Saint Joseph

May is the month traditionally dedicated to Mary, Mother of Jesus, and on the first day of this month the Church invites us to look at Joseph, her husband. Yet instead of focusing on Joseph's working example, let us listen this time to a possible description of the confidential sharing of his bride about what kind of person was Joseph, how they met and got engaged, and how was their relationship.

Mary speaks:
There was my natural life and my supernatural life. I lived as a daughter of Israel, attending the synagogue, learning the Jewish scriptures and fulfilling my role. No one would have singled me out. I dressed and ate as others. I participated in family life and in the community life at Nazareth.
The Three Divine Persons
Yet, within me, my soul was absorbed by this light that revealed God. I understood God as taught by the scriptures, that He was one and there was no other. But my supernatural light brought me to understand that within this oneness there were three perfect Persons, all eternal and almighty. I did not share this with others, because I could not fully describe my experiences.
Meeting Joseph
Then, I met Joseph. He was kind and thoughtful. He, too, was holy and devout. Holiness joined us together. My soul rejoiced in his presence and I shared with him some beginning revelations, those that I could put into words. He always responded and I could see that my words gave nourishment to his soul. So, we spoke often. Our Jewish faith gave us many common themes. He was a just man, always living according to the Mosaic Law.
I could not explain my attraction to him. This attraction itself was a mystery and somehow, it shared in the mystery of God and the three Persons. The more I was absorbed in God in heaven, the more I felt attracted to Joseph on earth. God, himself, had singled him out and, my love for Joseph in no way violated my love for God. The two went together in a mystery that I could not understand but which was so evident to me.
The Proposal to Marry
Then came a special moment. I can never forget it. Joseph was older than I and he had never thought of marrying again. However, as we shared our mutual love for God, we both felt an attraction which we knew was there but we never spoke about. Then, one day, under a divine inspiration, Joseph asked me to be his wife. At this point, I had to tell him what God was doing in my soul. I told him that I felt absorbed by God and, in these great gifts I had given myself totally to God, that I had consecrated myself in a way that no daughter of Abraham would even think of doing. I had told God that I would be his perpetual virgin. This was the first gift. I also explained to Joseph that my attraction for him and his attraction for me was part of my divine experiences, that as I was absorbed into God, my heart was also moved closer to Joseph. So, I placed this great mystery before him in the only words I knew. He, somehow, understood. Yet, both of us did not know the outcome. I knew he was a just man and would ponder the situation.
Joseph’s Decision
Soon, however, he returned and said that, through me, God had touched his own heart and he, too, felt drawn into this holy calling. He would share in my virginal consecration. Again, he asked me to be his wife, with the understanding that he would always love me and protect me as a husband but would never ask me for the rights that a husband has regarding his wife.
We both knew that God had consummated a great gift. We were more mutually joined in our hearts than any other couple who had promised to marry each other. We were betrothed and we told everyone. No one else knew the great mystery. In the eyes of all, we were just like any other betrothed couple, waiting for the day when Joseph would tell my parents that he wanted to take me into his home. This would be the final and concluding moment.
In my own heart, my heavenly call and my earthly call had come together. This question was now answered. When I consecrated my virginity to God, I did not know how this could ever be fulfilled in my Jewish culture which made no such provision. God, in whom I had trusted, had everything prepared and I rejoiced in God my Savior.

www.locutions.org/2012/03/joseph-my-husband/

The greatest of God's interventions in our world since the Big Bang of Creation, which was the Incarnation of the Word, happened in the hiddenness of the most common and ordinary of places and human stories: youth, love, decisions, doubts, choices, fidelity, obedience, paradox, freedom, risk taking ... Just a mix that may be found in any of our lives ... if we too choose to live and walk in God's Presence. God has a magnificent plan for each one of us also. 

May Saint Joseph intercede for us today, together with Mary, his most Holy Spouse, so that we too may open our freedom to the breath of the Spirit in the silence of our heart. And may we work out with God, through prayer, the direction we are to take in every fork, small or big, of our life journey.

Dedication of Our Inner Temple

Today we have this beautiful reading at Mass from the First book of Maccabees (4:36-37,52-59)

Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took command of the army in place of his father, Mattathias, and he defeated the army of King Antiochus which was commanded by Lysias. Then Judas en his brothers said, “See, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.” So all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.

Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces and worshipped and blessed heaven, who had prospered them.

So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burn offerings ... There was very great joy among the people, and the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed.

Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.)

We have here a great account of rebirth and renewal: the Israelites had been reduced to slavery, their temple desecrated, and their identity lost as well as their self esteem. But starting from the revolt of a small portion of their people they have come far enough to be able to recognize the need and the possibility of restoring and cleansing the sanctuary, and they are now united to dedicate/consecrate it anew. The result is an explosion of JOY, and the realization on an astonishing fact: the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed.

It seems to me that this is a beautiful metaphor for our own soul and its ups and downs. It is a magnificent temple originally dedicated to God but often reduced to slavery when turned away from God.

When God is not worshiped, there is always another god taking over the worship. If God is not the center of our lives, I (we) become the center, and the result is selfishness, competition, violence, sadness... you name it, because there is no room in the universe for multiple gods, we inhabit a One God universe.

Thus if my life is not centered in God, the best thing I can do is to begin a personal revolution, like the Maccabees, against the tyrant who is ruling my life for its own benefit and against my greater well-being and good, against my own self-centered egotism.

I don't have to wait, like the Maccabees, until all my inner demons are crushed to re-dedicate my personal temple to the Holy Spirit again. As Catholics we have already a victorious Savior who has made available for us the way to our original greatness. We only have to present ourselves with our plea before the Throne of Mercy -the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Then we can experience the deep Joy of being reconciled with our deepest Center, of having the legitimate Leader who gives us identity and direction clearly before our sight so that we can not only follow Him but become one with Him.

No matter how hard we try to create unity among peoples and nations, the only way to true unity is becoming each one united to/with God, then we automatically become one with each other. Isn't that what heaven is about already on earth?


I think it's important to be aware that when the disgrace is removed -as the text shows us- the new temple is even more magnificent than the old one, and the people recognize themselves to be so much more privileged than before they lost their freedom and their temple.

Ultimately our journey on earth is about allowing the Spirit of Christ to fully take over our life in the complete consecration of utter surrender to God. This is the condition in Heaven, these are the saints -we were born to become saints, no less. And we will not be ready to join them until we have the same dedication of our inner temple to God that they had. There are not more or less saintly saints in Heaven, each and everyone of them is a saint because they have given their ALL to God -to the God who gives himself totally to us.

If God is not the Center of the whole of our life, then we may need to take a look at what are we using the journey for, because everything else will be left behind. We may be wasting our time and our life.

And also, once we have allow God to take over the whole of our being and life, our mistakes, errors and infidelities will mean absolutely nothing, as if they never were except, perhaps, that thanks to them and in order to overcome them we engaged ourselves in the challenging revolution of a serious Journey to our final destination.

The Ascension of The Lord

In Canada we are celebrating this Sunday the beautiful feast of the completion of Jesus' journey on earth even beyond the Resurrection, that is the Ascension, Jesus' return to the Father, and the end of the post resurrection "stage of formation" for the Apostles.

Luke describes for us the scene in Acts 1 where Jesus is giving them final instructions:

Do not leave Jerusalem but wait there for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

This sounds promising and exciting to the disciples: finally something is going to happen. They are used to hearing Jesus talk of the Father and all, so this is familiar territory, but they can also feel in the air that there is like a feeling of expectation, of real power about to burst into something big.

In this special moment with Jesus we have the last recorded words addressed to Jesus by the disciples. They ask Him:

Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? 

What a revealing question! They have been with Jesus for three years and they still don't have a clue of what is Jesus talking about. They heard but didn't get it. They saw Jesus dead (from the distance) and risen, but still don't get it. It's like they are living in parallel worlds, no matter how long they journey they never meet. The apostles are still thinking of an earthly kingdom where they will have political power.

I think that this is the need that Jesus is addressing in the Ascension: as far as the disciples see Him "there", with the eyes of their bodies, they won't get what  the whole Jesus' thing is about. There has to be a shift in their consciousness, a huge one, and that Jesus will accomplish through the Power of God at work within, the gentle, humble, invisible Holy Spirit on Pentecost day.

They certainly needed it. But not only them. Doesn't this also sound like our communities and our churches today? How many of us today believe that we are mature disciples of Jesus and yet we live out of a consciousness which is a parallel world with Jesus' and the Gospel and closer to that of the apostles in this passage? What are our expectations and desires? What do we labor for with our life? We have probably received the sacrament of confirmation, but have we also entered, with Mary, the womb of prayer that will give birth to the Spirit in our life?

In yesterday's readings we heard (John 16:23-28)

I came from the Father and have come into the world; 

again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.

This is an overview of Jesus' journey, and it's also an overview of our own personal journey as Jesus has shown us with His life. We come from God, we are in the world but not of the world -we belong with God, and we journey back to God. And yet we live and judge and talk and feel as if we come from this earth, belong in this earth, and will remain here forever and ever. This is how we approach events and decisions both personally and socially. We manage to create and live in a parallel world which is not Jesus' or the Kingdom He came to bring.

This is why we need so badly an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon each one of us individually, upon the Church, and upon the world. We need to awaken to the consciousness of our real purpose and destiny in God. We have limited time and endless opportunities. God is with us in this journey but we need to feel the need for a change of heart and mind, and open ourselves to the groaning of the Spirit within always yearning to fill us with the humble power of the Kingdom.

During this week before Pentecost, let us unite in prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon each one of us, our families and communities, the Church, and our world.

Come Holy Spirit! 

Divine Feeder

Deer have been frequent visitors during our mild Fall season this year, especially at dusk.


A favorite spot for them is the little shrine of Our Lady of Grace on the north side of the Hermitage where, during summer, they feast with the flowers at her feet.

Now that winter has settled spreading a white garment over the landscape, deer have been around again leaving lots of prints in the snow.

In recent days they haven't come anymore to this spot, probably because they have very little to feast on here and they keep moving on searching for food in other places.


A week ago a friend explained to me that deer need salt, and brought a block of salt to be strategically placed by the shrive.









Apparently deer can smell the salt so this blue brick is meant to lure them into the area where a feeder is also waiting for them with nourishing and favorite seeds - all courtesy of the same good friend.

More than a week later the deer have not yet discovered or touched the salt or the feeder.

And yet I've seen deer prints even inside the carport of the Hermitage where they have taken good care of the few seeds fallen from the bird feeder.

This is puzzling because the prints show that they have been as close as three feet from their own feeder without noticing or using it.

This little feeder story makes me reflect on the Divine Feeder that God has set for us as the nourishment for our Journey home.

At the Incarnation, Emmanuel [God-with-us] is put to lie on a manger [feeder] in Bethlehem [House of Bread].

How, when do we come to the Divine manger to feed our deepest hunger?

How do we pray for our daily Bread during this season of Advent when we prepare anew for the Birth of Christ in us and in the world?

The Memorial of Christ death and resurrection, the Eucharist, is made from a piece of ordinary bread.

Christ is always waiting for us as the Bread of Life on the table of the Eucharist.

We can eat Divine Life in holy communion every time we attend mass.

We can feed ourselves through prayer from the Bread gathered in the tabernacle of our churches or exposed for prayer and adoration.

Jesus is there, day and night, waiting for me, for each one of us, calling me by name, expecting and waiting to give His very Self and Life to me.

How come that I am oblivious to the Divine Feeder?

Where do I go to satisfy my hunger? What do I feed myself with?