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Index
Act of Contrition
Acts of Faith, Hope & Charity, & Votive Prayer for Charity
Angelus & Regina Caeli
Confiteor

Divine Praises

Grace Before & After Meals
Litany of Humility

Litany of St Joseph

Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus
Litany of the Most Precious Blood
Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Litany of the Saints
Morning & Evening Prayers

Novena Prayer to St Philomena

Prayer for the Conversion of Australia
Prayers & Litany to Holy Michael the Archangel

Prayers & Litany to Our Guardian Angel

Prayers & Litany to St Joseph
Prayers & Litany to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Prayers & Litany to
the Holy Ghost &
Veni Creator
Prayers & Novena for the Souls in Purgatory
Prayers & Novena to St Martin De Porres
Prayers & Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, & Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Prayers Before & After Confession
Prayers Before Mass, Prayers Before Holy Communion, Prayers After Holy Communion & Thanksgiving After Mass

Prayers for Priests & Vocations

Prayers, Novena & Litany to St Anne
Prayers, Novenas & Litany to St Jude Thaddeus
The Prayers & Mysteries of the Holy Rosary
Various Prayers
Votive Prayers for Rain, Fine Weather & to Avert Storms
Audio Files - SSPX
Video Files - SSPX
Thoughts for the Week
 
 

 

Third Sunday of Lent

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
23rd March 2014

Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet on St. Joseph

In the Gospels, I find three things entrusted to Joseph, and I also find three virtues that shine forth, virtues corresponding to those three treasures. These are the matters that must be explained in an orderly way.

The first of the treasures committed to his trust was the holy virginity of Mary, which he had to preserve inviolate under the sacred veil of marriage, and which he always religiously protected as a sacred trust. The second and the more imposing was the person of Jesus Christ, whom the heavenly Father placed in his hands so that he might serve as the earthly father of the holy child. The third is that Joseph was the trustee of the Eternal Father because God told him his secret. Which secret? The marvellous secret of the Incarnation of his Son. God's plan was not to reveal Jesus Christ to the world before his hour had come.  Saint Joseph was chosen not only to keep the secret, but even to conceal it. Thus we read in the Gospel that, with Mary, he marvelled at all that was said of the Saviour, but we do not read that he spoke, because the Eternal Father revealed the mystery to him in secret and under the obligation of silence. Saint Bernard explained: "God desired to entrust to his faithfulness the most sacred secret of his heart." How precious you are to God, O peerless Joseph, for to you he confided his three great treasures: the virginity of Mary, the person of his only-begotten Son, and the secret of all his mystery.

You must not think that Joseph was ungrateful for these graces. If God honoured him by his threefold trust, for his part he made an offering to God of the three virtues that I noted in the Gospel. I do not doubt that his life was adorned with all the others; but here are the three principal ones that God presents to us in his Scripture. The first, his purity, is demonstrated by his continence in marriage. Who does not see the purity of Joseph in that holy society of chaste desires and that admirable correspondence with the virginity of Mary in their spiritual wedding? The second was his fidelity. How faithful was his untiring care for Jesus along the many journeys that awaited the holy child from the beginning of his life! The third was his humility. Although the possessor of the greatest of treasures through an extraordinary grace of the Eternal Father, far from preening himself on his gifts or publicizing his advantages, he hid himself from mortal eyes as much as possible, peaceably enjoying with God the mystery that he had revealed to him and the infinite riches that he had entrusted to him. Here we are in the presence of greatness, a greatness that offers crucial lessons.

'O Glorious Patriarch St. Joseph, guard what has been entrusted to you. Protect me, guard me, guide me, that like thee I come to reign with Jesus Christ!'