Saturday 19 March 2011

Happy St Joseph's Day


I always love the Solemnity of St Joseph. This morning at seminary we had (semi?) solemn Morning Prayer, with deacon and servers, and Mass will also be more festive, though it's a normal lecture day for us. But it's worth making the effort!

Let me quote to you St Joseph's most important words on the spiritual life: 

" ...                                               ".

Yes, silence is the most important thing he tells us. He teaches us to be people of interior recollection, of prudence, of courage, of loyalty, and of humility in the face of the ineffable mystery of the Christ Event, in which his wife is caught up (as is he). Not only is silence Joseph's appropriate response before the Word of God, Jesus Christ born of Mary, but it is the way in which Joseph comes to understand his own role in God's plan. St Augustine says that there is in each of us a depth so profound that it is hidden even from our very selves. Silence is the means by which we unearth at least something of that profound depth in us, the soul in which the Blessed Trinity makes its home.

The reading from The Imitation of Christ today is very appropriate therefore to this Solemnity:

The interior man cares for his own soul above all other things; and he who diligently attends to himself is easily silent with regard to others. You will never be a recollected and devout man if you are not silent about others, and especially watchful over yourself. If you attend wholly to yourself and to God, you will be disturbed little by what you see around you. Where are you when you are not present to yourself?

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