Today, March 19, is the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary, (Matthew 1:18-19,24, Luke 1:27) a descendant of the House of David (Matthew 1:20, Luke1:27) a righteous man, (Matthew 1:19) and the father of Jesus, (Luke 2:27, 33) whom God entrusted with the safekeeping of His Son.
By saying that Joseph was a just or “righteous man,” scripture means that he was a good and holy man, open to the will of God. “The word “just” evokes his moral rectitude, his sincere attachment to the practice of the law and his attitude of total openness to the will of the heavenly Father. Even in difficult and sometimes tragic moments, the humble carpenter of Nazareth never claimed for himself the right to dispute God’s plan. He awaited the call from on High and in silence respected the mystery, letting himself be guided by the Lord. Once he received the mission, he fulfils it with docile responsibility. He listens attentively to the angel, when he is asked to take as his wife the Virgin of Nazareth (Matthew 1:18-25), in the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15) and in the return to Israel (Matthew 2:19-23).” (Pope John Paul IIL’Osservatore Romano,March 26, 2003)
Saint Joseph was an ordinary laborer, a carpenter, a humble, faithful and just man, who was married to Our Blessed Mother,(the Immaculate Conception one conceived without sin), and foster father of Jesus (God Incarnate). Scripture does not record one word uttered by Joseph and after he returned to Israel to live with the Holy Family in Nazareth we read nothing more of him, except for one incident, the finding of Jesus in the Temple. (Luke 2:41-51) Yet God entrusted Saint Joseph with this very tall order, making him a holy model of a life built on faith and trust in God.
Saint Joseph is the patron for many causes some of which are: against doubt; against hesitation, expectant mothers, families, fathers, a happy and holy death, protector of the Church, and the Diocese of San Jose, California (my diocese of 51 years).
“Go to Saint Joseph and he will care for you just as he helped and cared for Jesus.”
Saint Joseph Pray for Us.
“Iam the son of the deacon Calpornius….My father was from the village of Bannauente Berniae….it was there that I was captured when I was almost sixteen years old. I did not really know the true God when I was brought in slavery to Ireland (1)….Here the Lord revealed to me my sense of unbelief so that I could repent of my sins…. He watched over me before I knew Him …. He had compassion for me just as a father has for his son (2) ….When I came to Ireland I spent each day tending sheep and I prayed many times during the day (10)….one night I heard a voice in my sleep saying to me, “How good it is that you are fasting, you will soon return to your own country…..Behold, your ship is ready.” …. after this I ran away and left the man to whom I had been enslaved for the past six years. By the strength of God, Who has always guided me in good places, I fearlessly reached the ship (17)…. Once again, I spent a few short years with my family in Britain….one night as if in a vision I saw a man come from Ireland…. it was as if he was bringing thousands of letters to me. He gave me one of them and I read the first line which started “the voice of the Irish.” As I started to read it was as if I could hear the voices of the people who were living at the wood of Voclut which is near the Western Sea. These shouted out as if in one voice: “We implore you, O holy boy, to come here and be with us.”(23)…the Lord granted that I become a bishop (32)…. I give
constant thanks to God Who has kept me faithful in the day of my trial. To this day I offer my soul to Him as a living sacrifice to Christ the Lord, for He has saved me from all my anguish (34)…. It would be too long for me to tell the whole story of all my labors or even just to tell some parts of it. Suffice it to say the Lord rescued me from slavery many times and saved my life from mortal danger twelve times over…He often gave me, poor wretch that I am, divine messages forewarning me of future dangers(35)…. I am more than ready to freely give my very life for the sake of His name (37)….For I am most truly in God’s debt (38)…. In truth I bear witness in exaltation of heart before God and His holy angels that I have never had any other motive other than the Gospel to go back to the people from whom I barely escaped(61)…. I beg of those who believe in God and fear Him, that if you decide to read or receive this work of unlearned Patrick which he has written in Ireland, do not credit me with the little I have done according to God’s pleasure. Rather conclude, as is indeed true, that anything I have achieved was a gift of God. This is my Confession before I die (62). “ (excerpts From The Confessio of Saint Patrick)
As I researched the life of Saint Patrick I kept reading the words, “not many facts are known,” “details of his life are uncertain,” and then I struck a pot a gold, must be the luck of the wee bit a Irish I have coursing through me veins. I came across a work by Saint Patrick himself, The Confessio which I have quoted from above and a second work from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition. The article on Saint Patrick written by Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran Archbishop of Sydney just prior to his death in 1911, relied on ancient biographies of Saint Patrick as well as oral tradition. I have summarized some of the highlights below.
Saint Patrick was Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, in Scotland, an island of Britain under Roman rule in 387. Captured by Irish pirates at 16, Patrick became a slave to Milchu, a druidical high priest, tending to his flocks on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena. Son of a Catholic deacon, Patrick had not spent much time learning about God, but under captivity he was moved by the Spirit to pray almost continually day and night. In his Confessio he writes “the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same.”
After a vision, Patrick escaped Milchu and ran 200 miles to where he met a ship that would bring him back to Britain and his family. During the six years Patrick served Milchu, he acquired knowledge of the Celtic language and the details of Druidism.
Home in Britain, Patrick pursued study to enter the priesthood, studying and working under Saint Germain. During this time, Patrick had visions of the “children of Voclut….near the Western Sea” (the wood thought to be near Killala, Co. Mayo) who would cry “O holy youth, come back to Erin and walk once more among us.”
Pope St. Celestine I on commendation of St. Germain sent Patrick to “gather the Irish into the one fold of Christ.” Patrick returned to the country where he had been enslaved and went to see his former master Milchu to give him a blessing. As Patrick continued toward Slemish, he was “struck with horror on seeing at a distance the fort of his old master Milchu enveloped in flames.” An ancient record accounts that Milchu gathered his treasures into his mansion, set it on fire, and jumped in. The record adds, “His pride could not endure the thought of being vanquished by his former slave.”
Patrick’s kidnapping and years of slavery proved to be divine providence, by fully preparing him for his apostolate in Ireland. He returned to the land of his captivity a Bishop, through humility and faith taught Christianity to the pagan people of Ireland using their native tongue, personally baptizing thousands, ordaining priests, and converting many in royalty to Christianity. God clearly can and does “write straight with crooked lines”.
There are many legends and stories written about Saint Patrick. Did Saint Patrick really banish all snakes from Ireland as we have all heard and seen depicted in art? Did he really use the Shamrock to explain the Christian God? There is little evidence of the first literally happening and modern science shows no indication that snakes have ever been indigenous to Ireland, but the serpent or snake is a symbol of paganism and druidism and Saint Patrick did put an end to these practices in Ireland. When it comes to the Shamrock, it is quite plausible that Patrick did use this very common plant to explain the very complex idea of the Holy Trinity to the Irish people.
On March 17, 461, Saint Patrick received his summons to his reward after having received the last Sacraments, food for his journey. Today we celebrate a humble and courageous man, a Saint who heard God’s call, and embraced the call with open arms. Let us honor Saint Patrick by imitating his virtues, one of which may well have been temperance. Not temperance as in never drinking, but as the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it - the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. CCC 1809
Happy Saint Patty’s Day,
may the road rise to meet you,
and the wind be always at your back.
St. Patrick
Apostleship of Prayer
Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.
St. Patrick’s Prayer
Christ, be with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I Sit,
Christ where I arise.
Forget Friday the 13th, black cats, broken mirrors, spilt salt, that Freddie guy, and walking under ladders, beware today March 15, the Ides of March. No, I am not promoting superstition, an ignorant faith of believing an object or action will have magical power.
As a Catholic Christian I am forbidden and warned by the Scripture and Commandments not to be ruled by superstition, idolatry, magic or divination. Reason being my life is not controlled by the “fates” but by God.
No, it is not a “cop out” rather it is, an adventure directed by the Creator of the Universe. You and I can be one of His puzzle pieces, and He has a grand plan for each of us, if we choose to follow Him. At any one time, we have only one piece of the “puzzle” of our life, but He has the “whole box,” you know all the corner and side pieces necessary to complete the puzzle quickly, with the least amount of frustration and confusion........ He already knows how each piece fits, where it goes, and why it goes there.
And no, we are not His “puppets” – God doesn’t need us for anything, yet He desires we have everything. So relax, no need to “beware the ides of March,” but do be wary of temptation and sin, they come like a thief in the night..... Living in this world temptation surrounds us, only by the grace of God are any one of us able to overcome even the most minuscule attraction of sin. Pray none of us miss our “chance to be careful.”
Laetare Sunday
The Prodigal Son has Returned to the Father
March 14, 2010
March 10, 2013
March 6, 2016
“What choral dance and high festival is held in heaven, if there is one that has become an exile and a fugitive from the life led under the Father,….and then, famished and destitute, and not even filled with what the swine eat, has arisen and come to his Father!” (Taken from an oration on Luke 15 by Macarius Chrysocephalus who quotes from a work of Clement of Alexandria)
The fourth Sunday of Lent is like the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) one of the two “joyful” Sundays the Catholic Church celebrates. It is called Laetare Sunday (Latin for “rejoice”) taking its name from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, “Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her.” (Isaiah 66:10)
In today’s Gospel we hear the parable of the prodigal son, from Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. The prodigal son, who was reckless and wasteful, has returned to the Father, resulting in a joyful festival not only celebrated on earth but upon high in heaven. This parable teaches us once more that God is merciful.
“Although the word ‘mercy’ does not appear [ in this parable] nevertheless expresses the essence of the divine mercy in a particularly clear way....Mercy – as Christ has presented it in the parable of the prodigal son – has the interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called agape. The father first and foremost expresses to him his joy that he has been 'found again' and that he has 'returned to life'. This joy indicates a good that has remained intact: even if he is a prodigal…..”(John Paul II, Dives in misericordia, 5, 6)
Jesus is addressing this parable to the Pharisees who are offended that He would be so compassionate toward sinners. As the Gospel opens we hear the words of the Pharisees, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus responds with the parable of the prodigal son, expressing His desire to save each and everyone.
This parable speaks from three perspectives, that of the youngest son, the father, and the eldest son. All of us, if honest, will be able to relate to the youngest and oldest son in this parable. At some point we have all made their journey. The father represents God, our Father in heaven who is always there waiting with arms wide open.
The youngest or prodigal son demands his share of inheritance while his father is still alive. He then “gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.”
Fascinated by illusory freedom, and taking what he feels is rightfully his, he turns his back on his father setting out to make it on his own. Once his early inheritance is spent he finds himself in misery obliged to feed swine, and even worse desiring to eat their food. Hungry, he reflects on all that he has lost, and begins his journey back to his father. It is not clear where his remorse comes from, his physical or spiritual hunger, or all that he has lost, but it is enough for him to realize he has offended his father, and God. The prodigal son begins his journey home, the process of conversion, or re-conversion.
The focus of the parable then turns to the father who acts as God does whenever one of His prodigal children return, mercifully watching and waiting patiently ready with open arms to receive us at even our smallest of gesture toward Him.
“But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him,” expressing through his action total forgiveness before his son even speaks words of sorrow or utters his apology. The son taking courage from his father’s actions said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The father then bestows on him the symbols of new life; the best robe, one of immortality, a signet ring with a divine seal, and shoes not perishable, but those able to step on holy ground, all suitable for a heavenly journey.
The oldest son epitomizes the attitude of the Pharisees to whom Jesus directs this parable. Upon hearing the response of his father, the oldest son reacts with anger and resentment toward his brother. If he had truly loved his father he would have been filled with joy at his happiness, yet the loving kindness of his father toward his brother irritates and enrages him and he acts out with self-righteousness, anger, resentment, selfishness, and jealousy.
This Lenten season is a good time to draw closer to God or turn back to Him, if we have been away. God is all merciful acting as the father in this parable, and He “loves us so much that we do not have to have perfect sorrow for our sins we just have to admit them, even if we are just sick and tired of the pain our sins cause us or if we are afraid. God doesn’t care what motivates us to seek his mercy he just loves to forgive.” (Father James Kubicki, S.J.)
Apostleship of Prayer
Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.
The Prodigal Son
For devotional items Related to the Catholic Faith, please visit Lynn's Timeless Treasures
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The return of the Prodigal Son by Barbieri
The return of the Prodigal son by Rembrandt van Rijn
The return of the Prodigal Son by Murillo
Today, March 19, is the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary, (Matthew 1:18-19,24, Luke 1:27) a descendant of the House of David (Matthew 1:20, Luke1:27) a righteous man, (Matthew 1:19) and the father of Jesus, (Luke 2:27, 33) whom God entrusted with the safekeeping of His Son. 
