The Foster-father & The Music of Heaven – Christmas Meditation Day 4 (Dec 28)

The Foster-father

St. Joseph stands holding Baby Jesus and the Sacred Heart is in the background.

At no great distance from the Mother of God stands His holy foster-father St. Joseph, the third person of that earthly trinity.  What can we learn from him?  

2.  He is the true husband of Mary, united to her by a closer bond than any on earth save that which exists between the Mother and the Son.  He is, moreover, the true earthly father of Jesus in everything except the fact of carnal generation.  He has committed to him the care of God Himself, and of her who is dearer to God than all the world beside.  He is, therefore, next to Mary, of all mankind the most privileged and the most exalted.  How, then, can we honor him enough?  

2.  When God gives to any one an office, He gives him the virtues and the qualities which are required for its perfect exercise.  What, then, must have been the virtues of St. Joseph!  He must have had every virtue, not only in an eminent degree, but in a degree to which none other of the sons of men ever attained.  In prudence, justice, humility, charity, he was far above all others.  I therefore must ask of him every grace that I need. 

3.  Above all, St. Joseph was eminent for his unspotted purity.  Many theologians assert that he was sanctified in his mother’s womb.  None save Mary was ever so pure as he.  This it was that qualified him for his intimate union with Jesus and Mary.  If I desire to be united to them, I must be pure of heart.  St. Joseph, obtain for me this grace of purity!

 

The Music of Heaven

They sung as it were a new canticle. (Apoc. xiv.  3.) 

1.  Every one has read the story of the monk who once sat down in a wood near a monastery and wondered whether heaven would not after a time lose its charm.  A little bird began to sing a song so sweet that he sat entranced.  After a few minutes, as it seemed to him, the song ceased and he returned to his monastery to find that he had sat there and listened for twenty years.  If this could be the case when it was but one little bird singing, what must be the absorbing delight of the music of the angels and saints in heaven!  

2.  This music will combine the beauty of every earthly instrument and of the sweetest of earthly singers.  No notes were ever heard on earth like the notes of the virgins, boys and girls, men and women, who will sing a heavenly melody that will never cease; and each note will be such that if we heard it on earth, we should despise all pain and suffering, nay, death itself, for the joy of listening to it. 

3.  There will be a still sweeter music for the blessed in heaven, a music which makes the music of the saints and angels seem almost discord.  The voice of Jesus Christ will be heaven’s sweetest melody; if on earth men hung on His lips, if never man spake like that Man, what will be the divine attraction of every word, every sound that will proceed from his lips in heaven!  How each word will ravish the souls of all the saints in heaven!  O my God, grant that I may hear that voice in heaven. 

Pray that you may listen and obey Christ’s voice speaking to your heart on earth.

 


This article, The Foster-father & The Music of Heaven – Christmas Meditation Day 4 (Dec 28) is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/devotional/the-catholic-daily/christmastide-meditations/the-foster-father-the-music-of-heaven-christmas-meditation-day-4-dec-28/
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