Day 28 - (Seeking knowledge of Christ)

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is the Feast of St. Joseph, who can surely us prepare to consecrate ourselves totally to Jesus and Mary. May the dear husband of Mary and protector of the Christ Child intercede for us on our journey.

May the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills in our seeking:

True Devotion To the Blessed Virgin Mary: Nos. 61–62

1. Jesus, our Saviour, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of everything. “We labour,” says St. Paul, “only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ.” For in him alone dwells the entire fullness of the divinity and the complete fullness of grace, virtue and perfection…

1. If then we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If devotion to our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an illusion of the devil. But this is far from being the case. As I have already shown and will show again later on, this devotion is necessary, simply and solely because it is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully.

St. Jerome wrote: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. We seek knowledge of Christ first through Sacred Scripture but also in Sacred Tradition and in the Magisterium of the Church. An excellent resource for listening to these sources of revelation can be gained HERE. The mission of this site (Nuntiidei) is: “to provide daily audios of successive writings from messengers of God. We will in succession provide one audio chapter each of each Old Testament (OT) history, OT wisdom / poetry, OT Prophet, New Testament (NT) Gospel, and NT Epistle. Then 10 paragraphs of catechism, and one chapter of church fathers, doctors, saints or apologists.”

See also HERE for the site on Preparation for Total Consecration

St. Joseph, help us to grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus, as you grew on this earth.
St. Joseph, intercede for us that listening as you did to Jesus and Mary, we may love them more and more!

 

[hazcompat]

O St. Joseph, how much I love you! How much good it does me to think of your humble, simple life! Like us, you lived by faith. I contemplate you in the little house at Nazareth, near Jesus and Mary, busy working for them. I see you using the plane, and then wiping your forehead from time to time, and hurrying to finish the work on time for your customers. Although you lived with the Son of God, your life was very ordinary, for Jesus certainly did not perform any useless miracles. Everything in your life was just as it is in ours. And how many sorrows, fatigues and dangers! Oh! how astonished we should be if we knew all that you suffered!” (cf. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Counsels and Souvenirs, – Novissima Verba).

Read more: spiritualdirection.com/2015/03/19/solemnity-st-joseph-husband-of-mary#ixzz3UqrSmxUj

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

O St. Joseph, how much I love you! How much good it does me to think of your humble, simple life! Like us, you lived by faith. I contemplate you in the little house at Nazareth, near Jesus and Mary, busy working for them. I see you using the plane, and then wiping your forehead from time to time, and hurrying to finish the work on time for your customers. Although you lived with the Son of God, your life was very ordinary, for Jesus certainly did not perform any useless miracles. Everything in your life was just as it is in ours. And how many sorrows, fatigues and dangers! Oh! how astonished we should be if we knew all that you suffered!” (cf. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Counsels and Souvenirs, – Novissima Verba).

Read more: spiritualdirection.com/2015/03/19/solemnity-st-joseph-husband-of-mary#ixzz3UqrSmxUj

Peace

Thanks hazcompat,

Having read more at the link you provided, let me share this quote from St. Teresa of Avila:

“I do not know how anyone can think of the Queen of Angels during the time that she suffered so much with the Child Jesus, without giving thanks to you, O glorious St. Joseph, for the way you helped them. For this reason it seems to me that those who practice prayer should have a special affection for you always.

“I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to you, for I have great experience of the blessings which you obtain from God. I have never known anyone to be truly devoted to you and render you particular services who did not notably advance in virtue, for you give very real help to souls who commend themselves to you. I have clearly seen that your help has always been greater than I could have hoped for. I do not remember that I have ever asked anything of you which you failed to grant. The Lord wishes to teach us that as He was Himself subject to you on earth (for, being His guardian and being called His father, you could command Him), just so in Heaven He still does all that you ask” (cf. Teresa of Jesus. Life, 6).

It is not surprising these Carmelite saints have such devotion to St. Joseph for they are so very devoted to Jesus through Mary. I underlined the last sentence in the quote to emphasize: “The Lord wishes to teach us…”

Jesus willingly subjected Himself to Joseph! Ought we not willingly go to Joseph and Mary who took care of Jesus as a Child. Ought we not learn to become as little children asking their help to know Jesus better?

Jesus we trust in You.
Mary, Mother of the Church, intercede for us.
St. Joseph, Guardian of the Church, intercede for us.