The Silent Saint - St. Joseph

On March 19th we remember St. Joseph. I think St. Joseph is one of the most forgotten of all Saints, yet ... which of the other Saints were ever closer to our dear Lord? I have to stop and stand in awe of this faithful servant of God. Is he quoted in the Bible frequently? No. Does he have the fanfare and notoriety that many other Saints have? Not so much.

Let's stop a moment and really consider his role in redemption. One can hardly focus on St. Joseph without first looking at our Blessed Mother. Here we find a young girl not barely 'sweet sixteen' who is told something quite unbelievable to the average person, namely that she would conceive the Son of God in a miraculous way and remain a virgin. We all know this, but I think often many take it for granted that the times in which she lived were precarious at best. An unmarried woman that found herself pregnant would soon feel the biting sting of stones tearing and bruising her flesh and breaking her bones. Still, she trusted and accepted according to the Perfect Will of God without hesitation!

Then we have to look towards Joseph. An older man .. a widower who was to marry this young girl, yet what to do when he learns that she is with child? He knew full well what would be her fate if he publicly declared this. His kind and protective nature decided to just divorce her quietly and not cause her undue pain and scandal. We all know that God sent the angel to him in a dream to explain the situation and Joseph, trusting God as Mary did, believed and took her for his wife.

I would imagine they were both a little nervous about it all ... wondering how this could be .. what would happen next ... how would it all turn out?? I can only imagine the prayerful lives of faith that they led allowing them to trust to that extent and rely on God for the very next step all along the way. We all know the stories from our childhood, but have we ever stopped to really think what it all must have been like? Fleeing into Egypt .. fleeing from Herod ... losing Jesus as a young Boy and finding Him in the Temple amidst the elders, questioning and being questioned. St. Joseph taught the God-Man his carpentry trade. He and Mary played with Him, watched Him grow, comforted Him when He fell and taught Him how to pray!

So little is written of St. Joseph in Scripture ..
Neither Joseph or Mary together, have very many words recorded. But are there any more significant people in Scripture than the Mother and Foster-Father of the Christ Child? They don't say much, but they sure lead by example! St. Joseph was a faithful servant while on earth, chosen by the Holy Trinity to be a wonderful Foster-Father to Jesus and a faithful and protective virginal husband to Mary. As the head of the Holy Family, he is also the Patron of the Catholic Church. He is also the Patron Saint of families and workers as well. We need to call on him for his protection, employment, guidance and support in all things.

One of St. Joseph's most famous titles is Patron of a Happy Death. Why? How could death not be happy if one was to die in the arms of Jesus and Mary? We must never forget his suffering either. He truly is our Friend in Sufferings with all the fear, anxiety and panic he must have gone through in his diligent care of his beloved Family! Let us always turn to our foster father St. Joseph, asking him to present our petitions to our dear Lord and our Blessed Mother with the same tenderness and concern in which he protected them while on earth. Let our prayer be always to strive to embrace the perfect Divine Will of God in all things with a joyful and trusting heart as St. Joseph shows us by his shining example.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph .. please pray for us!



Memorare
Remember, most pure spouse of Mary, ever Virgin, my loving protector, Saint Joseph, that no one ever had recourse to your protection or asked for your aid without obtaining relief. Confiding, therefore, in your goodness, I come before you and humbly implore you. Despise not my petitions, foster-father of the Redeemer, but graciously receive them. Amen.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland was born around the year 390. His story
in regards to bringing Christianity to Ireland begins in 432 when he arrived as a missionary Bishop. He spent the rest of his life converting the population and organizing the Church before his death in Armagh in 461. It would take too long to enumerate the many accomplishments of Patrick. He was a tireless defender of the faith and his efforts have had a lasting effect on the Irish Church as well as the Church abroad.

The times St. Patrick lived in were rough and many opposed his "new foreign religion" (Catholic Christianity). One prayer or hymn ascribed to St. Patrick is known as St. Patrick's Breastplate, (also known as the Deer's Cry or Lorica.) It is thought that St. Patrick taught this prayer to his followers and would recite it to ask God's protection for them on their journeys.

I arise to-day Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Towards the Creator

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ with His Baptism,
Through the strength of His Crucifixion with his Burial,
Through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of Angels,
In the service of the Archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In innocence of Holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of Sun,
Radiance of Moon,
Splendor of Fire,
Speed of Lightning,
Swiftness of Wind,
Depth of Sea,
Stability of Earth,
Firmness of Rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's Might to uphold me,
God's Wisdom to guide me,
God's Eye to look before me,
God's Ear to hear me,
God's Word to speak for me,
God's Hand to guard me,
God's Way to lie before me,
God's Shield to protect me,
God's Host to secure me
against snares of devils,
against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and a-near,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and these evils,
against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics,
against craft of idolatry,
against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
against every knowledge that endangers man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
against poison, against burning,
against drowning, against wounding,
so that there may come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie down, Christ where I sit down, Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness,
Towards the Creator of Creation.

Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of Christ.
May Thy Salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

HHS Mandate is Anti-Woman: Catholics Need to Speak Up!!!

I received this from a customer in email and I'm passing it along. This really needs to be considered before you hit the polls in November. This truly is a devious undertaking for a more ambitious agenda.




"I apologize if I have been forwarding a lot, but these are very serious times and the fall out of what the government is intending to do is far greater than paying for health insurance. Below is a wonderful video about how HHS is anti-woman. I also linked 2 articles about government issues related to contraceptive that are not free choice but rather government control of fertility.

 John Holdren, a White House official, has a manifesto. Like Hitler he outlines what he believes and how it should be carried out. Everyone is ignoring him. No one thinks it can happen. Once the government controls birth control, they control every aspect of birth. Not only can they decide who gets it and what kind, they can mandate who gets it and what kind. This is not a step forward but many steps back.

 The government has no right to control fertility and births, that is what Roe v Wade supposedly ensured according to its supporters, but really pro-choice means pro-death and as the government slowly creeps in control our liberties are under serious attack. This is a silent civil war, but also a spiritual one. I am only trying to help arm you so that you can spread the TRUTH."

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/7958-obama-signs-agenda-21-related-executive-order

http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/

Visit www.cicdc.org for more information

Let us conquer injustice by our fasting, penance and sacrifice

Lent is the period of time when we remember in a particular way the suffering of Jesus Christ—his passion and his death.  We look forward to his Resurrection, but in Lent we work hard to identify with the suffering that Jesus Christ endured for our sins.  We do penance, fast and give alms to become more like the God who was led to a cross out of love for us.

Jesus Christ died to conquer death—and in Lent we remember that we are called to share in his passion, death and resurrection.

This year, the Church has needed no reminder that Lent is a time to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ.  On Jan. 20, a month before Lent began, President Barack Obama announced to the United States that Catholic institutions would be required to fully fund their employees’ use of contraception.  Though unconstitutional, this plan has not been modified.  Despite claims to the contrary, the Department of Health and Human Services has been unrelenting in wholesale persecution of Catholic institutions in the United States.

This Lent, the Church is keenly aware of what it is to suffer.

Over the past few months, Catholics have been mocked, marginalized and calumniated.  Catholics, who revere the Blessed Mother above all saints, and who revere motherhood above all vocations, have been accused of hating women.  Catholics, who believe firmly in the importance of religious tolerance, have been condemned as bigots and hatemongers.  Catholics, who believe in the incredible beauty of human sexuality, have been miscast as hopelessly ignorant and out of touch.

This Lent, we can understand the passion of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was born in a manger, in humility.  He was mocked and misunderstood throughout his ministry.  And, willingly, “he was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, like one from whom you turn your face.”  Jesus Christ was outcast and rejected, and ultimately, “like a lamb, (he was) led to slaughter.”

This is the reason we should rejoice at the persecution Catholics now face in the United States—because in persecution we become more like Jesus Christ.  In persecution we become holy.  In suffering persecution and offering our suffering to Jesus Christ, we have the chance for victory.

We should oppose threats to our religious liberty by every just means—by supporting legislation that protects our religious freedom and by making our voice heard.  We should continue to advocate for the liberty of Americans, of humankind, to live in accord with our religious beliefs.

But if we want to be like Jesus Christ, we should realize that the power of sound argument pales in comparison to the power of our spiritual sacrifices—of our prayers and of our fasting.  The persecution of Catholics in America is the result of sin—and offering penance, in union with Christ’s death on the cross, liberates us from that sin.  We should pray, fast and sacrifice because these actions inspire the conversion of our own hearts and the conversion of others—and conversion, not force, argument or coercion, will end the injustices Catholics are facing.

Many bishops in the United States are asking Catholics to fast for an end to religious persecution, on Friday, March 30.  I will be fasting that day.  I invite you to join me. 

Offer your suffering for the restoration of religious liberty in America.  Offer your fast for a conversion of mind in the United States of America.

Jesus Christ conquered death in humility, suffering and obedience.  May we conquer injustice by striving to do the same.

Archdiocese of Denver

People Say the Darnedest Things

Those of you past a certain age may remember the old Art Linkletter show “Kids Say the Darnedest [sic] Things.” The one I still remember was when Linkletter asked a little boy if he looked like his daddy. “No,” replied the boy innocently, “I look like the mailman.”
Well, adults say the darnedest things, too. Sometimes they give us a window into their egos or their ignorance. Sometimes their comments contain important truths. Other times, they don’t even make sense. Let me give you an example of each kind of statement, starting with an example of the latter.

Many journalists have dutifully reported that the latest Greek bailout will reduce Greece’s national debt to a “sustainable” level of 120 percent of GDP (from over 164 percent today) by the year 2020. The problem is, they never explain how Greece will be sustained through the next eight years of “unsustainable” debt levels until the level supposedly becomes sustainable. Sustaining the unsustainable for eight years is quite a trick!
At the opposite pole from such unthinking fatuity is a statement of blazing clarity made by Rick Santorum during a recent GOP debate. With refreshing candor, Santorum stated to a nationwide audience, “I voted for that [No Child Left Behind Act]; it was against the principles I believe in … and I made a mistake.” Politics is known as a business where principles routinely fall by the wayside, but rare indeed is the politician who admits to compromising principles.

As an example of a statement that displays a disturbing ignorance of elementary economic rationality, President Obama’s friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett, recently asserted that unemployment payments are economically beneficial, because “people who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy.” Those who advance this theory never explain how prosperity can improve from putting more money into circulation without any additional goods or services being produced. If the key to economic progress is more money in circulation, then let Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke rain money down us from the figurative helicopter to which he once alluded. In real life, boosting prosperity is not that simple.

It’s scary when one realizes how many members of Team Obama, including the leader himself, share Jarrett’s faith in tossing money at a problem. Apparently, they really believe in the mysticism that economist John Maynard Keynes preached when he wrote in 1943 that increasing credit (or money) performed the “miracle … of turning a stone into bread.”
Finally, if you want a supreme example of how a statement can provide a revealing glimpse of a person’s ego, consider the president’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. In it, he attempted to justify tax increases and government redistribution of wealth by citing Jesus’ statement, “unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”

I agree 100 percent with what the Lord said, but President Obama tore it out of context and twisted its meaning. The statement, which is the punch line in Jesus’ parable of the talents, reminds us that it is God (not government) Who has blessed humans with the gifts of life and talent, and that we owe it to God (not government) to use those gifts productively for His (God’s, not government’s nor Obama’s) glory and purposes. For a human being, even one as powerful as the president of the United States, to seek to usurp the place and prerogatives of the Creator takes hubris to the highest degree.

Yep, people do say the darnedest things. And those things can be quite illuminating when we pay attention.

by Mark W. Hendrickson, Crisis Magazine

The Dark Gulf Before Us

In March of 1938, when the naïve among his contemporaries still thought they might cut a deal with the National Socialists, Winston Churchill saw his country “descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf.” A gulf beckons today, and no amount of forced optimism or self-conscious jollity will stop the descent to its shadows. There is nothing inevitable about what lies ahead, but providence will overcome fatalism only if people absorb what Pope Benedict XVI said last January to a group of American bishop on their “ad limina” visit: “…it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.”

Those words would probably confuse the comfortable man who objected to me about a prayer that mentioned “enemies of the Faith.” He said with suburban unction that “there are no enemies anymore.” He was unaware that somewhere around 200 million Christians live under daily threat in 131 countries. Last year, nearly 100,000 Christians were killed because of their Christianity, in lands from North Korea and China, to Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Laos, Sudan, and on and on, including some supposed allies of our nation, such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.

The man who saw no enemies might plead with good reason that the media have, to put it mildly, inadequately publicized these persecutions. That kind of plea, however, can no longer be sustained when elements of our own government have declared war on the Church, and persecution both subtle and blatant has gone domestic. Catholics have not been prepared to deal with this, and some have even been compliant. If we rely only on institutional bureaucracy to be our line of defense, we may find it to be a Maginot Line. The Allies were unprepared when Churchill spoke in 1938 because people wanted butter not guns, but found soon enough that butter was being rationed, and guns were pointing at them. The continued course of our nation’s freedom depends on the disposition of its people to heed the warning signs of threats to its moral integrity. Churchill was half-American, and so it was especially fitting that the British government lend the White House a bust of him by Sir Jacob Epstein as a token of common bonds after September 11, 2001.  Immediately after his inauguration,  President Obama returned the bust, which now waits nearby in the British Embassy. Churchill was accustomed to waiting.

Pope Benedict told the American bishops:

“Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.”

It is not possible to look through stained glass windows, so that man who saw no enemies outside his air-conditioned and centrally heated church will be surprised if he tries to visit a Catholic hospital two years from now and finds that there is none, only dark gulf. The Archbishop of Chicago has considered that possibility if the Health and Human Services regulations are not rescinded.

Hope is a theological virtue. Optimism is not. The wise have warned that pessimists are unhappy fools and optimists are happy fools. But the hopeful are not foolish. Christ began his war with a forty-day battle in a desert filled with wild beasts, but as they prowled about, He could hear angels.

 by Rev. George W. Rutler

Benedict XVI and the Irrelevance of “Relevance”

Over the soon-to-be seven years of Benedict XVI’s papacy, it’s been instructive to watch the shifting critiques of this pontificate. Leaving aside the usual suspects convinced that Catholicism should become what amounts to yet another liberal-Christian sect fixated with transitory politically-correct causes, the latest appraisal is that “the world” is losing interest in the Catholic Church. A variant of this is the claim that the Irish government’s 2011 decision to closing its embassy to the Holy See reflects a general decline in the Church’s geopolitical “relevance.”

Whenever one encounters such assertions, it’s never quite clear what’s meant by “relevance.” On one reading, it involves comparisons with Benedict’s heroic predecessor, who played an indispensible role in demolishing the Communist thug-ocracies that once brutalized much of Europe. But it’s also a fair bet that “relevance” is understood here in terms of the Church’s capacity to shape immediate policy-debates or exert political influence in various spheres.

Such things have their own importance. Indeed, many of Benedict’s writings are charged with content which shatters the post-Enlightenment half-truths about the nature of freedom, equality, and progress that sharply constrict modern Western political thinking. But Benedict’s entire life as a priest, theologian, bishop, senior curial official and pope also reflects his core conviction that the Church’s primary focus is not first-and-foremost “the world,” let alone politics.

Rather, Benedict’s view has always been that the Church’s main responsibility is to come to know better — and then make known — the Person of Jesus Christ. Why? Because like any orthodox Christian, he believes that herein is found the summit and fullness of Truth and meaning for every human being. Moreover, Benedict insists the only way we can fully comprehend Christ is through His Church – the ecclesia of the saints, living and dead.

These certainties explain the nature of Benedict’s long-standing criticisms of various forms of political and liberation theology. His primary concern was not whether such movements reflected some Catholics’ alignment with the left, or the liberationists’ shaky grasp of basic economics. Instead, Benedict’s charge was always that such theologies obscured and even distorted basic truths about the nature of Christ and His Church.

There is, of course, a “relevance” dimension to all this. Unless Catholics are clear in their own minds about these truths, then their efforts to transform the world around them will surely run aground or degenerate into the activism of just another lobby-group amidst the thousands of other lobby-groups clamoring to be considered “relevant.”

Which brings us to another great “relevance” of Benedict’s pontificate: his desire to ensure that more Catholics understand the actual content of what they profess to believe.
It’s no great secret that Catholic catechesis went into freewill after Vatican II. It’s true that much pre-Vatican II catechesis was characterized by rote-learning rather than substantive engagement with the truths of the Faith. But as early as 1983, Joseph Ratzinger signaled his awareness of the lamentable post-Vatican II catechetical state of affairs in two speeches he gave in Paris and Lyons. Much to the professional catechists’ displeasure — but to the delight of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and every young priest present — Ratzinger zeroed in on the huge gaps in the catechetical text-books then in vogue.

Two years later, the 1985 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops suggested that a new universal catechism be published. This bore fruit in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church produced under Ratzinger’s supervision. Significantly, it followed precisely the fundamental structures he had identified in his 1983 addresses as indispensable for sound catechesis.
Fast-forward to 2012. Now Benedict is launching what’s called “a Year of Faith” in his apostolic letter Porta Fidei to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Vatican II’s opening. Reading this text, one is struck by how many times Benedict underlines the importance of Catholics being able to profess the Faith. Of course you can’t really profess — let alone live out — the truths of the Catholic Faith unless you know what they are. Nor can you enter into conversation with others about that Faith unless you understand its content.

Hence, as one French commentator recently observed, at least one sub-text of Benedict’s Year of Faith is that “doctrinal break-time” for the Church is over. This point was underscored by the recent Note issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Along the other practical suggestions it gives for furthering the Year of Faith, the Note emphasizes “a profound bond between the lived faith and its contents” (i.e., true ortho-praxis can only be based on ortho-doxy). It also stresses that Catholics need to know the content of the Catechism and the actual documents of Vatican II (rather than, sotto voce, the ever-nebulous “spirit of Vatican II” that seems indistinguishable from whatever’s preoccupying secular liberals at any given moment in time).

The predictable retort is that this proves that, under Benedict, the Church is turning in upon itself. Such rejoinders, however, are very short-sighted. To paraphrase Vatican II, Benedict understands the Church can only have a profound ad-extra effect upon the world if it lives its ad-intra life more intensely and faithfully. Far from being a retreat into a ghetto, it’s about helping Catholics to, as the first Pope said, “be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15).

And therein lies the Church’s true contemporary significance, as understood by Peter’s present-day successor. It’s not to be found in turning the Catholic Church into something akin to the Episcopal church of America (otherwise known as the preferential option for self-immolation). It’s about bringing the Logos of the Lord of History into a world that lurches between irrationality and rationalism, utopianism and despair, so that when we die, we might see the face of the One who once called upon Peter to have faith in Him and walk on water.

And what, after all, could be more relevant than that?

 by Samuel Gregg