Silence Speaks Volumes

St. Joseph 

Pray for us!

If we all could be more like St. Joseph.  What a strong man that God chose to be a protector of the Virgin Mary and Jesus!  Strong, wise, and steeped in love for God.  

If we could all have the faith of St. Joseph, we would all be saints.  

Many called by God before the time of St. Joseph questioned God.  Moses questioned God on how he would speak, Abraham questioned God about the lack of an heir. 


When did Joseph question about what God was asking him to do?  Never. We have no words from St. Joseph in scripture.  


We have to remember that even our Blessed Mother questioned the Angel Gabriel how she could have a child if she did not know man.  (Luke 1:34) 


I think this silence speaks volumes.  He dreamed dreams, which were instructions from God's messengers that told him what to do and where to go.  St. Joseph in his faith and humility, receives the message, has absolute faith that it is from God, and then acts.  He responded to dreams 3 times, and 3 times he did not ask God any questions, he just obeyed.  

The Dreams...

1.  The Incarnation:  Matthew 1:18-24
..."When Joseph awoke he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home." Matthew 1:24 
2. The flight into Egypt:  Matthew 2:13-15
 "Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. "
3. The Return to Egypt: Matthew 2:19-23.
"...behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt....."He rose, took the child and His mother and went to the land of Israel." 




I think we skip over these scriptures in the bible without really thinking about them.  The dreams = miraculous, but St. Joseph's reaction shows why he is a saint.  


He did not question the dream, the message, his task, or what was to come as a result of his obedience.  I think we all go down the road of ..."But Lord what if such and such happens.." or... "Lord, are you SURE about this?".....Joseph didn't. 


Think about that.  If anyone had a right to question God it would have been Joseph. (God was giving him the biggest protection job ever!)


We must remember that God sent a carpenter into a desert (not too many trees...) with no job, no home, and no contacts, but yet, even with all these obstacles, Joseph didn't question God, he just....  "Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. 

We need to trust in God more like this...

St. Joseph, dreamer of dreams...teach me obedience. 

Ok...thanks for the Laugh... you can repent now..

David Cameron was speaking yesterday at a London summit on family planning organised by Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft tycoon Bill. Mr Cameron was asked by a member of the audience how to put pressure on the Holy See to overcome its opposition to contraception.


He said: "The answer lies in the strength of our arguments." 


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Ha Ha Ha!!! 

Good luck with that!! The 'strength of your arguments'? Are you kidding!  The Church has stood since 33 A.D., we have withstood: War, Heretics, (lots of heretics), Our Popes being martyred, persecution of the church, invasion, and occupation.  (I'm probably missing some stuff) And Pope Benedict, as the VICAR OF CHRIST, defender of the faith is going to be persuaded by your 'argument'... HA HA HA HA...!! 


Please go see the Holy Father and give him your arguments... I beg a yankee dollar, after you left such a holy person that is so close to your savior YOUR outlook would be changed.


So thanks for the laugh, but in all seriousness I want to say that I would be one of the first to rejoice in your repentance and coming back to the truth of Christ's church. 

Beyond Forgiveness... a Challenge.

In the session on Administering Justice the last woman to speak has stayed with me.  She was obviously hurting and struggling with forgiveness.  I think we all struggle with forgiveness, that is why we are human.  

I have no doubt, that to forgive on our own, there is probably a mathematical formula of forgiveness:  a ratio of the offense committed against you in relation to the time it takes you to forgive that person.  Smaller offenses have a shorter time to forgiveness compared to larger, more heinous crimes.  But when the offense is great and would require an infinite measure of time to forgive, that is the time needed to forgive would be longer than we can live, then this is when our Lord gives us the grace to forgive.  

But we must forgive.  Our Lord tells us we must, isn't this what we say in the prayer Our Father? "...forgive US our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass against us."  I beg you to take this seriously.  We are forgiven AS we forgive...we cannot forget that.  And if our small heart does not have the capacity to forgive, will not a God who loves us give us the ability to forgive so that not only we but the one who has done us wrong may be with Him?  

But I tell you the truth, we must go beyond even forgiveness.  For He also said to "pray for those who persecute you..."  So pray for those who do you evil.  For by such prayer you are saying to God, "I love you, and I love you so much I don't want a soul that YOU love to be lost, even if he/she has done me wrong."  

How to pray for them?  As in the last message of Fatima: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" We must be willing to do Penance for those who do us evil, also as a gift of love to God.  

So pray, do penance and offer sacrifice for souls that are lost, for God does not wish them to be lost...

Prayer:

"Jesus it is love for you, love for your Sacred Heart, love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that I offer this penance for the souls that you love, especially those in danger of hell-fire and I beg the conversion of sinners."