St. Joe's Consecration Day 16 - Immaculate Conception

 CCC 488 "Mary's Predestination"

From all eternity God chose for the mother of His Son a daughter of Israel

Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple

 

We all know the difference between the feeling of being chosen and not being chosen. When we are chosen . . . what wells up inside of us is that someone saw something in us that was of value to them. They saw our goodness and our worth and chose us. When we are overlooked, . . . we feel less than. We feel like we didn't "measure up" . . .

. . . As much as God chose Mary, he also chose Joseph. . . As important as Mary's purity was to the Father, so was Joseph's virtue . . . The Father desired this man to be just, kind, compassionate, loving, and a guardian of both Our Lady and Jesus. . . Although he was not immaculately conceived, the Father chose him, the just and righteous man. Even when Joseph felt the weight of being chosen for this task, deep down he must have felt joy that the Father had seen his goodness and found him worthy. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 58-59)

Bottaro and Settle

When have you experienced the suffering of not being chosen?

• Comparison and lack of affirmation and affection as a child within my human family
• Dating for many years as a young adult, often feeling overlooked and judged as "less than" or lacking

How can you bring that to the Father and let Him remind you that He has already chosen you from all time?

I wouldn't be alive on this earth if the Father hadn't chosen me. I know he has given me many gifts and talents. He has also been merciful to me, protecting me even in this life from the full consequences of my sinfulness, the ways I've turned my back on the Lord Who is the source of all that is good. 

I can bring these wounds, some of which I re-experience multiple times a day, to Him. I can ask that fall more deeply in love with Him so that I can lose my attachments to the lesser things of this world. 

How can Our Lady and St. Joseph share in that joy with you?

By being my spiritual guides. By helping me to see the painful or difficult things I still must labor to do, so that I am always busy working out my salvation in Christ. They can also remind me of what a blessing it is to share in the perfect domestic life of the Holy Family, to be under their watchful care like a new child, a younger brother who is dear, and welcomed, and unconditionally loved.