The temple in which our high priest offered sacrifice was not one made by hands but built by the power of God alone. For he shed his blood in the sight of the world, a temple fashioned by the hand of God alone.

This temple, however, has two parts. The first is the earth, which we now inhabit. The second is as yet unknown to us mortals.

Christ offered sacrifice here on earth, when he underwent his most bitter death. Then, clothed in the new garment of immortality, with his own blood he entered into the holy of holies, that is, into heaven. There he also displayed before the throne of the heavenly Father that blood of immeasurable price which he had poured out seven times on behalf of all men subject to sin.

This sacrifice is so pleasing and acceptable to God that as soon as he has seen it he must immediately have pity on us and extend clemency to all who are truly repentant.

Moreover, it is eternal. It is offered not only each year (as with the Jews) but also each day for our consolation, and indeed at every hour and moment as well, so that we may have the strongest reason for comfort. That is why the Apostle adds: He has secured an eternal redemption.

All who have embarked on true contrition and penance for the sins they have committed, and are firmly resolved not to commit sins again for the future but to persevere constantly in that pursuit of virtues which they have now begun, all these become sharers in this holy and eternal sacrifice.

Saint John sets this before us in these words: My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for those of the whole world.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 







Troubled by Jesus being troubled?



εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.
“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
‘Father, save me from this hour’?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”
John 12:24-28
Fifth Sunday of Lent


θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

As is always the case with Sacred Scripture, context is a vital element assisting one to receive the saving message. This is especially the case with Sunday Mass proclamations that are not sequential: not knowing what has happened immediately before the episode proclaimed can leave one floundering a bit to catch what is happening in the life of Jesus.

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Gospel proclaimed when the Scrutinies for the Elect are not celebrated is part of Jesus’ ‘mini-descent’ to Bethany and ‘mini-ascent’ to Jerusalem. Beginning in chapter 11 with the calling forth of Lazarus form the tomb in Bethany, Jesus then travels to the home of His friends where Mary anoints His feet while rebuking Judas for his somewhat hypocritical concern for the poor. The “next day” (John 12:1, a phrase that occurs often in the Gospel according to Saint John linking much in this Gospel to the account of Creation in Genesis 1 signalling that Jesus is involved in a new creation) begins Jesus ‘mini-ascent’ to Jerusalem where He is triumphantly received by the crowds and sought after by a number of Greeks (Gentiles). Throughout all these events, some religious authorities have been escalating their plans to have Jesus arrested and executed. Jesus response to this, “I am troubled (τετάρακται, tetaraktai) now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” (John 12:27.)

The Greek verb ταράσσω (tarássō) can be translated into English in various ways, each focusing on a particular aspect of reality. For example, earlier in John, a sick man says to Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up (5:7). Here, ταράσσω (tarássō) indicates disturbance or agitation in water that not only mixes elements in the water but also aerates as well. When the water at the pool of Bethesda bubbled, people would enter it to be healed of various aliments.

More frequently though, ταράσσω (tarássō) expresses a condition of the inner life. When Jesus arrives in Bethany after receiving new of Lazarus’ death and meets Mary, the Evangelist notes (11:33), “When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled.” (ταράσσω, tarássō) Later in chapter 14, Jesus commands His disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (ταράσσω, tarássō, 14:1) and “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled (ταράσσω, tarássō) or afraid.” (14:27)

Jesus’ declaration of being troubled is a privileged glimpse into His inner life, particularly the true, genuine and full human nature He has freely taken to Himself. In His humanity, the Divine Person Jesus reveals the Father, makes know the Father’s merciful love as He [Jesus] is the very embodiment of that love and desires all humanity to know Him in the manner of an encounter that is authentically personal (that is, relating as persons, not personal as a synonym for private or individual). These works cost Jesus His life because many preferred the darkness instead of He Who is Light to the world (see John 1:9-13). While John 12:27 seems to indicate the troubled-spirit is brief as Jesus continues in prayer to His Father, it is nonetheless a moment that speaks to the full human nature He possesses. In other words, if Jesus, in His humanity, were NOT to express some dimension of internal trouble in the face of murderous plots and the foreboding intimidation of crucifixion, something would be wrong. This point is echoed in the Second Reading as Mass this Sunday from the Letter to the Hebrews, “In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, He offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death...” (5:7-9)

As the days of Lent are slowly drawing to a close, keeping the Baptismal focus of Lent still remains. Even if the Third Scrutiny for the Elect was not celebrated in your parish, Lent remains a season of purification and enlightenment for both Elect and the Faithful who are already converted to Jesus in the Easter events of Baptism-Confirmation-Eucharist. For the Elect, their focus is on the encounter with Jesus in these sacramental mysteries. For the Faithful, Lent’s focus is being able to renew Baptismal promises at Easter with body-mind-soul purified and enlightened so as to respond with our all to the call of Jesus. At this moment, though, His call is a journey to go down with Him in death-dealing waters of Baptism by walking with Him up to Calvary. It is troubling, unsettling, uneasy and the only path to a glory that is the fullness of life in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.




Fifth Sunday of Lent



“... It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, though I was their master—oracle of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:32.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“But I,” he says, “hold on to what God handed over to Moses.” Listen to what God says through the prophet. What is God telling Jeremiah? “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm on the house of Jacob a new covenant.” Leave the old aside, take up the new, and you can see that you ought to leave aside circumcision, and unleavened bread taken literally, and the sabbath taken literally and the sacrifices taken literally. Listen to how the new covenant is promised: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm for them a new covenant, not like the covenant that I gave to their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” when the law of commandments was given, when the people were led through the desert. It is not like that that I will give the new covenant. So do not go on wearing the old tunic. That was what crucified Christ. Your parent crucified him; you hate him. He by his own hand, you in your heart, both of you have carried out the crime. Therefore be displeased with what your parent did, and listen to what your Lord has done.” (Sermon 196) Collect
By Your help, we beseech You, Lord our God,
may we walk eagerly in that same charity
with which, out of love for the world,
Your Son handed Himself over to death.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen



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We keep the coming feast of the Lord through deeds, not words



Bishop and Great Eastern Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Letter 14: Easter

Fifth Sunday of Lent

The Word who became all things for us is close to us, our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to remain with us always. He cries out, saying: See, I am with you all the days of this age. He is himself the shepherd, the high priest, the way and the door, and has become all things at once for us. In the same way, he has come among us as our feast and holy day as well. The blessed Apostle says of him who was awaited: Christ has been sacrificed as our Passover. It was Christ who shed his light on the psalmist as he prayed: You are my joy, deliver me from those surrounding me. True joy, genuine festival, means the casting out of wickedness. To achieve this one must live a life of perfect goodness and, in the serenity of the fear of God, practice contemplation in one’s heart.

This was the way of the saints, who in their lifetime and at every stage of life rejoiced as at a feast. Blessed David, for example, not once but seven times rose at night to win God’s favor through prayer. The great Moses was full of joy as he sang God’s praises in hymns of victory for the defeat of Pharaoh and the oppressors of the Hebrew people. Others had hearts filled always with gladness as they performed their sacred duty of worship, like the great Samuel and the blessed Elijah. Because of their holy lives they gained freedom, and now keep festival in heaven. They rejoice after their pilgrimage in shadows, and now distinguish the reality from the promise.

When we celebrate the feast in our own day, what path are we to take? As we draw near to this feast, who is to be our guide? Beloved, it must be none other than the one whom you will address with me as our Lord Jesus Christ. He says: I am the way. As blessed John tells us: it is Christ who takes away the sin of the world. It is he who purifies our souls, as the prophet Jeremiah says: Stand upon the ways; look and see which is the good path, and you will find in it the way of amendment for your souls.

In former times the blood of goats and the ashes of a calf were sprinkled on those who were unclean, but they were able to purify only the body. Now through the grace of God’s Word everyone is made abundantly clean. If we follow Christ closely we shall be allowed, even on this earth, to stand as it were on the threshold of the heavenly Jerusalem, and enjoy the contemplation of that everlasting feast, like the blessed apostles, who in following the Savior as their leader, showed, and still show, the way to obtain the same gift from God. They said: See, we have left all things and followed you. We too follow the Lord, and we keep his feast by deeds rather than by words.

Reflection on Jesus being "troubled."



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent



“I knew it because the LORD informed me: at that time you showed me their doings.” (Jeremiah 11:18.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“It is the consensus of all the church that these words are spoken by Christ through the person of Jeremiah. For the Father made it known to him how he should speak and revealed to him the zealotry of the Jews — he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth and not knowing. But the word sin is implicitly added to this last phrase, in agreement with what was said by the apostle: “When he did not know sin, he was made to be sin on our account.” And they said, “Let us put wood on his bread,” clearly referring to the cross on the body of the Savior, for he is the one who said, “I am the bread that descended from heaven.”

They also said “let us destroy (or eradicate) him from the land of the living.” And they conceived the evil in their soul that they would delete his name forever. In response to this, from the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father and invokes his judgment while praising his justice and acknowledging him as the God who inspects the interior and the heart. He asks that the Father would return to the people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them,” obviously referring only to those who continue in sin, not to those who repent. Concerning the latter, he said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not realize what they are doing.” He also “disclosed his cause” to the Father, that he was crucified not because he deserved it but for the sins of the people, as he declared: “Behold, the prince of the world came and found nothing against me.” The Jews and our Judaizers believe that all of this was said only by Jeremiah, arguing from prophecy that the people have sustained these evils in their captivity. But I fail to see how they hope to prove that Jeremiah was the one crucified, since such an event is nowhere recorded in Scripture. Perhaps it is just a figment of their imagination.” (Six Books on Jeremiah, 2.)



Collect
May the working of Your mercy,
O Lord, we pray,
direct our hearts aright,
for without Your grace
we cannot find favor in Your sight.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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All human activity is to find its
purification in the paschal mystery



Second Vatican Council

An excerpt from Gaudium et Spes, 37-38.

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Holy Scripture, with which the experience of the ages is in agreement, teaches the human family that human progress, though it is a great blessing for man, brings with it a great temptation. When the scale of values is disturbed and evil becomes mixed with good, individuals and groups consider only their own interests, not those of others.

The result is that the world is not yet a home of true brotherhood, while the increased power of mankind already threatens to destroy the human race itself.

If it is asked how this unhappy state of affairs can be set right, Christians state their belief that all human activity, in daily jeopardy through pride and inordinate self-love, is to find its purification and its perfection in the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Man, redeemed by Christ and made a new creation in the Holy Spirit, can and must love the very things created by God. For he receives them from God, and sees and reveres them as coming from the hand of God.

As he gives thanks for them to his Benefactor, and uses and enjoys them in a spirit of poverty and freedom, he enters into true possession of the world, as one having nothing and possessing all things. For all things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The Word of God, through whom all things were made, himself became man and lived in the world of men. As perfect man he has entered into the history of the world, taking it up into himself and bringing it into unity as its head. He reveals to us that God is love, and at the same time teaches us that the fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of love.

He assures those who have faith in God’s love that the way of love is open to all men, and that the effort to restore universal brotherhood is not in vain. At the same time he warns us that this love is not to be sought after only in great things but also, and above all, in the ordinary circumstances of life.

He suffered death for us all, sinners as we are, and by his example he teaches us that we also have to carry that cross which the flesh and the world lay on the shoulders of those who strive for peace and justice.

Constituted as the Lord by his resurrection, Christ, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given, is still at work in the hearts of men through the power of his Spirit. Not only does he awaken in them a longing for the world to come, but by that very fact he also inspires, purifies and strengthens those generous desires by which the human family seeks to make its own life more human and to achieve the same goal for the whole world.

The gifts of the Spirit are manifold. He calls some to bear open witness to the longing for a dwelling place in heaven, and to keep this fresh in the minds of all mankind; he calls others to dedicate themselves to the service of men here on earth, preparing by this ministry the material for the kingdom of heaven.

Yet he makes all free, so that, by denying their love of self and taking up all earth’s resources into the life of man, all may reach out to the future, when humanity itself will become an offering acceptable to God.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen