day 1 “never stop saying the holy rosary, i am always with you to help you.”

“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 […]

the sacrifice of isaac by caravaggio

In 1603, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, commissioned Michael Angelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio, to produce the masterpiece called “The Sacrifice of Isaac” which is now displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. As a young artist, Caravaggio learned how to paint in the workshop of Simone Peterzano by studying life forms, […]

25th march – the solemnity of the annunciation to most holy mary

Today, we would like to consider the part of St Luke’s Gospel that recounts the episode of the Archangel Gabriel’s Annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:26-38). This part of the Gospel starts with the apparition of the angel Gabriel “to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s […]

st joseph patron of the church

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 […]

Novena to St Joseph – Day 9

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 […]

Novena to St Joseph – Day 8

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 […]

Novena to St Joseph – Day 7

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 […]