Jesus said to St Faustina, “Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only […]
“Never stop saying the Holy Rosary, I am always with you to help you.” “Then he told them … about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.” (Lk 18:1) Meditation Like every good Mother, the Virgin of Revelation always gives her children advice to help them on their journey through life: pray the […]
“Tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount […]
The Easter Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, where the Church commemorates the institution of the Eucharist, the greatest gift Christ entrusted to His people. One of the most striking visual meditations on this mystery is The Last Supper by the Spanish Renaissance painter Juan de Juanes (1560s). His masterpiece draws us […]
Joseph lived through a very singular experience in his life. He did not know what to do about Mary who ” was found with child through the Holy Spirit.” His internal turmoil was concluded with a dream sent by God. Joseph responded immediately because we are told “he did as the angel of the Lord […]
Once again this year, the Lenten journey is interrupted by the great solemnity in honor of St. Joseph, the Church’s most powerful and humble saint. Resounding in the celebration of this day is the remembrance of Pope Gregory XV, who in 1621 declared March 19 a feast of precept. The evangelist Matthew, giving greater prominence […]
Death in the days before Christ was often frightening, often terrible. It was left for Joseph to show us for the first time the perfect way to die. Graciously God let him know that his work was done. Jesus was almost ready to enter His public life; in that the humble carpenter would play no […]
Wonderful things have happened in the long annals of mankind, but none have been more wonderful than what occurred in the little house and shop of Joseph in Nazareth. The earnings of a laborer provided the food for the creator of heaven and earth. Into the little carpenter shop comes the young Jesus, apprenticed to […]
Compared to the powerful and important Herod, Joseph was in the eyes of his times a nobody. Yet as this faithful carpenter and saint made smooth the ways of his Lord, worked for His comfort, and knelt to adore Him, Herod plotted the destruction of this Child, whom he looked upon as a possible rival […]
To us Christmas is a day of uninterrupted joy. To Joseph it was a day of the brightest light and the deepest shadows: a blazing sky and a chilly cave; the presence of angels and the cold shoulder of the villagers; faith and sorrow; intensest joy in the Infant and grief that he could give […]