Solemnity of St Joseph and my story

      Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph the Foster Father of Jesus.

St. Joseph was an ordinary manual laborer although descended from the royal house of David. In the designs of Providence he was destined to become the spouse of the Mother of God. His high privilege is expressed in a single phrase, "Foster-father of Jesus." About him Sacred Scripture has little more to say than that he was a just man-an expression which indicates how faithfully he fulfilled his high trust of protecting and guarding God's greatest treasures upon earth, Jesus and Mary.

The darkest hours of his life may well have been those when he first learned of Mary's pregnancy; but precisely in this time of trial Joseph showed himself great. His suffering, which likewise formed a part of the work of the redemption, was not without great providential import: Joseph was to be, for all times, the trustworthy witness of the Messiah's virgin birth. After this, he modestly retires into the background of holy Scripture. 

St Joseph, has a very special place in my heart. My story with him start in the early of 1990's. I was working at that time and I was involved with a single professional catholic community in the city that I worked. That time I was changed 180 degrees. I became very involved and at the same time I started to read the bible, learned the doctrine and dig more of the treasures of the church offered to us. At that time I was at the age that many of my friends even my co-workers started to settle down. Even in the office the I used to work there were only two of us that left behind the so called "single ladies". At the bottom of my heart I questioned myself why I haven't had a serious relationship and why I can't find the right man for me. But I didn't lose hope I prayed to God. 

Then in my spiritual reading I came to St. Joseph story. It dawned on me that I would asked for an intercession to him. It's like here on earth that when something is going on we asked for the help of a lawyer or any body to help us. So I looked for a novena prayer intended for St. Joseph, a novena prayer is a nine consecutive days offered to God with the intercession of St. Joseph. At the last day or the ninth day, I asked that I may find a man for me, the right man, and I also remember that says if you ask anything to God be specific, so I did. I said this right man should give me PINK ROSES! And that is the sign that he is the right man for me. 

Well the man didn't come the next day, nor the next week, nor the next year.....but after 10 YEARS!! I had brave the most painful experienced of my life in those years, my mother died and my nephew, troubles in the family was imminent and if I don't have God in my life I will broken into pieces. But God is good, I am a witness that God listen and never forsaken us, after 10 years I meet my husband. And things change dramatically and the rest is history.

Okey the question might be, did you receive the PINK ROSES??? Yes I did, after I say that novena prayer and waited for 10 long years my prayer is answered. Was I surprised? I was. Was I questioned if it's really true, yes I did!! 

That's why St. Joseph is very very close to my heart. In my prayers, I always asked Mama Mary and St. Joseph to guide me and to be with me in my prayer to God. With those two as my lawyer in heaven can I be wrong?? Hehehe! 

                                                               HAPPY FEAST DAY!! 

St. Patrick, Bishop and Confessor

This day is not all about leprechauns, shamrocks and green beer. This is a day to honor and pray to St. Patrick. He was an influential saint who, 1,500 years ago, brought Christianity to the little country of Ireland. He was born about 385 in the British Isles, was carried off while still very young during a raid on Roman Britain by the Irish and sold as a slave. At the end of six years he contrived to escape to Europe, became a monk and was ordained; he then returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel. During the thirty years that his missionary labors continued he covered the Island with churches and monasteries; in 444 he founded the metropolitan see of Armagh. St. Patrick died in 461. After fifteen centuries he remains for all Irishmen the great bishop whom they venerate as their father in the Faith.

 

Not many facts are known about the life of St. Patrick. We know that he was born around 415 AD, and was a Roman Briton. When he was about 16, while he was tending his sheep some Irish raiders captured him and made him a slave. He eventually was able to escape and return to Britain. There he heard the call to return and bring Christianity to Ireland. He was ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop and came back to Ireland around 435 AD. Many legends are associated around St. Patrick: how he drove the snakes out of Ireland, and the use of the shamrock to teach the mystery of the Trinity. Whether or not the legends are true, St. Patrick succeeded in bringing Catholicism to Ireland, and in time, the whole country converted from their pagan gods to the one true God.

Although a small country, Ireland has played a large role in saving and bringing Christianity throughout the world. During the early Dark Ages, the Irish monasteries preserved Western writings while Europe remained in darkness. But as the Catholic country remained solidly Catholic, the Irish spread the faith to all corners of the world. To learn more on this subject, read Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization.

We have a few works attributed to St. Patrick, one being his autobiography called Confessions. It is a short summary of the events in his life, written in true humility. Below is a short excerpt:

I am greatly God's debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, and that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth, just as he once promised through his prophets: "To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited naught hut lies, worthless things in which there is no profit." And again: "I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth."

Patron: Ireland; against snakes; against ophidiophobia; archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts; diocese of Burlington, Vermont; engineers; excluded people; fear of snakes; diocese of Fort Worth, Texas; diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; archdiocese of New York; Nigeria; diocese of Norwich, Connecticut; ophidiophobics; diocese of Portland, Maine; diocese of Sacramento, California; snake bites.

Symbols: A bishop trampling on snakes; bishop driving snakes away; shamrock; snakes; cross; harp; demons; baptismal font.
Things to Do:

• This is a good day to honor St. Patrick by trying typical Irish fare: corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, scones, stew, Shepherd's pie, potatoes in various forms and the famous beer and spirits of Ireland. For dessert, try making the Irish Porter Cake.
• Read the Lorica (Breastplate) of St. Patrick. Here is an older translation — pray it with your family after your rosary tonight.
• From the Catholic Culture library: The Conversion of Ireland by Warren Carroll, The Irish Soldiers of Mexico by Michael Hogan, The Irish Madonna of Hungary by Zsolt Aradi and Our Lady in Old Irish Folklore and Hymns by James F. Cassidy. 

source: www.catholicculture.org