St. Joe's Consecration Day 5 - Hope vs Despair

Luke 12:35

Jesus said to His disciples: 

Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks . . . And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants."

 

The Prophesy of Simeon

Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple . . . when the parents brought the child Jesus . . . Simeon took him in his arms and praised God:

". . . My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation . . . "

Luke 2:25,30

"(Jesus's and Mary's) future suffering was ever present to me and became my daily cross. I became, in union with my holy spouse, co-redemptor of the human race. Through compassion for (their) sufferings, I cooperated, as no other, in the salvation of the world. 

St. Joseph's Words to Sr. Mary Eprhem (1958)

Apparitions from Our Lady of the Americas and St. Joseph

To love is to be vulnerable to suffering. To love perfectly is to be vulnerable to the greatest suffering. We look at our Lady who held the dead body of her son and we can't even imagine the pain of that suffering. Yet we also see in her example the witness of perfect hope. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(p. 24)

Bottaro and Settle

Attachments are not things we love, but the things we love without placing them in the context of God's plan. What attachments keep us from perfect hope? What specific relationships or desires do I need to purify?

• An attachment to my parents, especially a misguided desire to please them in hopes of confirming my value as a human being deserving love
• An attachment to my job, as validation of my talents or an outward sign of my abilities and worth to the world, as an indicator that I'm a productive member of society, and therefore worthy of respect, honor, and admiration
• An attachment to the vocation of marriage, especially as it relates to my desire to love, be fruitful and life-giving in the way I see other people love their spouses and raise their children

St. Joseph, hold these attachments, relationships, and desires in your pure heart. 

Help me reorient my love in the full light of God's plan.