St. Joe's Consecration Day 21 - Relationship with the Trinity

 O my unchanging God, at every moment may I penetrate more deeply into the depths of your mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it your heaven, your cherished dwelling place, and the place of your repose. 

-St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

The Father

The Immaculate Conception was the beginning of the Father's plan to create within Our Lady a womb . . . worthy to receive the Son of God. "The Father bending down to this beautiful creature . . . willed that she be the Mother in time of Him whose Father He is in eternity. (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Heaven in Faith p. 39)

The Holy Spirit

"In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness . . . By the Holy Spirit's power and her faith, her virginity became uniquely faithful." (CCC, 723)

The Son

She knew the Son, her son, most intimately. She felt him kick inside of her . . . Her yes gave life to the Son of God. 

. . . St. Joseph models a unique relationship with the Trinity as well. The Father chose St. Joseph to be the husband of Our Lady and the father of Jesus . . . The angel confirmed for Joseph that the child was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. Throughout his life, Joseph protected, guided, and cared for The Son. 

. . . The unity of the Holy Family points us to the unity of the Holy Trinity. We, too, are called to have an intimate relationship with the Trinity. 

How do you encounter each person of the Trinity in your prayer life?

When I do an examen or an examination of conscience, I invite the Holy Spirit to shed light on my life. Before prayer or speaking about God with other people, I also invoke the Holy Spirit. In the "Our Father" prayer, I ask for the Father's help, providence, and care. I pray to Jesus throughout the day, in gratitude for His sacrifice, seeking in my helplessness His Mercy, in desperate need for God's love that He can show me in an intimate way.  

Is there one or more person of the Trinity that you know you need to grow in intimacy with through your prayer life?

God the Father.

Ask Our Lady and St. Joseph to help you grow in your relationship with the Holy Trinity. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 20 - The Assumption

Mathew 27:52-53

Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; and coming forth out of the tombs after His Resurrection, they came into the holy city and appeared to many. 

 

"(Of) the Virgin, coming up to heaven in the court of her Son, we can truly say that never was so great a quantity brought to Heaven. Nor did anyone present so much to her Son as this holy Lady."

St. Frances de Sales 

Homily, August 15, 1602 

The ache and longing we all feel for union and communion is the ache and longing for heaven . . . Because of our pull toward sin (concupiscence), we aim that desire for fulfillment toward other people and things, but nothing will fully satisfy us like heaven. 

Our Lady understood and lived that ache and longing for heaven like no one else on earth. She had been united with the Holy Trinity in a beautiful and fulfilling way. . . As she experienced the Passion, death, and Resurrection of her son, her mother's heart was left on earth to experience a deep ache and longing for union and communion with Him . . . One can imagine her ache and longing for union and communion also connected with her desire to be reunited with St. Joseph.  

Could St. Joseph have been given the gift of assumption as well? Even Pope John XXIII in his homily on the Feast of the Ascension (May 26, 1960) made the statement that the Assumption of St. Joseph "is worthy of pious belief."

. . . The fulfillment of the ache for communion was our Lady's Assumption, as Jesus and St. Joseph welcomed her home, body and soul. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 70 - 72)

Bottaro and Settle

St. Joseph, Prince of the Church

How do you attempt to satisfy the ache and longing of your heart with anything other than God or the hope for heaven?

• Chasing esteem, success in my career, building a sense of communion and solidarity with friends
• Seeking out a romantic partner
• Seeking approval or affirmation from my parents

If you have lost a loved one, can you give them over to the care of the Holy Family and have confident hope in your communion with them again in heaven?

Yes. I can give my grandparents over to the care of the Holy Family. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 19 - The Nativity

 

Can you imagine the anxiety in the heart of Joseph when he needs to tell Mary that he's taking her, nine months pregnant, to be enrolled in a census? As they set off for Bethlehem, Joseph needed deep faith in the Lord's providence to help him protect mother and child. Mary would have relied on his masculine heart and desire to care for her. She would have rested in the peace of knowing that Joseph was trustworthy, that he would not allow any harm to come to them. 

In that moment (of the Nativity), gazing into the eyes of the Son of God, Joseph welcomed Him into his fatherly heart as his son, his true son, and promised to be the guardian of the mystery "hidden for ages in the mind of God."

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 67- 68)

Bottaro and Settle

"It follows that Jospeh's fatherhood--a relationship that places him as close as possible to Christ, to whom every election and predestination is ordered--comes to pass through marriage to Mary, that is, through the family."

Redemptoris Custos, 7

Pope Saint John Paul II

Do you ever feel like you are not up to the task that the Lord is asking you?

Yes. 

In those moments do you rely on the grace of the Lord or do you fall into self-reliance? 

More often than not, I fall into self-reliance. 

Is your heart open to receive others as spiritual sons and daughters? 

Yes. It helps that I'm learning to be more patient about the little annoyances and disagreements of life.

To love them as if they are your own, to guide and protect them?

Yes. This is a real test of humility and generosity. 

Ask St. Joseph today about how his heart received Jesus and ask for the grace to receive Jesus in yours.

St. Joe's Consecration Day 18 - The Visitation

Luke 1:49

The Mighty One has done great things for me--and holy is His name.

Instead of boasting or having a celebration for herself, Our Lady went to serve her cousin Elizabeth in her pregnancy after receiving the news of her own role in salvation history from the angel at the Annunciation -- a testament to her humility. It's also a foreshadowing of her Son: "I came to serve and not to be served."

In her Magnificat, she proclaims the Lord's greatness and not her own. She rejoices. She rembers her lowliness. She recognizes the pure gift and blessing of this call. That she has done nothing to merit any of this, except say "Yes." 

When Joseph gives his fiat to the Lord . . . he makes haste to serve Mary. He brings her and her child into the home he built for her. Joseph also hastens to serve and not to be served. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 64 - 65)

Bottaro and Settle

When faced with your own struggles, can you have the humility to serve others and be present to them?

Yes.

Can you rejoice in the Lord in the midst of difficulties?

Yes.

How do the humilty of St. Joseph and Our Lady help you to understand and live humility in your life? 

I appreciate even more in their example what it means to live a life of service for God and for other people. It starts with humility. To accept and honor and respect my own littleness in the face of God's glory, God's plans, God's love. In the greatness of God's love, the only rational and true response is to love those God has placed in my love with simple spirit of lowliness and gratitude. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 17 - Annunciation of Mary and Joseph

 "At the Annunciation, Our Lady also acted as the wife of Joseph, who had already given his consent in the marriage to any child from God if it was His will. As husband and wife before the Annunciation, Joseph and Mary were already one. Acting in moral union with Joseph, Mary gave her consent for both of them, not only for the conception of the Child, but also for the salvation of the people of God."

Dominic De Domenico, O.P.

True Devotion to Joseph and the Church 

At the Annunciation, Our Lady didn't express doubt but wonder in what the angel was telling her. How could this little one from Nazareth be chosen to bear the Messiah? Joseph wondered the same thing about himself . . . Like Mary, he did need an annunciation of his own--the angel's message in a dream to help him know that the Father knew that he was up for the task of caring for and protecting both mother and child. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 61-62)

Bottaro and Settle

"(Mary) never exalted herself . . . but in her lowliness . . . she gave a perfume of such sweet fragrance that it rose to the throne of Divine Majesty. . ." 

Homily; July 2, 1618

St. Frances de Sales

The Annunciation Design #2
Marcia Carole

Have you experienced wonder and awe in the Lord's will for you?

Yes, how my career has progressed these last five years. The people and professional network and groups of friends the Lord has provided me along the way. All the opportunities to share my gifts with others and help students and younger people early in their career. 

The joy and awe-filled moments I still hold fast to from teaching 3rd-grade catechism. 

How has he surprised you with a profound gift?

The time in 2020 during a pandemic to be consecrated to Jesus through Mary. Between Fr. James Boric's call on the Feast of Mary Mother of God to finding my mom's copy of Fr. Gaitley's book in our family home in Michigan, the Lord surprised me with an affirming, wonderous spiritual journey. 

Can you imagine increasing the sweetness of these moments by reflecting on them in the light of your devotion to Our Lady and St. Joseph?

Yes. The Holy Family is present now with me. They take delight in sharing their joy with me, in knowing that I can experience a small taste of their own awe and wonder. It can feel more like celebrating with family and friends who truly know and love me, wishing all the best for me in the ways of the Lord. 

In one concrete way, how can you give your own fiat, your "Yes," to the Lord today? 

By praying my Consecration prayer and accepting all of today's struggle and toil with obedience and a humble trust in the Father's will for me: without complaining, without ruminating, without wanting the past to be different or placing expectations on the future. 

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. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 15 - Devotion to Mary

Ephesians 1:18

May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of his glory among the inheritance of the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe. 

The Wedding of Joseph and Mary

Joseph was the first to consecrate himself to Jesus through Our Lady. His life and devotion to Our Lady is the model for us of how we are called to give everything to Jesus through Mary. . . Our Lady was a witness to Joseph of how to have deep trust in the Lord when she gave her fiat at the Annunciation. Our lady in her femininity was the one to show him what it meant to be open and receptive before the Lord.

. . . She told Joseph of her fiat -- before she gave it at the Annunciation. . . After the Annunciation and birth of Jesus, they were both devoted to Him

. . . Joseph gave his free yes to Our Lady to love and care for her. He held nothing back from them -- he gave a total gift of himself to them. 

From Consecration to Jesus through Saint Joseph:

An Integrated Look at the Holy Family

(pp. 55-56)

Bottaro and Settle

Are there people in your life who have given witness to you of the Father's love and devotion?

My cousin in Dallas has been this witness for me. Her witness became clear to me the last time I visited her. Despite having two young children, she made so much time for me, preparing her home and looking out for me in all the ways a compassionate big sister would. I remember waking up the second morning at her house, just *waiting* for her to eventually wake up, too–I was so excited to talk to her and be in her company.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later in prayer that I realized something about Jesus: How much *more* does Our Lord long to see me? How much more does He wait in anticipation? Knowing that He loves me that way washed over my heart. I knew — I had to see Him more wherever and whenever I could: in Adoration, at Mass, in prayer. Because my cousin loved me that freely, it helped me believe, to know deep down that God could love me freely, that God the Father will provide for me. 

Have you ever shared with them how much their witness meant to you?

Yes, but I can be more direct and vulnerable in sharing. 

Are you beginning to see how devotion to St. Joseph will lead you to deeper devotion to Jesus and Our Lady?

Yes, following Joseph's path leads to Jesus through Mary. His example gives me a mold or structure that can help form in me and reveal what devotion might mean in my day-to-day life. 

Holy, holy, holy.

Lord God Almighty.

Merciful and mighty,

God in three persons--

Blessed Trinity.

Only Thou art holy--

There is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power,

In love and purity.