novena
The St. Andrew Christmas novena begins today. We have a trick to help you say the novena this year! Free and our pleasure to provide!
Read MoreYour challenge, should you accept it: Try completing this simple novena. It will change your outlook on Christmas and inspire good meditation on the Nativity of Our Lord. His birth in humble means. The trials Mary and Joseph faced to make it happen. The circumstances of not even being welcome. All of the Old Testament…
Read MoreIs it weird to have a favorite holy water font? Well, I do. I’m weird. In the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls–not far from the place where the Apostle was buried after being decapitated for the crime of not losing his head–stands a very curious holy water font. The casual Roman parishioner at St. Paul’s has likely seen this…
Read MoreI like to have prayers on my iPhone for the convenience. I will take a picture of the prayer in the prayer book, missal, whatever, and then save the picture into an album. It makes it easy to find the prayer later, and it is convenient because the prayer is right on the phone. Tomorrow, the Annunciation…
Read MoreDeath in the days before Christ was often frightening, often terrible. It was left for Joseph to show us for the first time the perfect way to die. Graciously God let him know that his work was done. Jesus was almost ready to enter His public life; in that the humble carpenter would play no…
Read MoreWonderful things have happened in the long annals of mankind, but none have been more wonderful than what occurred in the little house and shop of Joseph in Nazareth. The earnings of a labourer provide the food for the creator of heaven and earth. Into the little carpenter shop comes the young Jesus, apprenticed to…
Read MoreCompared to the powerful and important Herod, Joseph was in the eyes of his times a nobody. Yet as this faithful carpenter and saint made smooth the ways of his Lord, worked for His comfort, and knelt to adore Him, Herod plotted the destruction of this Child, whom he looked upon as a possible rival…
Read MoreTo us Christmas is a day of uninterrupted joy. To Joseph it was a day of the brightest light and the deepest shadows: a blazing sky and a chilly cave; the presence of angels and the cold shoulder of the villagers; faith and sorrow; intensest joy in the Infant and grief that he could give…
Read MorePain and patience in the service of Christ and His Mother soon turn to joy. The visit of the angel brought an end to Joseph’s problems. The Child whom the lovely Mary carried was the Son of the Most High. He had no earthly father, for God Himself was His Father. The Holy Spirit had…
Read MoreWedded to the loveliest of brides, entering marriage with strong ideals and a trust in God’s provident care, Joseph had a right to expect the love and security that come with consecrated marriage. While marriage for him was the beginning of a high honour, it was also the beginning of a new pain. While it…
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