Tomorrow, May 1, is the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker it is also, this year, my 60th birthday. It is a decade milestones that happen only once and is filled with many blessings. I am going to take a break in writing about my birthday patron in his holy year and reflect a little bit on life in giving thanks to God for the blessings I have received over the past 60 years.
First and foremost, I thank God for my two loving parents. My father, Maynard, died in 1985 and my mother, Mariel, continues to chug along.

While certainly not perfect in every facet of life, their love for me and my eight siblings is truly a great blessing. People often say I look like my dad, belly and all now, and I take that as a compliment out of love and respect. When I left home and entered the Marine Corps I always enjoyed the brief calls I made home and the time I could talk with dad and one of the hardest things, after his death, was picking up the phone to give him a call and realize that he was gone and then take some time in prayer. I missed being able to share with him the day I decided to go to college full time and most of all the day I was accepted into the studies for the priesthood and on my day of ordination.

In many ways my mom gave me many gifts and blessings. She has been a sounding board and a ballast for some of the crazier times in life. The home on the farm had been a refuge and a time of rest especially after my ordination where I went home just to be a son and brother.
I was also blessed to have two very different but wonderful godparents, my Uncle Philip, my dad’s eldest brother, and Aunt Nelia, my mom’s younger sister. They gave me a different and wonderful perspective on life. What I most remember about Uncle Philip was his reliability in the advice and gifts given. Each Christmas and birthday I received and a young boy and teenager either a bottle of Old Spice or a manly soap on a rope. Aunt Nelia has referred to me as “Markie” and still does, just now with the “Fr.” moniker now added. It is a gift of humility and joy in still being known as her godson.

I could write ten thousand words about my brothers and sisters. As the 4th of nine, I was not exactly the middle, that goes to my sister Mary Cay, but with all my brothers and sisters enjoyed the reality of always having a friend in the house to help comfort one another in or pains and sadness and share the joys and blessings of life. I cannot imagine growing up in a smaller family and as brothers and sisters we all know the devastation of the death of a sibling when my younger brother Mitch died. Being surrounded by so much love is a gift God has shared with me. In many ways I think this has helped me in my priesthood in dealing with so many different personalities and the controlled chaos often found in parish life.

I will now be entering into my 16th year fo priesthood. I was ordained on June 5th, 2005 along with my classmates for San Jose, Fr. Andres Parra(+), Fr. John Poncini, Fr. Vincent Pineda and Fr. Joseph Page. The blessings of the priesthood may not be ten thousand words, I’ve been a brother for 60 years and only a priest for 16, so I don’t have quite as much time. I Many of my brother priests have helped me be a better priest that have now gone to their eternal reward. Fr. Alex Affonso(+), who I worked with at St. Catherine of Alexandria in Morgan Hill was a true man of grace and dignity who loved the priesthood with such great joy. Being able to walk with him during his final days gave me a profound gift of peace and grace in facing death and trusting in a loving and merciful God. And I could write so much more….but
These are just a few of the blessings….Thanks be to God for the gift of life and for each of you in blessing my life.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

(The Voice of Christ) “My child, allow me to do what I will with you. I know what is best for you. You think as a man; you feel in many things as human affections persuades”
(The Disciple) “ Lord, what you say is true. Your care for me is greater than all the care I can take of myself…If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me be in light, again I bless You. If You stop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.” (p. 75)

The above quote from Thomas à Kempis’ work “The Imitation of Christ”, I think, speaks boldly of how St. Joseph lived his life as husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus on earth. It is also how we should seek to begin and continue to live our lives seeking to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“I want to know! And I want to know immediately!” are two statements encompassing many things in the world. We type in a few words to do an internet search and impatiently wait the few seconds it takes to bring the answers to our eyes with thousands of options to choose from. We drop our frozen food into a microwave and wait impatiently the few minutes it takes to make our meal hot and edible. We lift our petitions to God and desire he answer right now or conclude God is not listening and so seek other avenues of redress to the problem and suffering we are going through at the moment. And we could all of us list many many other things.
We also know this isn’t the true measure of desire and happiness, nor does it lead us to holiness and stability of life. In reflection on “St. Joseph, Cooperator in the Secret Designs of God” we see how patience and love bring about a fuller understanding of our true and deepest desires.
The word cooperation gives us a glimpse into the blessing of relationships where the demand immediacy for the individual is replaced by patience and seeking the understanding of the other. “St. Joseph understood perfectly well the necessity of this cooperation. Steeped with gratitude for the favors he had received, he strove only to correspond faithfully with them. We must likewise concur in the great design for our sanctification.” (p 99 from The Month of St. Joseph) How many times do I lift my voice, my heart, my soul in gratitude each day? When we do this the irritation of immediacy begins to slip into the graciousness of love and blessing.

It is not the absence of “we need to get this done” urgency in our lives but rather we begin to see how the blessings make what is not urgent or necessary less stressful in the calendar of our lives, both today and tomorrow.
This “need to know” is often centered on a control we desire over life and the hurt, anger and frustration that comes from discovering so much is not in our hands to control. This is clearly seen in the want of so many to control life and death. But when we are united first and foremost in the blessing of God then we see how like St. Joseph in his life he experienced this abundant grace in and through “the mysteries of grace and love attached to the persons of Jesus and Mary. This successive and gradual knowledge gave place to transports of admiration and delight. What must have been the happiness of St. Joseph in being so closely united to Him whom the angels and saints revere, and before whom they bow in lowly adoration!” (p 100)
Like St. Joseph we are called to live with the presence of Jesus in our homes, in the daily joys and sorrows of life. In doing this we do gain the wisdom and knowledge of living within the Divine Providence of God our Father. It is in this we do lift our souls in gratitude in honoring God and recognizing how we, following God’s plan, find true peace, joy and happiness in trust and hope.
St. Paul says it best when he writes, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” (1 Cor 15:10) Trusting and knowing God’s love for us and living and working in this same trust, as St. Joseph did, brings us with God’s grace the peace and steadiness of a life filled with gratitude and blessing.
God bless

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31)

If we look at St. Joseph as a “Model of Obedience for Those in Authority” we take the quote from St. Paul above as a reminder that obedience is always founded first and foremost in our understanding of obedience as a gift and virtue from God in trusting in goodness and holiness of life. In seeing St. Joseph as this model we hear from Archbishop M. de Langalerie in reflecting on St. Joseph where he writes, “Superiors and parents, when commanding, should seek only the greater glory of God. with this disposition of mind and this intention in view, they will find that in commanding others they are invariably obeying God.” (p 95 from “The Month of St. Joseph”)

We are reminded that all we do, whether as leaders or as disciples should always bring others closer to God. If we do this then following St. Paul’s words we do all for the glory of God in acting towards others seeking to grow and nurture holiness not just in our own soul but in the souls of others.
In all relationships this is a truth and especially in marriage, the Sacrament of unity of man and woman united around God, the seeking of holiness, to act for the glory of God should become the focus of the marital promise and vow. It is a reality where the husband and wife seek to draw the very best out of each other in obedience to love. It would be silly to say, “We are getting married to make each other a worse human being.” In both the practical but also in the deeper sense of a unitive love, this would be so counter to what we know and believe, we would dismiss and push back against this idea with great vigor.
“Again, contemplate St. Joseph in the cottage at Nazareth, dwelling with Jesus and Mary. Order and regularity attend his every action. He has a specified time for rising, for prayer, for meals, work, relaxation, and even for repose.” (p 96) If in using our imaginations and our lived experience, we can see Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and the child Jesus living this truth…the small acts of love and obedience lived out daily and with consistency.
We may ask the simple question, “Did Joseph share and speak of his love to Mary daily?” I am not talking about the over-the-top grand gestures, but rather the simple gestures of love that too often get lost in the thoughtless routines of life. Obedience to the greater, to the glory of God, is the discipline of acting towards another with the consistency of love, joy and graciousness drawing out of them, and ourselves, the best of who we are called to be by God.
Seeking to know the other, know the heart of the other, know the greatest desire of the other is living the discipline of obedience in love. This is true in knowing a spouse, a friend, and family member but it is also true in knowing God through the word made flesh in Jesus Christ. “For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?” (Thomas á Kempis)
We are all sinners, so the example of St. Joseph is one where we continually seek and turn away from sin that divides us. Seeking in the obedience of faith, hope and love, we seek to embrace the cross that leads us to forgiveness and mercy in our relationships with each other. Obedience isn’t blind but rather the search for a greater truth by a deep desire for love of another.
I will give the last word to St. Ignatius of Loyola and our Jesuit brothers, “A.M.D.G. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam—“For the greater glory of God.”” (Society of Jesus Motto)
God Bless
Fr. Mark

The Year of St. Joseph continues as we are between the great solemnity of Joseph, Husband of Mary and move towards my favorite Joseph celebration…St. Joseph the Worker on the first day of May. We also begin the with Palm Sunday the holiest week of the year as we enter into the passion, death and resurrection; the saving mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ. And while St. Joseph was not present at the passion we can still reflect on his place in the journey and how he presents to us a model for our understanding and living the paschal mystery as Christian disciples.
In Archbishop M. de Langalerie’s book “The Month of St. Joseph” he reminds us of the different virtues St. Joseph lived and how we are called to share in his example of loving Jesus and our Blessed Mother Mary. As St. Joseph lived the virtue of Prudence he continually sought the better and looked for the good in each action and job he was called to perform in his vocation as husband and father. “Prudence is a virtue that causes us to use the most appropriate means in which to arrive at a proposed end.” (p 102)
And what is this proposed end? “Christian prudence, unlike worldly prudence, proposes for its aim the eternal salvation of the soul, the glory of God, and the accomplishment of His adorable will. Christian prudence always looks beyond the terrestrial aim. This is the first law of Christian prudence.” (p 104) in other words it is very long way of saying our goal is Heaven.
During the upcoming Holy Week, we are called to act in prudence in choosing how best to celebrate and live our faith as St. Joseph did each day of his life. What are we doing to seek the eternal goal of heaven and how are we helping others to live their eternal goal? Giving glory to God is recognizing how many blessings we have received and continue to receive in love and hope. It may be looking at our Lenten promises and reflecting how we can carry them into the Easter season renewed in the light of Christ.
For me, it is the challenge of looking outward again. It can be a busy time and the pandemic has not made it easier but trusting in God’s love and grace we are able to look beyond and enter into a renewal of life that is only discovered in the cross leading us to resurrection.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

Who do we pray for on a daily basis? Who do we ask to pray for us? What is our first response when we are asked to pray for someone in need?
And how would St. Joseph have responded as a model of charity towards others?
Archbishop M. de Langalerie writes, St. Joseph did not deny his love to anyone. “Wherever Providence placed him, all displayed indifferent towards him on account of his poverty; but he in return regarded them with affection, and desired their salvation.” (p 80 from “The Month of St. Joseph) In other words he was a man of prayer setting his heart in prayer to all people, both friend and enemy alike.

I have been thinking about prayer and who we pray for as I am finishing a different book of meditations during my Holy Hour earlier this week. In it Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida where in one of her conversations with Jesus, she was a mystic, she began to list all the people she wished to bring to Jesus in prayer. What struck me wasn’t that she was doing this but that many of the prayers were very minor, simple requests, not earth shattering or grandiose, rather the prayers I often bring to God for family, friend, Church and yes enemy.
In the year of St. Joseph I placed this prayer in front of Joseph and thought about how he, our Blessed Mother and the child Jesus prayed daily. What did that look like?
I doubt that much has changed around the family table and at times of family prayer. Certainly the Holy Family was a family of prayer. They would have prayed the Jewish ritual prayers and other devotions honoring God. I am also fairly positive they would also have brought prayers of family, friends (and yes enemies) to the there daily prayers and conversations with each other and with God.
The point is, that nothing is too small nor too large to pray for and seek to reconcile in our hearts allowing the world to find the healing within the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We are reminded once more of how St. Joseph lived the Gospel message of Jesus before it was preached in word because he physically embraced the Living Word each day of his married life. “The Gospel, moreover, commands us not only to forgive our enemies and pray for them, but also to love them. This precept is violated by a great number of Christians. We demonstrate a cold reserve and resentment towards those who have offended or injured us; yet each day we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”” (p 80) Our prayers should not only be towards those we love but more importantly towards those who disagree with us and even persecute us in our Christian life.
Why would we do this? Jesus commands us to do this. It is for the salvation of the souls of those who seek to harm the Body of Christ but also for us who are the Body of Christ. Did Jesus, Mary and Joseph spend daily time in prayer praying for the Roman oppressors, Herod and his murderous regime and the religious leaders who seemed to bend their faith to “get along” with those who held power in the world of ancient Israel?
Each day, dozens of people ask me to pray for them or an intention they hold dear to them and yes many times these prayers include those of injury or for political and religious leaders. Following “St. Joseph as a Model of Charity towards Our Neighbor” (p 79) we are asked to step beyond and place ourselves within the prayer life of the Holy Family joining our prayers with them for the salvation of our souls and the salvation of the world.
Please pray for me…I am praying for you.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Well, the big day is here! It is hard to imagine how excited I am at this time! I am using exclamation points with joy! Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary!!! We also celebrate the founding of our Diocese of San Jose as we enter into the 40th Year as a Jubilee Year celebrating our Journeying Together in Hope as a people united in the love of Jesus Christ.
Looking towards the blessing of St. Joseph as husband of Mary I would like to reflect on Pope Leo XIII encyclical “Quamquam Pluries” on the devotion to St. Joseph as Patron of the Church. From this call the Church looks to St. Joseph “for singular benefit from his patronage and protection, are that Joseph was the spouse of Mary and that he was reputed the Father of Jesus Christ. From these sources have sprung his dignity, his holiness, his glory.” (#3) It is clear and true that we see St. Joseph through the gift of Jesus and his wife Mary. It is not the losing of his person but rather the completion of the person God the Father called forth to go on a mission to care for the Virgin Mother and the Son of God. This is the central point of our lives, when we choose to live in service of love we don’t disappear and fade away but rather we become truly who we are created to be in the eyes of our Creator God. Joseph grew in stature and holiness the closer embraced his role as father and husband, he grew in gentleness and humility the more he chose Mary in daily acts of love and service and in the caring and protecting the Holy Family.

This is what Pope Leo reminded the Church when he wrote, “But as Joseph has been united to the Blessed Virgin by the ties of marriage, it may not be doubted that he approached nearer than any to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses so nobly all created natures. For marriage is the most intimate of all unions which from its essence imparts a community of gifts between those that by it are joined together.” (QP #3) St. Joseph in his calling to be husband of our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, becomes fully into his dignity as a human in choosing to love and enter into the service of someone greater, even when the greater is a small and vulnerable child he is called to protect. Are we willing to follow the example of St. Joseph? It is a reminder that story God desires us to live is the story of a call, a vocation of love, mercy and holiness: to become the saint.
When we truly are able to embrace this vocation, accept the call to holiness, choose the blessings and give them away without cost, then we live a true and holy life. It is the most fulfilling moment when we see our story for a brief moment, a story which draws us forward in the darkness where we allow and trust Jesus to light a path just a few steps at a time. Pope Francis is his great love letter “Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love” reminds of the vocation of the Holy Family when he shares with the Church, “With a gaze of faith and love, grace and fidelity, we have contemplated the relationship between human families and the divine Trinity. The word of God tells us that the family is entrusted to a man, a woman and their children, so that they may become a communion of persons in the image of the union of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Begetting and raising children, for its part, mirrors God’s creative work. The family is called to join in daily prayer, to read the word of God and to share in Eucharistic Communion, and thus to grow in love and become ever more fully a temple in which the Spirit dwells.” (AL #29) St. Joseph, with Mary, lived this Eucharistic communion even before the night of the Last Supper because in their midst was the living Eucharist, Jesus Christ. Each time St. Joseph held the child Jesus, he embraced the Eucharist just as we are invited to do when we come forward, not worthy to receive but are healed in the Word of God. It is when, like St. Joseph we embrace our Mother Mary we see the truth of who Jesus is in our lives.

“Thus in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life’s companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honour, but also, by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity. And Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His father among men.” (QP #3) What mission has God given you? Like Joseph we are all given a mission and if we embrace the mission then we shine as holy witnesses of God’s love. This is the natural outcome of our following the will of God. Being a saint, is being, like St. Joseph, willing to do the small things with great care and love, the daily chores that may seem mundane but bless those around us and open our heart to care and peace. When seek and allow the dignity of others to grow within our soul, as husbands and wives are called to do in the Sacrament of Marriage, then our own dignity strengthens and invites others into a relationship with God in the Most Holy Trinity’s loving graces.

Pope Leo XIII ends paragraph three of his Encyclical with this simple stated reason of why St. Jospeh is called Patron of the Church, “It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.” (QP #3)
St. Joseph, Husband of Mary….pray for us

God bless
Fr. Mark

http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15081889_quamquam-pluries.html

http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html

The fatherhood of St. Joseph is one of the most interesting aspects of his life I like to meditate on in prayer. Like last weeks article, the gaze of the father upon a son, shows a deep devotion and love that expands the heart of both parent and child. As part of Worldwide Marriage Encounter I remember one presentation that struck me deeply. The couple presenting talked about their relationship with their children and how we often talk mostly about what we want them to do in life and not who we want them to be. This came back to me once more in a reflection by Archbishop M. de Langalerie, a 19th century French bishop from his book “The Month of St. Joseph” which I am praying with during the month of March. He writes, “Christian parents, such should be your spirit, “Here we have no lasting city” (Hebrews 13:14). Your children are given you more for the purpose of fitting them for heaven than of qualifying them for earthly positions.” (p 32)
This is a reminder of what we desire for children and what the “duty” of the parents are both father and mother. If we believe that each child is created in the image and likeness of God, then we desire each child to be a saint, to strive for holiness and to be at peace with God and our fellow sisters and brothers in our life. This is not only what St. Joseph strove for but also what he lived as he worked, supported and cared for the child Jesus within the Holy Family.

What do we hope for our children? And more broadly: what do we hope for all people?
Pope St. John Paul II shares with us from “Redemptoris Custos” this thought, “What is crucially important here is the sanctification of daily life, a sanctification which each person must acquire according to his or her own state, and one which can be promoted according to a model accessible to all people: “St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies;…he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things-it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic.”(#24)
The Catholic Church understands and honors the labor we do and calls it necessary and important in the life of each person. Yet in the same way, our daily work does not define us nor limit us in the service of God’s blessing and grace. As St. Joseph labored and showed the child Jesus the dignity of work, he “at the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption.” (#22)

St. Joseph not only shows the dignity and honor in work as a father, husband and man but unites it with the Divine in doing the work not for his satisfaction but for the glory and blessing of God in caring for the family. As parents preparing children for the eternal, each family is called to be a domestic church fostering holiness and leading children to a path of recognizing not just the dignity of work but also in an important and vital way how our work brings blessings to others when we see God in our daily tasks. Each parent wants their children to be successful, but so also each parent would desire their child live a life of holiness in the blessing of others.
This desire for holiness should be marked but our lives too in the example of the call to holiness over and over again.
It begins with recognizing how God loves us and draws forth blessings from both the exciting and mundane of life when we choose to seek Him rather than the quick bite of pleasure or the momentary tickle of delight. Deep and abiding happiness and holiness comes from the call to be of service to another…a spouse, a child, a parent, a friend and an enemy. (St. Joseph) “was inspired by his love for his family, for Jesus and Mary, and frequently by love for his fellow men and by his noble desire to be to service to them and assist them.” (p 112 Fr. Maurice Meschler from “The Truth About St. Joseph)
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Gracias a su banco de trabajo sobre el que ejercía su profesión con Jesús, José acercó el trabajo humano al misterio de la redención. (#22)

«San José es el modelo de los humildes, que el cristianismo eleva a grandes destinos; san José es la prueba de que para ser buenos y auténticos seguidores de Cristo no se necesitan “grandes cosas”, sino que se requieren solamente las virtudes comunes, humanas, sencillas, pero verdaderas y auténticas» (#24).

“If the Father had looked at you with His ineffable gaze just once, it would suffice for you to be eternally grateful. Yet this gaze is constant and everlasting.” (p 143 from “Under the Gaze of the Father”)
As we continue to reflect on the life of St. Joseph, I read these words in my Holy Hour and I thought; what must have been the blessing of Joseph, during his life, to be under the constant gaze of the Father and the Son of the Most Holy Trinity? It is not a gaze of condemnation or of seeking the weakness and brokenness of our human condition, rather it is the gaze of love, joy and the searching gaze of hope and peace. “To live under the gaze of the Father is to receive His gift constantly; it is to possess Jesus, the end and precious fruit of this gaze…Thus your soul lives under the gaze of the Father, enveloped in His light, bathed in His fruitfulness, intimately and sweetly joined to Jesus.” (p 143-44) Archbishop Luis Martinez in writing these reflections for a retreat given to Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida shows us a deep and beautiful understanding of living in obedient love to God’s will in our life.

We know from Sacred Scripture how St. Joseph on following the command of the Angel turned towards the obedient love written upon his heart, taking the law and turning it into an act of trust as he accepted our Blessed Mother and the Child growing in her womb into his life. Under the gaze of the Father, this action of love turned his heart into a heart that could only expand in love. And this is our St. Joseph challenge…to expand our heart under the gaze of God.
We can often find this difficult as we struggle to see the person of Jesus in those around us (and in ourselves at times) with our doubts and fears blinding us to the greater possibility of life in gracious love. I can imagine Joseph, seeing Mary pregnant and choosing to see Jesus within her. Choosing to erase the doubts and fears, the humiliation and scandal of the moment and embracing the grace in front of him. I often think and place myself in this moment, the embrace followed by such joy and grace as the blessing of God’s gentle and fruitful gaze blazed a fire of love in the hearts of the Holy Family united and blessed.
Pope St. John Paul II reminds us in “Redemptoris Custos,” “From the beginning, Joseph accepted with the “obedience of faith” his human fatherhood over Jesus. And thus, following the light of the Holy Spirit who gives himself to human beings through faith, he certainly came to discover ever more fully the indescribable gift that was his human fatherhood.” (# 21)
As husband and earthly father we can imagine the gaze of St. Joseph becoming more and more the gaze of God the Father as he saw in Mary’s eyes the window into the Divine life growing in her womb. We can only imagine how his gaze stretched and re-stretched his heart each time the child Jesus looked into his eyes and Joseph encountered pure and joyful love. We are asked, like St. Joseph, to gaze into the windows of Mother Mary’s eyes and into the Divine eyes of love found in the Eucharistic gaze of our adoration of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity placed upon the altar of worship.
In being obedient to God’s will, to God’s call to love, to God’s abundant blessings we are invited into caring for others as St. Joseph cared for his wife and the child Jesus. Fr. Meschler in his book, “The Truth About St. Joseph” reminds us of the humility accepting to care for another. “So, too, when St. Joseph’s authority was exercised, it was done in all humility. It has already been remarked that authority makes people humble. Who had a better heart than Joseph? His authority, moreover, extended to God and the Mother of God. Again, no one commands better than he who obeys exactly. Joseph was a man of perfect obedience and submissiveness to all properly constituted authority, but above all to God.” (p 63)
Our obedience to love humbles us into the grace of service. Jesus reminds us very clearly of the call to service and the blessings when he speaks these words to us, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45) Living our lives within the gaze of the Father is an invitation to life. The courage and humility to join in the life of grace and love is our constant challenge and the hope of unity with the Most Holy Trinity, the communion of saints and choirs of angels in heaven in our celebrations of holiness and life.
“To live under the gazed of the Father is to live a fruitful life in divine light and eternal love; it is to possess Jesus and to give Him to souls in the splendor of the divine gaze.” (p 146)
God Bless
Fr. Mark

This weeks reflection on St. Joseph is seeing his call to duty in the formation of the Holy Family in his care and partnership with Our Blessed Mother in being living witnesses to the love of God in the gift of his son Jesus. If we take time to imagine the heart and mind of Joseph, the turmoil and doubt that filled the early days of marriage, the hope and dreams constantly in flux it would not be a stretch of the imagination to find Joseph pondering where this is all leading. He recognized and embraced his duty as husband and father of the child growing in the womb of Mary. He knew his task would be one of caring and providing for as well as protecting his family. And as they traveled forth to Bethlehem we cannot doubt his worry. And then he encounter the Christ child.

Fr. Maurice Meschler in his book “The Truth About Saint Joseph”, shares this thought, “All his sorrows were now forgotten in the contemplation and embrace of the divine Infant, to whom he was to be father on earth. How this child must even now have ravished his eyes and captivated his heart! What a joy was his at this gift from God and of his beloved spouse, Mary, to whom this divine token bound him anew in admiration and love.” (p 28) St. Joseph reminds us of our own need to be captivated in the love of Jesus. We are called to bring our sorrows, our suffering and our sins to the altar and be ravished by the merciful and gracious love of God. Do we allow our hearts to see Jesus with the eyes of St. Joseph? Is our heart and mind silent to the soft sounds of the child in the arms of our Mother? It should be the moment of recognition of how we desire to be united in dutiful love, not the sentimental fleeting feelings, but the knowing we are united and are called to an act of sacrifice greater than we had thought possible.
Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation “Redemptoris Custos” writes, “One can say that what Joseph did united him in an altogether special way to the faith of Mary. He accepted as truth coming from God the very thing that she had already accepted at the Annunciation.” (#4) Accepting truth is important. Knowing truth is vital. From the beginning the Evil One has sought to distort the truth of who we are and how we are called into relationship with God and others. In many ways, St. Joseph, through his relationship with the Virgin Mary, shows us what it means to fully accept truth which turns us towards the ultimate and eternal love. By seeking the desire of God we find the peace within the troubles of the world helping us to have a heart open to healing and purity. Fr. Meschler writes, “At that moment he realized his entire duty toward this child and made a complete sacrifice of himself to fulfill the office entrusted to him. It was his duty to support Mary in her services to the Child Jesus.” (p 28)
Recognizing the mission, the vocation, the path of life God invites Joseph to follow is also for us the same need to fulfill God’s plan in our life. Becoming guardians of Jesus, guardians of our faith, is the continual renewal, as every parent knows, of growing with the child in a relationship ever changing but forever grounded in the first blessing which is true sacrificial love. Is this how we practice our faith? St. Joseph, from the moment he learned of the conception to the hour when Jesus and Mary stood by him on his death bed, his faith grew ever deeper as he held the infant, taught the boy and watched the young man become the craftsman.
This is the choice God our Father offers us daily, to grow and embrace the joy of the Gospel his Son Jesus announces to us. Walking with St. Joseph we here St. John Paul II words, knowing we too must follow St Joseph in becoming a true guardian of his son, “Therefore he became a unique guardian of the mystery “hidden for ages in God”, as did Mary, in that decisive moment which St. Paul calls “the fullness of time,” when “God sent forth his Son, born of woman…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons”” (#5 )
St. Joseph…Pray for us.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Ever-living and faithful God,we give you thanks for walking with us,your people of this Diocese of San José.
Pour forth your Spirit on this local Church,that our works of Faith and labors of Lovemay lead others to Jesus, your Son,and that our endurance in Joy and Hopemay lift up those weary from uncertainty.
Accompanied by Saint Joseph and Saint Clare,may we continue “Journeying Together in Hope,”and day by day be drawn closer to your Son,our Light, our Hope, and our Salvation,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spiritforever and ever.
Amen.

The marriage of St. Joseph to Our Mother Mary is a source of many blessings and great hope for our own understanding of God’s desire and will in our lives. It is a sign of grace which we are all called to live in the will and providence of God’s love. Both Our Mother Mary and St. Joseph in their human dignity reflected the love of spousal unity as Pope Francis explained in the Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” where he recalled these words, “Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that “it is more proper to charity to desire to love than to desire to be loved”; indeed, “mothers, who are those who love the most, seek to love more than to be loved”. Consequently, love can transcend and overflow the demands of justice, “expecting nothing in return” (Lk 6:35), and the greatest of loves can lead to “laying down one’s life” for another (cf. Jn 15:13). Can such generosity, which enables us to give freely and fully, really be possible? Yes, because it is demanded by the Gospel: “You received without pay, give without pay”” (Mt 10:8). (#102)

St. Joseph, as husband of Mary, in his espousal reminds us of the desire to love. His sacrificial choice of following the will of God, discovered in a dream, to follow the path of righteousness in mercy and justice gives us an example of marital grace. Fr. Maurice Meschler, SJ in his book on St. Joseph calls to mind the basic teaching of the Catholic Church of the good of marriage in its sacramental form. The freedom to choose, as seen in the relationship of Joseph and Mary is the example of grace building upon grace. He writes, “As for us, the espousals teach us that matrimony in itself is a holy state of life ordained by God, and that marriages properly entered upon are really made in Heaven and are productive of indescribable blessings for the world and the Church. The espousals furthermore teach us that Divine Providence works from end to end mightily and wisely (Wisdom 8:1) through all sorts of apparently insoluble perplexities and, hence, that we can do nothing better than cast ourselves confidently into its arms.” (p. 24, from “The Truth About Saint Joseph: Encountering the Most Hidden of Saints” by Fr. Maurice Meschler, SJ)
In marriage, as in all life, there are so many ups and downs and unexpected sorrows and blessings that the grace of the Sacrament shows forth in positive grace. God invites us into a participation of love…he works with us to build love…he works with us to heal the hurt of sin. The Divine Providence of God’s will flows forth when we embrace the life that is given and the struggles we share rather than the dream of a utopia that never has and will never exist. The choice to love is the choice to embrace a reality gathering into a grace the fullness of human experience.
The great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen reminds us again and again about how we are created for love and a love embracing a unity of the Most Holy Trinity. The chaste marital love of Mary and Joseph is the blessing of life embracing the fullness of the human heart and experience. He writes, “All love craves unity. This is evident in marriage, where there is the unity of two in one flesh. When a person loves anything, he sees it as fulfilling a need and seeks to incorporate it to himself, whether it be wine that he loves or the science of the stars…As saints become one with our Lord throughout the identification of their will with God’s Will, so those who love unto marriage become “two in one flesh.”” (p 19-20 from “Three to Get Married” by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen)
May we pray for happy and holy marriages and for all our young people seeking their true vocation in life.
God Bless
Fr. Mark