On the last day of the novena let us praise God for the gift of St. Joseph to Jesus as his foster father, to Mary a loving husband, to the church a faithful guardian and to us a powerful intercessor.
Reading Psalm 150
1 Praise God in his holy place,
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his powerful deeds,
praise his surpassing greatness.
3 O praise him with sound of trumpet,
praise him with lute and harp.
4 Praise him with timbrel and dance,
praise him with strings and pipes.
5 O praise him with resounding cymbals,
praise him with clashing of cymbals.
6 Let everything that lives and that breathes
give praise to the Lord.
Reflection
The Carmelites look to Saint Joseph as a guide and father, just like Mary and Jesus did. Devotion to St. Joseph isn’t just something to save for once a year, they turn to him for every need.
How can you make St. Joseph your constant guide and companion in prayer?
Prayer
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,
one God, for ever and ever.
— Amen.
Hymn to St. Joseph
All praise to God the Father,
Whose hidden, loving plan
Has come to sweet fruition
In Jesus, God made Man!
To them and to the Spirit
We raise our song of joy!
With Joseph and with Mary
Our hymns we now employ
Carmelite Online Retreat Lent 2019 with St. Edith Stein
Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD
Prepare yourself for the coming Easter together with the Discalced Carmelites
Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross is co-patroness of Europe. Before entering Carmel and taking this name, Edith Stein already had a long life as a philosopher and lecturer. Born in Prussia in 1891, a Jew who became agnostic, she undertook a quest for truth through philosophy and the events of her life, until her discovery of Christ.
Baptized at the age of 31, she became a remarkable Catholic intellectual. Forbidden to teach by the Nazis, she entered the Carmel of Cologne in 1933 and had to flee to the Carmel of Echt in Holland in 1939. Arrested with her sister Rosa Stein, she died at the Auschwitz camp on August 9, 1942, leaving us her work and a powerful message. During this Lent, her writings and her life will nourish our meditation on this paschal journey in the footsteps of Christ.
How do I make the retreat?
Click here to access the registration page; follow the instructions and complete the registration form on the page. Click Submit, you will be registered for the retreat. You will receive a confirmation message by email. Weekly, every Friday of Lent, you will receive another email message with a new point of inspiration for the following week, along with short texts for daily prayer.
Participation in this retreat is completely free!
If you have any difficulty in registering or if there are any problems, please email the retreat coordinators at retreat-online@karmel.at
With best wishes for a Lent filled with blessings from Heaven,
The Discalced Carmelite Friars of Paris and Austria
The retreat texts were written by Fr. Philippe Huguele ocd, from the Carmelites of Paris. The English translation is by Joanne Brydson ocds (Canada).
Saint Edith Stein will be our guide for the Carmelite Online Retreat for Lent 2019 | To register, visit www.retreat-online.karmel.at
Whoever knows God (in the measure in which knowledge of God is possible through natural and supernatural light) cannot do other than love Him; whoever loves Him cannot do other than serve Him.
Thus, matters of mind and heart, achievement and act of will are living faith. He who knows how to awaken faith trains all faculties. But one can only awaken it when one also summons up all the faculties. This cannot be done through tedious intellectual instruction, but it also cannot be done through fanatic instruction which “appeals to the emotions”; on the contrary, this can be done only through a religious instruction which leads from the fullness of one’s own religious life to the depths of the Godhead, an instruction which is able to present God in His kindness; such instruction enkindles love and exacts proof through deed, and it may so challenge because one achieves this by oneself. Wherever the soul is enkindled, that soul itself longs for action; and it eagerly grasps the forms of practical life for which God and Holy Church have provided: participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a participation which consummates the holy sacrifice as an offering in union with the Eucharistic Lord, festive praise of God, and all works of love in which Christ is served in the members of His Mystical Body. The entire abundance of the supernatural world of the spirit is opened to the soul thereby, and an inexhaustible abundance of formative material which enters into it is thus able to build up and transform it.
Saint Edith Stein
Excerpt from Fundamental Principles of Women’s Education Published in Stimmen der Zeit, monthly review of contemporary intellectual life, March 1931, No. 6
Child care is provided by nuns from Catholic Sisters of Charity for the women workers of Bessonneau factory. This photo by photographer Nat Farbman appeared in a February, 1949 issue of LIFE magazine. Nat Farbman was born in 1907 in Poland and he arrived in the United States at the age of four. He began working as a freelance photographer while studying electrical engineering at the University of Santa Clara. During his fifteen years as a LIFE Magazine staff photographer, he was considered one of its most versatile practitioners. He died in 1988. | Kristine / Flickr
God made the light of his Son, Jesus Christ, to shine admirably in her
Light of Christ for the whole Chilean Church, Sister Teresa of the Andes, Teresa of Jesus, is the Discalced Carmelite nun and the firstfruit of holiness of the Teresian Carmel of Latin America, who today is incorporated into the number of the Saints of the universal Church.
As we heard in the first reading from the book of Samuel, the figure of Teresa stands out not because of “his appearance or his great stature”. “The Lord sees not as man sees,” the scripture tells us; “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”. For this reason, in her young life of just over 19 years, in her 11 months as a Carmelite, God made the light of his Son, Jesus Christ, to shine admirably in her, so that she serves as a beacon and guide with the radiance of the divine to a world that seems to have become blinded.
The life of Blessed Teresa cries quietly from the cloister:
“Sólo Dios basta — God alone is enough!
To a secularized society that lives with its back turned on God, this Chilean Carmelite, who with lively joy is presented as a model of the perennial youth of the Gospel, offers the limpid testimony of an existence that proclaims to the men and women of today that loving, adoring, and serving God are the greatness and joy, the freedom and the full realization of the human creature. The life of Blessed Teresa cries quietly from the cloister: “Sólo Dios basta — God alone is enough!”
And she especially cries out to young people, hungry for truth and in search of a light that gives meaning to their lives. To young people who are hounded by continuous messages and stimuli of an eroticized culture, and a society that confuses genuine love, which is giving, with the hedonistic use of the other person, this young virgin of the Andes today proclaims the beauty and bliss that emanate from pure hearts.
A Carmelite never forgets
In her tender love for Christ, Teresa finds the essence of the Christian message: to love, to suffer, to pray, and to serve. In her family, she learned to love God above all things. And in feeling herself to be the exclusive possession of her Creator, her love for her neighbor becomes even more intense and definitive. This is stated in one of her letters: “When I love, it is forever. A Carmelite never forgets. From her small cell, she accompanies the souls that she loved in the world.”
Her enkindled love leads Teresa to desire to suffer with Jesus and like Jesus: “To suffer and love, like the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” she tells us. She wants to be an immaculate host offered in continuous and silent sacrifice for sinners. “We are co-redeemers of the world,” she will say later, “and the redemption of souls is not accomplished without a cross.”
The Carmelite is the priest’s sister
The young Chilean saint was eminently a contemplative soul. For long hours at the tabernacle and before the cross that had a prominent place in her cell, she prays and worships, pleads and atones for the redemption of the world, animating the apostolate of missionaries with the power of the Spirit and, especially, that of priests. “The Carmelite,” she will tell us, “is the priest’s sister.”
However, being contemplative like Mary of Bethany does not exempt Teresa from serving like Martha. In a world where one shamelessly struggles to excel, to possess, and to dominate, she teaches us that happiness is in being the last and the servant of all, following the example of Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for the redemption of many.
We are co-redeemers of the world
Now, from eternity, Saint Teresa of the Andes continues interceding as an advocate for an endless number of brothers and sisters. She who found her heaven on earth espoused to Jesus, now contemplates him without veils or shadows, and from her immediate closeness, she intercedes for those who seek the light of Christ.
Saint John Paul II
Excerpts from his homily for the Mass of Canonization of Teresa of Jesus of the Andes and Claudine Thévenet 21 March 1993
Perdóname | Santuario Santa Teresa de los Andes | Claudio Quezada Ibáñez / Flickr
See more photos from Claudio Quezada’s Flickr album from the Santuario here
Dios ha hecho brillar en ella de modo admirable la luz de su Hijo Jesucristo
Luz de Cristo para toda la Iglesia chilena es Sor Teresa de los Andes, Teresa de Jesús, carmelita descalza y primicia de santidad del Carmelo Teresiano de América Latina, que hoy es incorporada al número de los Santos de la Iglesia universal.
Al igual que en la primera lectura que hemos escuchado del libro de Samuel, la figura de Teresa sobresale no por “ su apariencia ni su gran estatura ”. “ La mirada de Dios – nos dice el libro sagrado – no es como la mirada del hombre, pues el hombre mira las apariencias, pero el Señor mira el corazón ”. Por eso, en su joven vida de poco más de 19 años, en sus once meses de carmelita, Dios ha hecho brillar en ella de modo admirable la luz de su Hijo Jesucristo, para que sirva de faro y guía a un mundo que parece cegarse con el resplandor de lo divino.
La vida de la bienaventurada Teresa grita quedamente desde el claustro:
“ ¡Sólo Dios basta! ”
A una sociedad secularizada, que vive de espaldas a Dios, esta carmelita chilena, que con vivo gozo presento como modelo de la perenne juventud del Evangelio, ofrece el límpido testimonio de una existencia que proclama a los hombres y mujeres de hoy que en el amar, adorar y servir a Dios están la grandeza y el gozo, la libertad y la realización plena de la criatura humana. La vida de la bienaventurada Teresa grita quedamente desde el claustro: “ ¡Sólo Dios basta! ”.
Y lo grita especialmente a los jóvenes, hambrientos de verdad y en búsqueda de una luz que dé sentido a sus vidas. A una juventud solicitada por los continuos mensajes y estímulos de una cultura erotizada, y a una sociedad que confunde el amor genuino, que es donación, con la utilización hedonista del otro, esta joven virgen de los Andes proclama hoy la belleza y bienaventuranza que emana de los corazones puros.
Cuando quiero, es para siempre. Una carmelita no olvida jamás. Desde su pequeña celda acompaña a las almas que en el mundo quiso.
En su tierno amor a Cristo Teresa encuentra la esencia del mensaje cristiano: amar, sufrir, orar, servir. En el seno de su familia aprendió a amar a Dios sobre todas las cosas. Y al sentirse posesión exclusiva de su Creador, su amor al prójimo se hace aún más intenso y definitivo. Así lo afirma en una de sus cartas: “ Cuando quiero, es para siempre. Una carmelita no olvida jamás. Desde su pequeña celda acompaña a las almas que en el mundo quiso ”.
Su encendido amor lleva a Teresa a desear sufrir con Jesús y como Jesús: “ Sufrir y amar, como el cordero de Dios que lleva sobre sí los pecados del mundo ” – nos dice –. Ella quiere ser hostia inmaculada ofrecida en sacrificio continuo y silencioso por los pecadores. “ Somos corredentoras del mundo – dirá más adelante – y la redención de las almas no se efectúa sin cruz ”.
La carmelita es hermana del sacerdote
La joven Santa chilena fue eminentemente un alma contemplativa. Durante largas horas junto al tabernáculo y ante la cruz que presidía su celda, ora y adora, suplica y expía por la redención del mundo, animando con la fuerza del Espíritu el apostolado de los misioneros y, en especial, el de los sacerdotes. “ La carmelita – nos dirá – es hermana del sacerdote ”. Sin embargo, ser contemplativa como María de Betania no exime a Teresa de servir como Marta. En un mundo donde se lucha sin denuedo por sobresalir, por poseer y dominar, ella nos enseña que la felicidad está en ser la última y la servidora de todos, siguiendo el ejemplo de Jesús, que no vino a ser servido sino a servir y a dar su vida en redención de muchos.
Ahora, desde la eternidad, Santa Teresa de los Andes continúa intercediendo como abogada de un sin fin de hermanos y hermanas. La que encontró su cielo en la tierra desposando a Jesús, lo contempla ahora sin velos ni sombras, y desde su inmediata cercania intercede por quienes buscan la luz de Cristo.
San Juan Pablo II
Extractos de la homilía de San Juan Pablo II para la canonización de Teresa de Jesús de los Andes y Claudine Thévenet 21 de marzo de 1993
Perdóname | Santuario Santa Teresa de los Andes | Claudio Quezada Ibáñez / Flickr
In order that God might give His grace to those who do not or cannot ask it, or who do not wish to ask it, He enjoined us to pray for one another, so that we might be saved (Jas 5:16f). If God gave the grace of conversion to St. Augustine, it was due to the prayers of St. Monica; nor would the church have St. Paul, according to one of the fathers, were it not for the prayers of St. Stephen.
Blessed Francis Palau y Quer (29 December 1811 — 20 March 1872) From the spiritual writings of Blessed Francis Palau
Portrait of Blessed Francis Palau y Quer based on a photograph from the period | Wikipedia
Read more from the spiritual writings of Blessed Francis Palau y Quer here
Nuestro hermano y padre Juan de la Cruz tuvo una infancia muy difícil. Conoció la orfandad, el hambre, la mendicidad, el ser aprendiz de diversos oficios sin lograr identificarse con ninguno… Un fraile hermano nuestro nos dijo en más de una ocasión que tenía todos los boletos para ser el “patrono de los amargados”. Sin embargo, los testimonios de sus procesos de beatificación y canonización insisten en que era un hombre afable y alegre. Un hombre convencido de la misericordia de Dios en su vida y en la historia de la humanidad.
San Juan no dudaba en llamar a Dios “Padre de misericordias”. Y en la conocida “Oración del alma enamorada” comienza diciendo: “¡Señor Dios, amado mío! Si todavía te acuerdas de mis pecados para no hacer lo que te ando pidiendo, haz en ellos, Dios mío, tu voluntad, que es lo que yo más…
La Fiesta de San José evoca, entre otros sentimientos, el recuerdo del “día del seminario” donde se educan los futuros sacerdotes. Con ese motivo, ofrezco unas reflexiones sobre las “vocaciones” sacerdotales y religiosas, tan escasas en tiempo de sequía de la fe cristiana, un hecho alarmante […]
Joseph has strong arms, a strong grasp
When strength is in demand.
Not only is a child’s soft hand protected
In his brown massive hand,
But he can hold up cities, hold up nations.
Now in the season of weakness, season of search,
He can poise on his shoulder like a child
The ponderous age-old structure of the Church.
There on his shoulder, there in the crotch of his arm,
A church, a people held, a kingdom piled.
And Joseph knows this strength grew great in him
From lifting up a Child.
Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.
Saint Joseph | Carmel of Terre Haute
Joseph was written by Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, a published poet and Discalced Carmelite nun from the Carmel of Pewaukee, Wisconsin upon a special commission by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Terre Haute, Indiana to accompany this image of Saint Joseph, which the nuns then used to print holy cards for distribution to their benefactors and to the faithful. We are grateful to them for sending us an image of the prayer card and the text of Sr. Miriam’s poem. Learn more about the Terre Haute Carmel and Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, as well as her published poetry.
On March 19th, Saint Thérèse confides to her older sister, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart:
“I just asked St. Joseph to obtain for me from God the grace of spending my Heaven doing good on earth.”
Her sister replied to her, “You don’t need to ask that of St. Joseph”
But she insisted, “Oh, but yes! I need him to support my request!”
Just days before, St. Thérèse made the novena of grace, an infallible novena to St. Francis Xavier. Thérèse made the novena, as she said to Marie of the Sacred Heart, to obtain the grace of “spending her heaven doing good on earth!”
As Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart recalled, “she had just asked this of St. Francis Xavier, too, through the novena of grace.”
And, the young Carmelite doesn’t imagine that one day, along with St. Francis Xavier, she will be the co-patroness of the missions…
Learn more about March 1897 and the last year in the life of Saint Thérèse here.
In this detail of Photo 39 taken by Céline with her sisters and cousin in the sacristy courtyard at the Carmel of Lisieux, we see Marie and Thérèse showing the making of altar bread and the work of the sacristan. See the complete photo here. Photo dated November 1896, before the 14th. [Source: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux]
LETTERA APOSTOLICA CON LA QUALE IL SANTO PADRE BENEDETTO XVI ISCRIVE NELL’ALBO DEI BEATI LA SERVA DI DIO SUOR ELIA DI SAN CLEMENTE Noi, accogliendo il desiderio del Nostro Fratello Francesco Cacucci, Arcivescovo di Bari-Bitonto, e di molti altri Fratelli nell’Episcopato e di molti fedeli, dopo aver avuto il parere della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi, con la Nostra Autorità Apostolica concediamo che la Venerabile Serva di Dio Suor Elia di san Clemente, vergine dell’Ordine delle Carmelitane Scalze della Beata Maria Vergine del Monte Carmelo, che ha consacrato la sua vita contemplativa per amore di Cristo al servizio della Chiesa, d’ora in poi sia chiamata Beata e che si possa celebrare la sua festa nei luoghi e secondo le regole stabilite dal diritto, ogni anno, il 29 maggio. Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio e dello Spirito Santo. Amen. Dato a Roma, presso San Pietro, il 14 marzo dell’anno del Signore 2006, primo del Nostro Pontificato. BENEDICTVS PP. XVI The beatification ceremony took place in Bari 18 March 2006.
Today we continue the novena to St. Joseph. Joseph is so silent in the Gospels, so ordinary, that it took many years for the Church to give him due importance. St. Joseph is special because he reflects in a unique way the love of the Eternal Father for his only begotten Son.
Reading 1 Peter 3:8-12
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called — that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For
“Those who desire life
and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
and their lips from speaking deceit;
11 let them turn away from evil and do good;
let them seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Reflection
The Gospels summarize the life of St. Joseph in a single statement — Joseph was a just man. Being just meant living an upright, integrated, and authentic life.
Am I transparent in my dealings, accounts, rules, etc.?
Prayer
Holy Joseph, Man according to the Heart of God you whose heart was afire with ardent charity and whose life was a constant prayer and continual contemplation, direct us in the way of perfection. Obtain for us the grace of which we stand in need, in order to arrive at the sanctity to which we are called particularly, a spirit of prayer, humility, and surrender to God’s will, of which you were the model.
Hymn to St. Joseph
So let your Church, thus mentored
By faithful, humble life,
See Joseph as a model
For all in daily strife:
To trust your Word whenever
We seem to be distressed,
To do our work with gladness,
To know our love is blessed.
El obispo auxiliar de Managua, monseñor Silvio Báez, exhortó a los participantes en la negociación entre la Alianza Cívica y el régimen a que prevalezcan sus valores cristianos y no anteponer la estabilidad financiera a la persona humana.
“Es hora que muestren su fe cristiana, no solamente sus habilidades políticas, no solamente su fidelidad ideológica…” También les recordó que en la negociación…
“Hence when the divine light of contemplation strikes a soul not yet entirely illumined, it causes spiritual darkness, for it not only surpasses the act of natural understanding but it also deprives the soul of this act and darkens it.” (St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night II:5) “They became frightened when they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34)
Excerpt from I Will Remain With You . . . an undated poem by St. Edith Stein; the original manuscript is preserved in the archives of the Carmel of Cologne. It is assumed that the origin of the poem was Edith’s departure from the Cologne Carmel for the Carmel of Echt, Holland, 31 December 1938. [Source: Dr. Lucy Gelber, The Hidden Life: Hagiographic Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts, p. 146]
Estos dos Vía Crucis han sido realizado por las Carmelitas Descalzas de Cádiz con motivo del V Centenario del nacimiento de Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515-2015). Así los presentan ellas:
En este año en que celebramos el V centenario del nacimiento de nuestra santa madre, Teresa de Jesús (1515-2015). Desde la humildad y sencillez de nuestro apostolado de oración nos ha parecido que la elaboración de los vía crucis (tradicional y bíblico) con meditaciones de Santa Teresa es un medio idóneo para hacerla presente en la vida de oración de nuestra diócesis, con el propósito de que pueda ayudarnos a todos, consagrados y laicos, a profundizar en nuestro trato de amistad con Dios, ya que el ejemplo de nuestra Santa Madre es muy elocuente para penetrar en la sagrada Humanidad de Cristo, y así nos lleva a interiorizar en esta oración la revelación que Jesús ha hecho de sí en el Evangelio…
Heaven to me a mystic Erin is,
God’s sea-encircled dwelling, wholly lit
by its own inner and eternal day,
and all my birds of longing nest in it.
I pray to Patrick of the Trinity
to gain for me this isle of the Triune.
Grant me to turn my prow into its port
before the cycle of the next new moon.
I pray to Brigid, Mary of the Gael,
so clothe me with the Virgin it may be
that when my mantle sweeps against the waves
they may take heed to her tranquility.
Brendan the Voyageur I too implore:
through these dark waters take me to my goal.
As once you found my earthland, find for me
the unimagined homeland of my soul.
Have pity, saints of Erin; help my ship
out to the blessed isle! And till I be
anchored in God my postexilic Good,
O Columbkill the exile, pray for me.
(1946)
Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.
Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D. (Agnes Jessika Powers) was born in Mauston, Wisconsin and baptized in St. Patrick’s Church there. Her grandparents’ families were immigrants from County Waterford, Ireland. Photo: Ballinacourty Lighthouse near Dungarvan, County Waterford | John Finn / Flickr
Today we continue the novena to St. Joseph. Joseph is so silent in the Gospels, so ordinary, that it took many years for the Church to give him due importance. St. Joseph is special because he reflects in a unique way the love of the Eternal Father for his only begotten Son.
Reading Matthew 2:13-15
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
Reflection
Jesus must live in exile and anguish. Persecution begins with his birth and will follow him until his death. Mary and Joseph are partners with Jesus’ sufferings and saving mission.
What is my contribution to make Jesus known?
Prayer
Lord God, in your loving providence you chose St. Joseph to be the spouse of your holy Mother, grant that we may be worthy to have him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our holy patron, Amen.
Hymn to St. Joseph
In Joseph’s care were Jesus
And Mary guarded well,
Provided for and cherished,
As all the stories tell;
And when he died, his spirit
Went forth from them in peace;
Within their arms so loving,
He found his soul’s release.
This afternoon, in Managua, Daniel Ortega’s police forces have kept their promise to crack down on protesters. Here are some of the images and video circulating on social media as of approximately 2 pm, local time. On going coverage, via Facebook Live, from LaFise (Canal 10). Protesters, bystanders, and media were pushed back into LaFise’s…
¿Cómo discurría la juventud de las mujeres en la temprana Edad Moderna?. A responder a esa cuestión dedica sus páginas el libro The Youth of Early Modern Women (La juventud de la mujer en la temprana Edad Moderna), una obra de investigación promovida por la Universidad de Amsterdam y publicada en 2018. Recoge quince artículos dedicados […]
Today we continue the novena to St. Joseph. Joseph is so silent in the Gospels, so ordinary, that it took many years for the Church to give him due importance. St. Joseph is special because he reflects in a unique way the love of the Eternal Father for his only begotten Son.
Reading Luke 2:1-7
1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.
Reflection
On account of the census, Joseph and Mary had to leave their Nazareth home at a time the child was to be born. A long tedious journey would have certainly caused much trouble and pain to Joseph and Mary.
How should we express our commitment to obedience and compassion in the socio-cultural context in which we live?
Prayer
Holy Joseph, Man according to the Heart of God you whose heart was afire with ardent charity and whose life was a constant prayer and continual contemplation, direct us in the way of perfection. Obtain for us the grace of which we stand in need, in order to arrive at the sanctity to which we are called particularly, a spirit of prayer, humility, and surrender to God’s will, of which you were the model.
Hymn to St. Joseph
From David’s line came Joseph,
A just and upright man,
Engaged to Virgin Mary,
And startled by God’s plan.
An angel came and told him
What God’s love had in mind;
Obedient, he trusted,
Left all mistrust behind.
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