Forged Day 2 - Who Am I to Be?

 Run. Fly. Break your chains; break all the bonds that tie you down to flesh and blood.

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

What kind of man do I want to be?

I want to be a man with a generous, over-flowing love who, through my actions, helps my sisters and brothers see the love of Christ. I want the strength and selflessness to sacrifice my own immediate desires, to fight through the temptation to give less -- at work, at home with my family, with my friends, and with my future spouse. I want to know and love God's Will for me so deeply that I act on that Will habitually with grace and humility, even in the face of pain and struggle and trial. I want to be a co-creator with God and a co-healer: to serve the wounded and broken, to inspire and lead others to Jesus on the Cross. 

How do I want to be remembered when I die?

Steady at the Wheel. Ready to Serve. I want to be remembered as someone who lived a beautiful life, a man who was simultaneously a witness and a sign, both to God's reckless, bountiful love and His enduring Mercy. When people were in trouble, they knew they could come to me for support, understanding, and hope. Not because I was so awesome in and of myself, but rather that I was a sign of God's great power and endless love for His children. I want people to know that I loved Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that I lived a virtuous life according to the Holy Family's example. 

"Like an hourglass with a certain number of grains of sand within it, God has appointed your life to last only a certain number of days, and you have absolutely no idea how many there are. ... In God’s presence, consider: I have no idea when my life will end. All I know is that death will come for me eventually. Am I doing anything to prepare for the real possibility that God may call me, sooner rather than later? If he called me into eternity today, would I be ready?"

— Patrick Madrid, 

A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living (p. 190)

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love. If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:5-8

"Jesus Heals on the Sabbath"

(5)One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. (6)When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"

...

(8)Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." (9)And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.

...

(14)Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you."

John 5

Nine Days of Joseph: Day Three - St. Joseph, Good Provider

Dear St. Joseph,

As the foster father of Jesus, you provided for his human needs. Through the work of your hands, he had food to strengthen him, a house to give him shelter, and clothes to keep him warm. Now, from heaven, you're still working, St. Joseph. Indeed, the loving labor of your prayers provide for all the members of the Body of your Son. But as I'm preparing to consecrate myself completely to you, I ask you to please provide for me and for my loved ones in a special way. Through your prayers, please make sure that we always have food to eat, a roof over our heads, and clothes to wear. Also, please pray for us that in times of abundance, we will never forget God. Pray for us that we will always be grateful for God's gifts and that we will never be a slave to things like food or money, pleasure or power. Finally, help us always to remember and be generous with the poor.

Saint Joseph, with you as my spiritual father, I will do my best not to give in to useless anxiety about my job, money, or material things. I believe you will always make sure I have what I need, and as a good father, I ask that you indulge me a bit by even providing for my material wants, provided they don't take me away from Jesus.

Saint Joseph, Good Provider, please provide for my needs through your powerful prayers.

Fr. Michael Gaitley

Day Three

Nine Days to St. Joseph

"Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (1879)

Luc Oliver Merson

When Father Anthony mentioned this painting at the Museum of Fine Arts he specifically mentions Joseph sprawled, exhausted on the sand at the feet of the sphinx on which Mary and Jesus are resting. Joseph, exhausted from the journey, and probably from fear as well. Fleeing from the horror of the slaughter of the innocents. . .

. . . As he lies on the ground with his staff at his side and his bare feet stretched out, he can also be read not as a figure of exhaustion, but as a figure of supplication. If you removed the figures of Mary and the Child and replaced them with a burning bush, he could easily be a figure of Moses. Shoes removed because this is holy ground, face covered because who dares to look on the face of God and live. In Orthodox iconography the burning bush is a prefigurement of Mary.

I am taken with the image of Joseph as Moses, the inversion of Joseph leading his family into Egypt even as Moses led his people out of Egypt. (Of course we know that later Joseph will lead Mary and Jesus out of Egypt and back to Nazareth.) Joseph, the last of the patriarchs reminds us of all of his predecessors, of their intimate relationship with God. The gesture of Joseph’s arm raised to hide his face reminds me that Moses hid his face after talking with God face to face on the holy mountain. Here is the Christ child, revealing himself, shining in his glory. Here is Joseph who has looked on the face of Christ. If Giotto’s Joseph is hidden behind a pillar, Merson’s Joseph, hiding his face from us and from the radiant child reveals more than is concealed.

Melanie Bettinelli

from "The Flight into Egypt: Seven Sorrows of Mary"

The Wine-Dark Sea

Nine Days to Joseph: Day 1 -- St. Joseph The Powerful Intercessor

Dear St. Joseph, 

After Mary, you're the most powerful intercessor before God. In a sense, Jesus remains obedient to you and will listen to you as you bring my intentions to Him. Because of this, I especially want to entrust myself to your fatherly care, just as Jesus Himself did. . . 

(A)s the best of fathers, as the one God chose to be the virginal father of Jesus, I believe that you know what I need better than I do myself. So go ahead, St. Joseph. I give you permission to care for me as your child. In doing so, I trust that you will do everything in your power to make my life into something beautiful for God. I trust that you will watch over me and that your prayers will guide me, bless me, and protect me. I trust that you will now care for me with the same love and tenderness with which you cared for Jesus.

Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC

from "Day 1: Time to Entrust"

Nine Days to Joseph

The Innocence by Munir Alawi
from Fine Art America 

St. Joseph's 7 Privileges

 "(St. Joseph) deserves your affection, and it will do you good to get to know him because he is the Maser of the interior life and has great power before the Lord and before the Mother of God."

-St. Josemaria Escriva

"Devotion to St. Joseph is powerful because he gives his protection, his example, and his blessing."

St. George Preca

The Seven Privileges for Those Who Are Devoted to St. Joseph

1. For attaining the virtue of purity and overcoming the sensual inclinations of the flesh
2. For procuring powerful help to escape sin and return to the friendship of God
3. For increasing the love and devotion to most holy Mary
4. For securing the grace of a happy death and protection against the demons in that hour
5. For filling the demons with terror at the mere mention of his name by his clients
6. For gaining health of body and assistance in all kinds of difficulties
7. For securing issue of children in families

"Take him as the patron of your interior and spiritual life, and you will advance greatly toward perfection."

Blessed Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

St. Joseph and the Increase of God's Fatherly Presence

"(Jesus) increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man." 

Luke 2:52

from Day 1 - Why Consecration to St. Joseph?

Like the young Jesus under the watchful care of St. Joseph (whose very name means "increase"), we too can increase wisdom, stature, and favor before God under St. Joseph's paternal care, his guidance as a spiritual father. We can also learn to radiate the virtues of St. Joseph in the world, especially those related to his appointed role as the foster father of Jesus, chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and provider-guardian for the Holy Family. The Litany of St. Joseph, a prayer that dates back to at least the 1500s, can help us pray and meditate on these fatherly virtues.

El Nino con San Jose
from Art ~ Modern Icons
Jolanta Kunderska

Moreover, consecration to St. Joseph can help us live more deeply as a child of our loving Father God. St. Joseph's intercession can increase God's fatherly presence in our lives. Like Jesus, we can entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, even delight in being known as Joseph's son ("and they said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother?'" John 6:42). Even though God the Father Himself does not have a human nature, we see an image of God's paternal care in Joseph's earthly care for the Holy Family and the child Jesus. In our own fallen human nature, we can better understand the love of God the Father through Joseph's example.

from Day 3 - God, the Father of Heaven, Have Mercy on Us

To be a child of God is why you were created; it's the very purpose for which you exist. And there is only one way to the Father: Jesus Christ (see John 14:6):

Jesus said to (Thomas), “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Only Jesus has the power to take you to the Father. Yet, in God's merciful love, St. Joseph plays a very important role in your spiritual growth and journey . . . 

Donald H. Calloway, MIC

Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father

"Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him."

Mathew 7:11

On Lavish Mercy

 Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

Luke 6:36-38

Our natural care for ourselves . . . is but a dim reflection of the love Jesus wants us to have for other people. He wants us to reflect HIS own love and generosity . . . (W)henever you feel hurt or rejected, he calls you to forgive in an overabundant way . . . (B)ring your hurt, indignation, or humiliation to Jesus. Ask (H)im for the grace to forgive the other person and imagine pouring your forgiveness lavishly on them, exactly the way you want to receive mercy from God. 

from "A Good Measure, Packed Together, Shaken Down, and Overflowing"

The Word Among Us: Lent 2021 (p. 34)

"Kobong" - A Traditional Korean Measuring Cup

from Eggbop (Jenn Yun)

Kobong is a concept which has no one-word equivalent in other languages... It means heaping the measuring cup till it overflows, and even then some.

... To provide some idea of how high it is heaped, a dishonest measure in Korea is one where the grain is heaped to overflowing only twice, not three or four times. If it is not absolutely spilling over, that is being pretty stingy.

O-Young Lee

Things Korean (p. 14) 

The little soul, realizing that it has been created by the heavenly Father solely to love Him and to be loved by Him, knows that all the circumstances of life in which it finds itself placed are therefore the setting ordained by the heavenly Father whereby the little soul is to express its love….Everything is an instrument to express our love; every humiliation taken patiently, every difficulty faced calmly, every sorrow borne courageously, every disappointment met bravely, every weary detail taken cheerily, every little duty in the home or business done to the best of our ability, all of these are offerings, little flowers by which to express love to our heavenly Father.

-Monsignor Vernon Johnson

The Message of St. Therese of Lisieux

An Exodus Lent - Day 1

"But God is with us, providing manna for us, moving as a pillar of fire and cloud before us, leading the way, and giving us strength."

Exodus 90, Week 1 Daily Bearings

"Yet even now," says the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and tear your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy, and repents of evil. Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him...”

Joel 2:12-14 

My Why

I want to serve my Lord with trust in His blessing for me, in abiding faith for His saving power, in hope for the good He has in store for me, and with an unassailable love for Him my creator. Secure in His love, I want to serve my family, all the people God places in my life, and the materially and spiritually poor--with right judgment, gentle patience, and joyful encouragement. 

"Thus sin renders the soul miserable, weak and torpid, inconstant in doing good, cowardly in resisting temptation, slothful in the observance of God's commandments. It deprives her of true liberty and of that sovereignty which she should never resign; it makes her a slave to the world, the flesh, and the devil; it subjects her to a harder and more wretched servitude than that of the unhappy Israelites in Egypt or Babylon. Sin so dulls and stupefies the spiritual senses of man that he is deaf to God's voice and inspirations; blind to the dreadful calamities which threaten him; insensible to the sweet odor of virtue and the example of the saints; incapable of tasting how sweet the Lord is, or feeling the touch of His benign hand in the benefits which should be a constant incitement to his greater love. Moreover, sin destroys the peace and joy of a good conscience, takes away the soul's fervor, and leaves her an object abominable in the eyes of God and His saints. The grace of justification delivers us from all these miseries. For God, in His infinite mercy, is not content with effacing our sins and restoring us to His favor; He delivers us from the evils sin has brought upon us, and renews the interior man in his former strength and beauty. Thus He heals our wounds, breaks our bonds, moderates the violence of our passions, restores with true liberty the supernatural beauty of the soul, reestablishes us in the peace and joy of a good conscience, reanimates our interior senses, inspires us with ardor for good and a salutary hatred of sin, makes us strong and constant in resisting evil, and thus enriches us with an abundance of good works. In fine, He so perfectly renews the inner man with all his faculties that the Apostle calls those who are thus justified new men and new creatures."

— Venerable Louis Of Grenada, p. 46 The Sinner's Guide: 16th-Century Classic on Resisting Temptation and Overcoming Sin

  (I)n our Ash Wednesday observance(,) God has great things in store for us; he has promised us a life beyond our dreams, and even now he has graces and light for us during this holy season. But there is a condition for our receiving what he wants to give us: we need to remember our true state. If we forget the profound moral wound that has corrupted our minds and hearts—which only God can heal—we will surely get into trouble.

We all deal with the effects of original sin. . .We need to keep remembering, lest we forget it, that the reason the world is so unjust and so full of war, oppression, greed, and selfishness is because people just like us populate it.

The first step toward living in the truth (it’s also the middle step and the last step) is repentance: getting a firm hold of the reality of our need and putting all our hope in God’s merciful desire to forgive our sins and to heal our wounded souls.

Exodus 90, Day 1 Lenten Reflection