CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Decree, Regarding the Mention of the Divine Name of Saint Joseph in the Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV” – CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP AND THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SACRAMENTS/ VaticanVa

File Photo of Statue of Saint Joseph Holding the Infant Jesus

“Exercising his paternal care over Jesus, Saint Joseph of Nazareth, set over the Lord’s family, marvelously fulfilled the office he received by grace. Adhering firmly to the mystery of God’s design of salvation in its very beginnings, he stands as an exemplary model of the kindness and humility that the Christian faith raises to a great destiny, and demonstrates the ordinary and simple virtues necessary for men to be good and genuine followers of Christ. Through these virtues, this Just man, caring most lovingly for the Mother of God and happily dedicating himself to the upbringing of Jesus Christ, was placed as guardian over God the Father’s most precious treasures. Therefore he has been the subject of assiduous devotion on the part of the People of God throughout the centuries, as the support of that mystical body, which is the Church.

The faithful in the Catholic Church have shown continuous devotion to Saint Joseph and have solemnly and constantly honored his memory as the most chaste spouse of the Mother of God and as the heavenly Patron of the universal Church. …”

CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “QUAMQUAM PLURIES, ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON DEVOTION TO ST. JOSEPH” – VaticanVa

View of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican from River

“… Now, Venerable Brethren, you know the times in which we live; they are scarcely less deplorable for the Christian religion than the worst days, which in time past were most full of misery to the Church. We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft; a relentless war waged against the Sovereign Pontiff; and the very foundations of religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity. These things are, indeed, so much a matter of notoriety that it is needless for Us to expatiate on the depths to which society has sunk in these days, or on the designs which now agitate the minds of men. In circumstances so unhappy and troublous, human remedies are insufficient, and it becomes necessary, as a sole resource, to beg for assistance from the Divine power.”

CATHOLIC MASS VIDEO: Catholic TV Mass for Monday of the Third Week of Easter 5.1.17 – Our Lady of Loretto Abbey (Toronto)

Priest Lifting Large Host

#Catholic #TV #Mass for Monday of the Third Week of Easter, May 1, 2017, from Our Lady of Loretto Abbey in Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]

CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: Catholic Mass Readings: Monday of the Third Week of Easter 5.1.17 – USCCB/NABRV

Historic Bible

“Stephen, filled with Grace and Power,
was working great wonders and signs among the people.
Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen,
Cyreneans, and Alexandrians,
and people from Cilicia and Asia,
came forward and debated with Stephen,
but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.
… They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes,
accosted him, seized him,
and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
They presented false witnesses ….
All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him
and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

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