Explaining the Faith - Why We Need St. Joseph

foreign hello everyone welcome both the returning students of our seminary courses as well as brand new people who are joining us here today from the national shrine of the divine mercy for our talk on explaining the faith even if you are brand new and this is your first time here that's okay these talks are independent god bless you we're glad you could join us you know on all of all the things i do my priesthood of course the mass and the sacraments are by by far the best and the greatest and the most joyful but i think of all my ministry work this has become my favorite thing and a lot of that has been because of the response of all you people our marian helpers how you guys are enjoying these series going back to seminary with me so i wanted to be able to say thank you again um and as brother mark showed you on the first screen today's topic is why we need saint joseph many of you are preparing for the consecration on friday march 19th we're going to help you get ready for that we're going to answer a ton of questions things like you know with st joseph older young did he ever commit a sin and the famous am i allowed to bury a statue of saint joseph to sell my house we're going to talk about all this but most importantly who he was and why he was important now this is part of brother mark can show our next slide this is part a continuing part of the explaining the faith series and that series of talks the first 13 talks were not part of what i did here at the shrine but out on parish missions so if you haven't gotten it or even if you have maybe you can consider getting it for a friend or for um somebody that you think might take a look so god bless all of you let us begin with a prayer and you know what i'm sorry i should have probably mentioned on that screen if brother mark can put it back up you can visit shopmercy.org to get that dvd and my new book as well on divine mercy or call 800-462-7426 which also has the new book i have out called understanding divine mercy or if you want to stream those talks you can go to the divine mercy dot org slash explaining the faith okay so now let us begin with an important prayer asking for the intercession of saint joseph in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask that you open our minds and hearts to receive all the grace you wish to bestow upon us give us that gift of the intercession of saint joseph along with his spouse mary that they may lead us to the throne of their son to be able to ask for us to commit our off to for you to forgive our sins and for us to commit our lives to christ and through the intercession of saint joseph may almighty god give us the grace during this next time of talking about his role in the universal church and we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit all right well god bless everybody now the important thing to start here is there's a lot of talk going on about saint joseph right now rightfully so the year of saint joseph has been declared the consecration is sweeping the world and that comes right from here from the shrine of divine mercy from our association of marian helpers which i have the honor of being the director of so father don calloway wrote the book but we are the ones helping to get it out there he does too it's a great movement so you're going to be part of that even if you haven't prepared to consecrate yet you can listen today's talk and then prepare for the may 1st consecration all right so let us begin by asking what made saint joseph so great well he was the foster father of jesus of course yes but it goes deeper than that what did he actually do the key is he loved now that sounds pretty straightforward father i know we hear that all the time but he gave us an example of how to do it this is why he's important it ties to mercy he took love and showed love put into action you know love is is easily said and easily felt but it's another thing to actually do it and do it in the right way that's true authentic love not phony love not false love like telling somebody what they want to hear because you don't want to hurt their feelings no love into action is mercy and that's why saint joseph is important it was sufficient for his glory and it's sufficient for your salvation so to get you to heaven james in the book of james says that if we help save even one's soul that is what we can take with us on judgment day and it's enough to be saved what you learned today and what saint joseph's example was we hope will help you to be able to save at least one soul now you don't save it of course god does christ did his grace his redemptive act but we participate in it so the word is to help save all right now he spent his whole life living with the two hearts the sacred heart of jesus the immaculate heart of mary so he obviously knows what to do and we should learn from him how to love like he did in receiving those graces that's what we're going to talk about today all right let's look at our next slide there's a beautiful painting of the holy family now we all know in the holy family who is the greatest jesus yep who was the next greatest mary yes who was the least of the three joseph but who was the head of the holy family joseph both mary and jesus were obedient to him this is incredible and so we'll talk about that role and the importance of the role of the father now it's amazing that god almighty was obedient to two human beings that shows the importance of not just mary but joseph too this is why we're here now in midst of all his his authority joseph how did he use it he didn't lord it over them like the scriptures tell us no he had the authority but never commanded jesus to to to perform a miracle mary didn't either she asked akina but joseph never said do this son i know a lot of fathers would would take their son around the neighborhood you know why don't you fix that guy's uh uh you know roof over there son that'll make us real popular in the neighborhood joseph didn't do that all right in fact he didn't even ask jesus to get the family out of poverty in fact he didn't even say to jesus save your own life when the time comes so we see the role of saint joseph accepting god's will silently in the background he was a model of humanity to jesus because jesus already was divine but believe it or not in his human nature he learned that's why the scriptures tell us that he grew in wisdom how did he grow in wisdom he was god in his humanity jesus in his nature was both human and divine he had to learn in his humanity that's why he learned how to be a carpenter he grew in wisdom in the human sense because he let himself experience humanity this is where joseph is critical as a father for jesus but for us too now every father shows his children what it is to be a man a real man not not a phony but a real true blue man and with his wife they show the child how to be human and this is why he's so important to be fully human with full holiness is to be in the image and likeness of god now what's interesting about saint joseph is he got to be a father figure for the incarnate son so in a way he's a living icon of god the father whoa but you never thought of joseph that way he's a living icon of god the father let's look at our next slide another beautiful painting he is a protector there is no need for us to fear we have joseph the protector in fact there was no record at all in the scriptures of there being any danger when joseph took mary and jesus on the road to egypt and there was a lot of dangers back then robbers and and what not thieves anyway mary we believe was the source to the gospel writers of this account of what they went through and there was no mention of any dangers now if there were any dangers in the bible that the bible excuse me that happened in reality that the bible didn't mention that would mean that saint joseph must have handled them without mary and jesus even seeing them what a man wow kept it all not to worry mother mary or for the child jesus to have to see so the gospel writers later were told probably by jesus himself that he was a just man same same saint joseph so we must assume that jesus instructed them about his living example of joseph what he witnessed from joseph and his father joseph was a model foster father of course so can you imagine how powerful that jesus uses you as an example man we should not not go to this guy if jesus used him as an example of how to be righteous we have a lot to learn from him and what makes it great is he's a human creature like us so he's who we should learn from this is why god gives them as a gift all right there is a pious tradition let's show our next slide there is a pious tradition that on october 13th 1884 leo the 13th overheard a conversation between jesus and satan now why is that important today all right because in this conversation that leo the 13th the pope heard after mass you could see it jesus the the the satan taunting him and and satan said to jesus i can bring down your church this is pious tradition and jesus said you think so and he said yes but i need more time and more power and jesus said how much power he said enough to convince those souls on the fence the lukewarm to come to my side and i need more time and jesus said how much more time he said about a hundred years and so it was granted to him just like in the bible where it says we must be tested and so this was a test for humanity right now we're not doing too well in the test but god gives us the resources to withstand the challenge and we're going to talk about that but if satan was given this hundred year reign he said i need about a hundred year reign let's look at the last hundred years now the question begin is one of the questions is when did this hundred years begin did it begin from 1884 to 1984 which finished 100 years later with the consecration of john paul of the world to the immaculate heart of mary or did it begin in 1917 and just be completed let's look at that if from 1917 to 2017 are the hundred years that satan ruled let's look at what happened in the last 100 years you've heard me say this before but man does this summarize it in the last hundred years we have completely accepted no fault divorce in the destruction of the family contraception openly found on grocery store shelves for little children to see legalized abortion shattered family single parenthood test tube babies open homosexuality instant access pornography the corruption of higher education the indoctrination of our youth the redefinition of marriage a giant welfare state the destruction of the middle class crippling debt a rejection of our constitution a stripping of our freedoms especially religious freedoms an embracing of marxism and acceptance of violence as a form of protest and no one is accountable approach yet everyone goes to heaven and there is no hell this is the problem with the last hundred years pope pius xii said mankind is more sinful today than he was even at the time of the flood and that was in the 1950s now we asked if this 100 years many theologians believe began from 1884 to 1984 or did it begin in 1917 and go 100 years after that why 1917 all right because 33 days or years later to the day that pope leo heard that conversation between christ and satan october 13th 1884 33 years later to the day we had miracle the sun at fatima now 1917 was a horrible year horrible one of the worst in recorded history world war one was raging death was everywhere there was a true real pandemic of the spanish flu killing millions millions of people the masonic bankers took their first country in russia we had the bolshevik revolution also margaret sanger the founder of planned parenthood she issued a film called birth control she actually went to jail spent 30 30 days in jail it was so scandalous but where is it in scripture that god says where sin abounds my grace abounds the more yeah if these things were happening in 1917 do you think god was just sitting in the sidelines look what jesus did or god did let's look at our next slide 1917. god answers with mary appearing at fatima october 16th maximilian kobe forms the mission immaculata which changed the world mike gately talks about that a lot father mike pope pius xii was made a bishop in the sistine chapel guess when on may 13 1917 the day mary appeared at fatima and pope benedict the 15th on your right did a novena to mary the mother of mercy in 1917 to end the war and on the eighth day of the novena mary appeared at fatima you think god's going to be outdone no way so during this fatima apparitions in the last one in october 1917 was the miracle of the sun people always talk about miracle mary made the sun dance but what very few people remember or realize or talk about is that god also gave a huge gift that day in saint joseph on that day in fatima on the miracle of the sun october 13th saint sister lucia said this after our lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament we beheld saint joseph with the child jesus and our lady robed in white with a blue mantle beside the sun saint joseph and the child jesus seemed to bless the world for they traced the sign of the cross with their hands when a little later this apparition disappeared i saw our lord and our lady it seemed to me that it was our lady of sorrows our lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as saint joseph i'm gonna have brother mark keep that slide up because sister lucia this is very important sister lucia and that was the slide as you can see that mary was seen at fatima along with with saint joseph now i'm sorry let's go to the next slide let's keep talking about sister lucia here she's the topic now sister lucia years later said to cardinal carlo caffara quote father a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of christ and satan will be over marriage and the family see sister lucia there in that picture these are her words and those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation but do not be afraid because our lady has already crushed his head all right now this is important why why is this so important because right now in our world we are fighting the redefinition of marriage the destruction of the patriarchy which is the defined movement of some of these social groups right now abortion legalized and called a a good thing these are all dangers the things that are being attacked most right now are the family and the church and guess who is the patron saint of both saint joseph if satan said and satanist tell us this that satan's target is the family and the church but yet we have one saint who is the patron saint of both saint joseph why aren't we turning to him more finally the world is starting to so satanists all say this that this is satan's biggest target that the foundation of society is the church and the family and this is why it's being targeted so as the guardian of the family and the church saint joseph has everything we need right now everything and this is why the pope declared the year of saint joseph as the patron of the universal church we must pray because the churches are still closed pray for churches to open and for holy priests and we're coming up on his two big feast days march 19th next friday that's why i'm doing his talk today is the husband of mary it's it's it's it's the family and then on may 1st it's st joseph the worker which also is about the family the worker providing for the family so this is why one of our beautiful paintings that you can get on divine mercy art excuse me divine mercy art.com is this photo or this painting workers this is saint joseph the worker with the child jesus workers are needed and so are prayers we need the prayers for these workers they're laid off their families are struggling the fathers need to protect them and they're trying to provide this is one of the beautiful paintings you can get on divinemercyart.com all right now let's get into saint joseph like any child in his youth jesus needed the care and protection of a human father to deny the child both parents and this is what some movements are doing in our world today is very detrimental so we got to pray to saint joseph for the protection of the family as this final battle said it would be about marriage in the family you know most studies all show that of the men in prison a vast majority like over 90 percent didn't grow up with a father man now god is giving us the chance to have a father even if you did not have a biological father if you didn't have a real father maybe he died and maybe he left whatever it is maybe he was distant or estranged god is giving us the gift of a father like he did with mary as a mother this is it our families need to come together again god's giving us a chance to now spend time with our family this is one of the greater goods of the pandemic the horrible evil is the fact that we can be together as a family but father my family is dysfunctional i don't want to be there well yeah help put the fun back in dysfunctional right now the bible tells us that in a certain way even the holy family had this struggle you know the bible talks about the incident of losing jesus and then they found him in the temple like any family they didn't communicate and then they got upset with each other when they couldn't know when they didn't know where he was this is really an amazing story because maybe god wants us to realize that even the most holy family of all history right was like every other family i think this is powerful people couldn't believe that jesus came from a normal family and so isn't he the carpenter's son they would ask this is awesome now also the most and i would say maybe most importantly saint joseph is the patron of a happy death why is this so important this is very important they believe now okay i'm going to talk about in a minute when they think saint joseph died but they believe many uh theologians believe it was in the year 18 a.d which means jesus was like 18 or 19 years old 17 18 19 years old this is important we need him because at the moment of death is where the demons come for us more than any other time the demons flock to us and they want to steal our soul they want us to despair this is why you see some people agitated at death and other people peaceful at death pray that saint joseph is with your loved ones especially now in the time of coronavirus with the threat of death he died in the arms of jesus and mary now that means he's a model for a pious believer who receives many graces at death through his intercession all right this is a terrifying reality the demons are going to come for us but if we're ready they can't touch us they can't take our soul so pray to him especially for those that you know that are sick or may be in jeopardy of dying so saint joseph pray for us now how do we know who he was when he didn't say anything in the gospel you know what are the most powerful words joseph ever said nothing now some of you eyes by looking at your husband and say hey you should take a an example from saint joseph he didn't talk now what though the bible does say about saint joseph all right although he didn't speak the bible says he was a righteous man and we're going to look at another painting we have look up on your screen now brother mark's going to put up this is one of the other paintings that brother excuse me father don calloway had commissioned on saint joseph this one is very good selling again divine mercy art.com because it is a great model for us this is a model st joseph is a model that is a goal for us men to lead look at him there does he look like a passive effeminate no he is a leader he's the role me as a shepherd and you as a husband and a father and this is important so most of all though saint joseph brought the beauty of trust this is what's so important we want to get to heaven right you want to get to heaven i want to get to heaven we wouldn't be here if you want to get to heaven though you got to have grace all right father and you want to have grace yeah well then you need to trust because jesus told saint faustina trust is the vessel by which all grace is received as god showers grace upon you how are you catching it if god showers grace upon you is it just going to be like a shower of water that just splashes off your body or are you gonna be like rich soil with a plant that the water soaks in for us humans to receive that grace from heaven we have to have a container to catch it jesus said that vessel by which all grace is received is called trust and what is trust trust is accepting the help that somebody offers you if you trust somebody and they offer you help you're gonna take it if you don't trust them you're gonna say thank you but that's okay so god is giving us the the gift of a mother and a father mary our mother and joseph our foster father like jesus to him was this is empowerful this is powerful all right so the great example is is joseph now what hurt jesus the most was our lack of trust jesus told saint faustina that what pained him the most in his passion wasn't our sins was our lack of trust so this is why we go to him and this is why father don's book let's put up the next page i got a very something very special for you today grab a pen and paper because on this slide we ended this promotion on march 1st what it was was father don's book consecration to saint joseph for any donation any donation and so you can't afford the full price okay that's fine we want to give back to you and we had this on marion.org if you look at the bottom left slash s t joseph or call 800 462-7426 and you can get this book for any donation i'm going to run this special for you guys until the feast day which is friday so this week you might want to consider you don't have to do it now don't worry you don't have to do it now you can do it later today or anytime this week we're going to run it through friday night of next week so please consider getting that this is why it's powerful and this is what we have all right now one of the stories about st joseph that i think is awesome and i love and you know in fact father don even talks about this story you know father don yes his book is about consecration which means setting yourself apart to be holy and asking for saint joseph's help to make you holy so then you're ready to go to god that's what consecration is it's not worshipping mary or saint joseph when you consecrate to mary or saint joseph you're setting yourself apart and saying hey would you clean me up before we go meet the king it's like it's like having a woman take you into the bridal chamber before you meet your spouse and she gets your makeup right your hair right she gets you prepared then you come out to meet your spouse saint joseph for the guys especially women too he can do that consecration is setting us aside to make us holy he helps make us holy like he was so then he can take us to the king to our spouse and so this is how saint joseph does it and he helps us when we call upon him a great example was this awesome story about the staircase of the sisters of loretto in saint in santa fe new mexico back in the 1800s a bishop asked for the women's religious communities to consider opening a school for girls the sisters of loretto responded and they sent six sisters to santa fe to open the loretto academy i'm going to show you a video on this in a minute the chapel was begun in 1873 but here's what happened the architect died before it was finished and what happened is they realized there was no way to get to the choir can you imagine you build a chapel and then you don't think of how to get to the choir so the the height of the loft was was 22 feet and so here was the problem given that height and the small size of the chapel the staircase wouldn't fit it would have had to taken up half the room in the chapel to get it to come down from the loft so it would have been a real challenge so the sisters didn't know what to do they began praying a nine-day novena to you guessed it saint joseph the patron saint of carpenters on the final day of the novena a carpenter showed up at the door with only a hammer and a square t-square now this guy asked to be working in private he wanted to be left alone and he was there for months and he built what is known as the miraculous staircase with simple tools not even nails but wooden pegs this rear wood that he used wasn't even from the region it they don't know where it came from it didn't come from new mexico didn't come from the southwest and then the carpenter disappeared without even receiving thanks and the sisters tried to call around and find out who opened the count to get all the supplies they wanted to pay for it there was no account nobody had ordered supplies from any local hardware stores back then this is amazing so some people believe that that carpenter was saint joseph or at least somebody he had sent and the staircase i'm an engineer i'm a degreed engineer and i actually saw this staircase and it baffles the mind because it's a spiral and it makes two 360 degree turns but it has no center support theoretically engineering architecturally the staircase should collapse upon itself all the weights on the one bottom steer it would crush but it doesn't so this whole thing is amazing the entire way it should collapse upon itself so in the video you're going to see it they did add banisters on the side just so people wouldn't fall off in later years but let me show you a quick three-minute 50-second video that shows you this incredible story [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't you gotta love a story like that god gives us so many miracles last week we did the eucharistic miracles god bless all of you who watch those but god gives us these little miracles like that staircase amazing all right let's keep going with some famous questions about saint joseph one of the big ones was he an older guy or was he a younger guy i don't want to spend too much time because the answer is we don't know and there's some reasons to believe he's one or the other but the church has never definitively said you have to believe one or the other it is within church teaching that he could have possibly been a widower with children from another marriage now there's other pious tradition that he was a virgin so again the church is not dogmatic or doctrinal teaching that you have to believe one way or the other now father don points out and many agree with him that the average age for the jewish newly newlyweds were 16 for a woman and 18 for a man that also seems very possible that that would have been what mary and joseph could have been so anyway what about the tradition then we talk about this pious tradition all right if he was old or young well let's start with when he died um we may suppose that joseph died before jesus's public life and the reason why is because well let's jump right to the crucifixion if joseph was alive there would have been no way jesus would have given mary to john on the cross if joseph was still alive so we can pretty much ascertain that now let's go to our next video or sorry slide here is a very powerful painting of the death of saint joseph now there's an apocryphal story apocryphal means it's not we don't accept it as inspired by the holy spirit but we can look at it traditionally and look at this photo or this painting because it does show that all right it's called the story of joseph the carpenter which actually said he died on july 20th the year 18 at you guessed it 111 years old so anyway some of the art has shown him to be older now others it's absolutely acceptable as father dawn points out to be younger it makes a lot of sense that he was a strong younger man now saint um epiphanius says that he was 90 when he died and venerable beatty says that he was buried in the valley of jehoshaphat which is where we will all gather for the general judgment wow armageddon all right now other scholars say that he most likely probably died in nazareth all right we don't know that though now what about the other famous question did saint joseph ever sin all right now you have to reverse that question and say has there ever been anybody free completely free of sin no only the blessed mother well wait a minute father pious tradition says john the baptist and saint joseph never committed a sin possibly but they were still conceived with original sin mary was not that puts her in a different ranking now if joseph and saint john the baptist never committed a sin they were still conceived with sin but they were sanctified in the womb john the baptist was sanctified in front of mary when she visited elizabeth and it said the child leapt in her womb that was john the baptist danced was the word in hebrew like like the david dance before the ark of the covenant john the baptist danced in front of mary the new ark of the covenant now the tradition is some theologians maintain that saint joseph too was pre-sanctified in his mother's womb now that's similar like i said to saint john the baptist and that this sanctity reached a higher level than even the angelic choirs of cherubim and seraphim wow why was he given that because the close proximity that he had to jesus and mary he had to have that level of holiness next to mary if he's going to spend his life with jesus and mary he's got to have a level of holiness that's way above anybody else it makes sense and that is why he was called the protector of the family and also became the protector of the church all right the patron of the universal church now these these scholars and theologians point out that joseph was the true and legal and spiritual husband of mary the mother of god so all of his virtues and gifts flowed from that fundamental principle the very fact that he spent his life with jesus and mary he had to have tons of this grace to be a holy level to even be in in like them and live with them and of course have them obedient to him are they gonna have jesus and mary obedient to a man who isn't holy no and so here we have let's look at our next slide the level when people ask you this question why do you catholics worship the saints no why do you pray to the saints that's worshiping them no we're asking for their intercession don't you ever ask a friend at work hey you know what pray for me i'm gonna have surgery next week nobody says you're worshiping that person so let's look at these the three levels all right there's four actually there's four levels of worship and honor only the first one is worship latria this is the worship owed to god alone the second level now we're talking honoring is called hyperdulia this i learned in seminary right now i'm taking you right back to seminary with me god bless you seminary students this is the highest veneration or honor but not worship not worship and this was given to our lady alone because of her role as the mother of god but then you have proto-dulia which is the honor awarded to saint joseph alone he was first or proto among the other saints and then fourth we have dulia which is the honor owed to the rest of the saints just by saying man i totally totally honor the fact that you are with god in heaven because of your sanctity so this is important now this was important because joseph was involved in the virgin birth of jesus now let's talk about that for a minute now luke tells us all about the details of the birth but matthew tells us more about where jesus came from through the eyes of joseph but you didn't maybe realize that jesus jesus comes from david he's from the line of david the line of judah right he's from the line of david but is he through mary or joseph that jesus came from the line of david the actual answer is both jesus came from the line of david by mary through blood she was actually a direct descendant of david and he came to us through from the line of david through joseph by inheritance or the legal and many theologians say joseph too was australia of the bloodline of jesus but there was no blood of joseph in jesus so they both came from the line of david joseph by his blood was from david and by inheriting the legal aspect of jesus jesus also received the line of david from joseph as well even though joseph's none of joseph's blood was in jesus i know this is a lot but it's it's fascinating stuff all right now luke was talking to a gentile audience meaning non-jewish and he shows the genealogy of jesus all the way back to adam why because it goes beyond the start of the jews whereas matthew whose audience was the jews starts the genealogy of jesus at abraham now i don't know if brother mark can show the saints behind me but if you look the second one from the left of the image of divine mercy people ask us all the time father who is that apostle and why does he have a little child with him that apostle the second one from the left of the image of divine mercy is saint matthew the reason he has a child is because it shows the genealogy in the genealogy that matthew did went all the way back to abraham because he had a jewish audience so this is important now betrothal was what we might call a ratification of the engagement all right it was arranged many times as children they still do this in many countries once the betrothal was entered into it was totally binding for one year this is the time that that that the angel appeared to mirror she was in this betrothal remember it said for a virgin who had been betrothed to a man named joseph all right now the couple were basically known as man and wife although they didn't have the rights yet the conjugal rights yet they were still known as man and wife it could only be terminated by divorce and so joseph was planning a divorce was not unrighteous he actually had good reasons to want this divorce if he didn't divorce her others would think he got her pregnant so now there are three theories father don calloway talks about this in his book of why joseph decided to end this betrothal and and and go to have the separation all right the first theory is that he was a righteous man and he shunned any immorality so the fact that mary was pregnant must have meant somehow she was unfaithful of adultery and therefore being a righteous man not knowing the full truth yet joseph wanted the separation justin martyr held this view saint john chrysostom held this view saying augustine even held this view now there was another view that he was perplexed he didn't think that she was unfaithful but he's just like man this is way too much for me i'm confused something's not right here this is strange kind of a middle ground that was saint jerome he held that view but the reverence theory that father don supports and i support is that he knew it was of the holy spirit but he thought himself unworthy i can't take this on it's kind of like me for the priesthood i deny my priesthood called to the priesthood for the longest time because there's no way i'm worthy so saint joseph thought the same thing god then says no don't don't focus on yourself i'll work with you you're broken don't worry about that but i can still use you and so bernard of clairvaux saint thomas aquinas believed that this was the truth all right now joseph actually could have profited by divorcing mary publicly he could have got his dowry back what is dowry it's like the money you pay to the family to be able to have this bride he could have recouped this cost that he paid to have her as a bride that's just the way it was then if he had paid out a betrothal at um i'm sorry paid a bride price if you will at betrothal now being a just in god-fearing man joseph didn't want to do this that's quite a guy for going all the money he could have got back for his bride payment he said no i don't want to embarrass or punish her so he was foregoing all of this to not dishonor her that's a righteous man he was not hasty to judge or to react with hurt or anger and he was very much righteous he was always pure this is why you see him with lilies tradition is that when joseph asked for the hand of mary from joachim manan there were other men courting or not courting her but um requesting mary's hand in marriage and they laid the staffs their their walking staffs down and st joseph sprouted a lily at the top of it which means purity and so you often see joseph in his picture with a lily coming out of the top of his staff now god rewarded him with this choice to not embarrass mary by giving him consolations and many graces let's look at our next slide all right this is the angel appearing to joseph the poor guy you know he must have been really confused here notice that the angel appeared to joseph only after he decided to do the charitable thing the angel didn't appear to him before he's like well how can i get her back and i want my money back no god reveals more of his plan to us just like this picture of the angel with saint joseph a lot of people say well how come god doesn't talk to me in a dream like he did saint joseph well we have to fully be like saint joseph because his plan this is interesting god reveal more of himself to us if we respond like saint joseph did in times of crisis it's almost like god says you know treat others well and you'll i'll give you more of an understanding of me i'll share more of myself with you in a crisis we usually tend to only worry about ourselves that's why you always hope as a man that when the building's on fire you're not going to try to run out the back door and save yourself but you're going to save others like some of the heroes at 9 11. you know usually we think of only ourselves he could have said i want my money back but he was more worried about dishonoring mary so this really was this visit of the angel to saint joseph was really like a second annunciation the theologians tell us the first annunciation was the angel telling mary what was going to happen with the birth of the child the second annunciation was the angel coming back and telling joseph don't worry you're part of this wow it's really like a second annunciation this yes that then joseph gave is kind of like a second fiat that mary gave so jesus would have not had the appearance of an earthly father if joseph said no and by joseph saying yes he had a respectable lineage you see how this all fits together and in fact the same thing can be said of the assumption we know mary was the first assumption but in 1960 pope john xxiii said the assumption of saint joseph is worthy of pious belief almost like he would have been assumed like mary was we can believe that some even say saint john the baptist was assumed but anyway people say well you know father this whole story is a fairy tale the bible tells us that they did not have relations joseph and mary until she bore a son well saint jerome explains this he says the words the word until does not signify that something changed afterwards it is only saying something about what was not done before that moment it makes no statement about what was done after it i'll give you an example the bible says jesus says i shall be with you until the end of time does that mean at the end of time jesus stops being with us nope he's with us now in the eucharist and at the end of the time he'll be with us in heaven christ said i shall rule until all enemies are put under my feet does that mean once his enemies are put under his feet which they will be he will no longer rule nope you see you have to understand the meaning of the language this is the language of scripture well it says jesus was her first begotten son that means there was more afterwards that does not mean other children came after jesus the term first born in the bible was used mainly to express the privilege the privileged position of the firstborn child even if there were no other children after that i didn't learn this to seminary and this is why i want to take you back to seminary with me this is why i'm so honored that you guys are are wanting to do this because you guys are responding it's amazing you're watching these talks you're seeing and seeing the power that god gives in the grace of our faith but we got to know it we know that mary was a virgin in fact if you have a non-catholic needling you about mary being a virgin you could say well you know you must then be a protestant or non-catholic yeah well do you know that the fathers of the protestant reformation believe mary was a virgin yeah protestant father zwingli said quote i firmly believe she remained a virgin meaning mary pure and intact in childbirth and also after birth for all eternity that's a protestant father you should laminate that keep it in your pocket for the next time somebody challenges mary's virginity say well gee you're protestant but your own protestant father believed mary was a virgin what about the the words used in scripture in the greek adelphos in the hebrew ah can mean either brother biological brother or a cousin or close relative it says jesus has brothers yes but it doesn't necessarily mean biological the words adelphos in greek or ah and hebrew could mean a cousin or a stepbrother or a close relative all right brothers can mean these things jesus would not have given mary to john on the cross if joseph was alive i said but also if he had any living brothers biological brothers by judeo law he would have having to give in to mary to one of those biological brothers when he was on the cross he didn't we know john was not his brother so this shows he didn't have any what about in the old testament i always point this story who was lot in relation to gen uh to um excuse me who was lot in relation to abraham well father it was his nephew yeah if you're reading genesis 11 27 but if you're reading genesis 14 14 it says lot was abraham's brother now you can't be both your brother and your nephew so brothers of jesus it also says in the gospel this one oh this nails you catholics the brothers of jesus james and joseph the sons of mary oh that one's irrefutable the brothers of jesus james and joseph the sons of mary you have to keep reading because if you follow it further and you read it you see that they're talking about mary the wife of clopas not our mary what jesus be or um uh joseph be celibate or jesus even be celibate or mary be celibate this is crazy the jews didn't do that then oh yeah yes they did you ever hear of the essenes the ones where qumran and the dead sea scrolls the essenes consecrated themselves to virginity so it was not unheard of indeed there's even room in traditional ancient judaism for celibacy within marriage did you know that that means will marry mary mary joseph that means they had to have relations no there's a tradition of even celibacy within marriage how do we know this turn to exodus 19 15. there we are told that moses he was married remained continent the rest of his life after the command to abstain from sexual intercourse was given prior to meeting god wow god has a plan let's talk more about this plan you know santa thomas aquinas discussed the necessity of having saint joseph in the plan of the incarnation in his youth jesus needed the care and protection of a father we talked about this a human father not just the ultimate father in heaven but the human father on earth if mary had not been married the jews would have stoned her it was important and it said it is not a contradiction of joseph's manly holiness that he wanted a divorce the important words though that are mentioned in the bible that he planned to do it quietly are the key that shows he was righteous he was a righteous man unwilling to expose her to shame so like david which he came from we know he was a man of faith obedient to what god asked of him he immediately took her for his wife and fled to egypt leaving everything he wasn't rich and yet he did this he didn't ask how are you going to supply for me how are you going to provide for me in the temple he offered two pigeons which were for those who could not afford a lamb so how did he make men's eat meat or ends meet he was a hard worker and when i touch a little bit on this not much but the worker in saint joseph may 1st we celebrate the feast coming up you can consecrate on the day saying joseph the worker saint paul says if you do not work you do not eat and now this of course not if you're sick or you're unable or you have medical reasons no i'm not talking about that talking about those who can you know john paul ii said work is an obligation that is to say a duty on the part of man man must work both because the creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity which requires work in order to be maintained and developed man must work out of regard for others especially his own family this is why we turn to joseph but also for the society he belongs to the country of which he is a child and the whole human family of which he is a member now listen to this this is amazing this is the words of john paul ii he says you know why you got to work because you were the heir i was the heir from the work of generations past generations past provided me this shrine generations past provided me the priesthood and the ministry i do generations past provided me automobiles to travel generations past provided me food on my table by learning how to grow crops and livestock and so he says that you are the heir to work of prior generations and at the same time you need to work to be able to provide for future generations that's amazing he did that in on human work that's that's incredible pope benedict weighed in on this i i don't want to spend too much time but he said the primary capital though don't let work become the end in itself he said the primary capital be safeguarded and valued as the human being the human person with integrity man is the source the focus and the aim of all economic and social life so we can't abuse it if you're a boss or a manager or a business owner basically we can't treat workers unfairly do you know that's one of the sins that cries to heaven with vengeance treating workers unfairly that's amazing all right let's talk though about another hard worker saint faustina she was a laborer as a portrait and a cook and a gardener she was a hard worker and who did she turn to saint joseph she had visions of saint joseph when one day she wrote i'm going to read you a couple passages number 608 in the diary all right when mass began a strange silent enjoy filled my heart just then i saw our lady with the infant jesus the holy the oh wait a minute i just saw our lady with the infant jesus and the holy old man saint joseph so there's there's kind of a little hint there that faustina is saying now he could have aged in heaven we don't know right standing behind them the most holy mother said to me take my dearest treasure and she handed me the infant jesus when i took the infant jesus in my arms the mother of god and saint joseph disappeared i was left alone with the infant jesus wow let's look at another passage diary 846 during mass god's presence pierced me through and through a moment before the elevation again always the key point of the mass i saw the mother of god and the infant jesus and listen to this one and the good old man saint joseph so again you're free to believe how old saint joseph was let's show one more on the screen here this is one of my favorite quotes let's look at the passage of saint faustina i know that text is a little small but i'll summarize it for you this is diode driver 1203 all right this is interesting all right saint joseph urged me to have a constant devotion to him wow that means we should too he himself told me to recite three prayers every day the our father the hail mary and the glory be and the memorary now there's a memorary to saint joseph but he was talking about the memorabilia to mary every day he looked at me with great kindness and showed me how much he is supporting this work of mercy he has promised me the special help and protection i recite the requested prayers every day and feel his special protection i tell you what if he's good enough for saint faustina he's good enough for jesus christ he's good enough for mother mary he's good enough for me bottom line saint teresa of avila even said this she recognized saint joseph is the protector for all circumstances you know how we usually take a certain state for a particular thing like you want protection from a storm you want this you want protection from cancer st peregrine you know you want uh protection from impossible situations it's uh our own saint um stanislaus papchinsky but saint teresa of avila said saint joseph covers all circumstances she said quote to other saints the lord seems to have given grace to help us in some of our necessities but my experience is that saint joseph helps us in all of them wow so our holy father promoted this let's show our next slide patrice cordee this is an apostolic letter recent letter entitled with a father's heart that's what that means and it came from from the holy father the letter marks the 150th anniversary of pope the ninth declaration of saint joseph the patron saint of the church okay now to celebrate this anniversary pope francis declared what let's look at our next slide the year of saint joseph we're in that right now the year of saint joseph so beginning on the immaculate conception of 2020 going all the way to the immaculate conception of 2021 we are in the year of saint joseph many special prayers and plenary indulgences that you can get and i'll tell you about this he put together because of kovid why why saying joseph and covet all right the holy father said that saint joseph has helped us to see more clearly the importance of ordinary people who exercise patience and offer us hope every day that's what saint joseph did in this they resemble him quote pope francis said the man who goes unnoticed a daily discreet and hidden presence who nonetheless played an incomparable role in the history of salvation that's why we turn to saint joseph francis described joseph fatherhood of jesus as the earthly shadow of the heavenly father he was the earthly form of the handle of heavenly father could you get any greater than that mary only pope francis said a father realizes listen to this this one blew me away no matter what your opinion is i get it i understand it but this is wisdom here a father realizes quote he is most a father and an educator at the point when he becomes useless when he sees that his child has now become independent and can walk the path of life unaccompanied other than god wow at the conclusion of this letter he adds another person and he encourages us all or another prayer i'm sorry to this person saint joseph and encourages us to pray you know what we're not going to do the final prayer yet but let's say this prayer that was in this apostolic letter let's put the next slide up hail guardian of the redeemer spouse of the blessed virgin mary to you god entrusted his only son in you mary placed her trust with you christ became man blessed joseph to us to show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life obtain for us grace mercy and courage and defend us from every evil amen wow this is why he's important right now why now pope leo the 13th i've told you my favorite pope presented saint joseph as a model in a time when the world was facing modernity cultural relativism loss of faith you know the may first feast which is relatively recent was intentionally placed on the calendar to counter communist may day rallies in 1920 now i'm only giving you what the church says here i'm not getting political i'm not bringing in politics i'm quoting you the church please have an open mind and heart in 1920 pope benedict xv prayerfully offered saint joseph as the special guide and heavenly patron of laborers to be immune from the contagion of socialism which he called the enemy of christian principles this is not politics this is about christian principles and its enemies in 1937 pius xi placed quote the vast campaign of the church may i repeat that pope pius xi placed quote the vast campaign of the church against world communism under the standard of saint joseph her mighty protector all right the church in the past has called on saint joseph for the protection against communism and socialism we need to do the same today this is why saint joseph is here john paul ii saw firsthand and he wrote about this again not politics this is about your very way of life and that of your family and the way you're allowed to worship if you can worship at all john paul ii saw firsthand communist attempts to weaken and destroy the family and parental authority in poland this is why we need saint joseph he said that that he turned to saint joseph's fatherhood as a model for his own role as a priest that is powerful and why we need them today all right now i want to finish last page last half a page we're doing good the plenary indulgences that are offered for the year of saint joseph you all remember what a plenary indulgence is all right yesterday i did a homily and it got cut off some technical difficulties i was getting prepared i explained the ten commandments and i was getting prepared to explain some incredible temporary graces the lord is going to give us or i'm sorry the church has given us through the lord or through the church by the lord of the gift of a plenary indulgence for praying for those with the coronavirus for an end of the epidemic or those who have died from i'm going to explain all that in monday's homily so monday's homily if you missed and that homily got cut off and you didn't get to see it monday i'm going to finish that homily the gift that god is giving us through the church is a temporary gift of plenary indulgences for coronavirus he's also doing the same for the year of saint joseph i want to tell you what this is and we're going to wrap up there is a plenary indulgence in this year of saint joseph which we are in for those who contemplate the lord's prayer for at least 30 minutes that's just the our father so in other words if you just contemplate the words of the other father even you're just repeating it for at least 30 minutes or you participate in a spiritual retreat that involves meditation on saint joseph and guess what you're doing it right now by watching this and meditating on saint joseph this is our retreat this is a one-day retreat and if you meditate on what this means or what you heard today you can get a plenary indulgence and remember what a plenary indulgence is it's you're forgiven not only of all sin but all the punishment due to sin that's incredible basically it's paying your purgatory time on earth in purgatory we got a cleanse and atone for the sins that we've been forgiven of we have punishment like the boy breaking the window the dad forgives them but he says you got it you're grounded what our lord does it says i've forgiven your sins but you got a tone for it in purgatory he's even wiping that out plenary indulgence is like perga like paying your purgatory time on earth and so we have a chance right now if you do a spiritual retreat at least one day that involves meditation on saint joseph watch this video meditate a little bit on what you thought or what you heard and how you want to change your life or follow saint joseph and you can do that now remember then along with the plein air indulgence along with doing that act you got to be you got to receive excuse me go to confession or if you can't go make an act of contrition go to holy communion or make a spiritual communion pray for the intentions of the holy father usually in our father hail mary glory be and then try your best to be detached from sin if you want to see a much more thorough explanation i did go to our youtube channel and under all souls and all saints day i talk about it in a purgatory especially if you go to youtube and just keyword search father chris aylar a-l-a-r and purgatory i go through a whole detail of what a plenary indulgence is and how to get it now there's another plenary indulgence those who after the example of saint joseph fulfill a corporal or spiritual work of mercy during the year of saint joseph will get the plenary indulgence well remember your your acts of mercy the corporal feed the hungry you know give thirsty drink to the thirsty clothe the naked visit the imprisoned this is amazing now what are the spiritual works of mercy remember those pray for the living and the dead you can do that today admonish the sinner whoa that's a good one counsel the doubtful right these are all things the spiritual that you can do for a soul also a planetary indulgence may be obtained by those who shall daily entrust their life to the protection of saint joseph if you do that the rest every day here and out you can get plenty of indulgence each day you do it and all the faithful who shall invoke through prayer the intercession of saint joseph so that those in search of work may find employment and work for all people that may be dignified all right what does that mean simply pray through the intercession of saint joseph that those who need work find it that's simple say joseph i get i read every comment you guys post i can't always respond to them and i also read every email you send me i'm way behind on those i'm sorry but you our guys are our marion family you guys are part of our favorite i know almost all of you now by name at least your screen name i mean i know your real name but at least your screen name and i read every comment and so many of you are saying please pray for so and so to find work my daughter or my son just ask for the intercession of saint joseph the patrons say to workers is feast day may 1st is joseph the worker and you can get a plenary indulgence this is incredible grace now there's also a chance you get a plenary indulgence if you can't fulfill those obligations if you're sick or homebound the church has said that if you simply recite an act of piety in honor of saint joseph comfort of the sick and patron of a happy death offering your suffering and your hardships the church will supply for your plenary indulgence you can't get to confession church will supply can get to communion the church will supply you just have to have the intent when you get better and the church is open that you go back so don't run half the race and don't finish it now i want to finish before we do our prayer and i almost forgot and i'm sorry i'm glad i just remembered it with probably the most common question i get about saint joseph i don't get the questions about his virtue i don't get the questions about his role as the foster father of jesus i get the questions of father is it okay to bury a statue of saint joseph to sell my house that's one of the most common questions i get all right is it okay to bury a saint a statue of saint joseph okay the church has not made a definitive statement yes or no it's okay yes to bury a statue saint joseph because that is the actual way we dispose of religious items if you have a broken rosary you don't throw it in the garbage especially if it is blessed you bury it so it's absolutely integrally okay to bury a set you said joseph it's not dishonorable it's either burning it or burying it people are shocked by that the proper way to dispose an old flag is to bury or to burn it not with disrespect though with honor so the key with the saint joseph statue to sell your house is to do it not out of superstition like okay now magic is going to sell my house it's to do it reverently asking for the intercession of saint joseph to sell the house so if you're asking for his intercession not superstition it can be allowed now leaving it buried is acceptable because i said that's the way we dispose of religious items all right what about being upside down why do we choose to bury him upside down where did that tradition come from the tradition came that he was buried upside down so therefore saint joseph would be motivated to free himself and when he would free himself it would free the house and the house would be free to be sold now the church does not have a position on this please don't tell your bishop i said this is dogmatic revelation it is not it's tradition pious small t saint teresa of avila let's go back to her she actually talked about this she could not find property for a building for a new convent so she asked the nuns to pray to saint joseph for his intercession and she buried a blessed medal of him and it worked should i answer the question it's all about your intention if you're burying him because you think it's superstition or magic like a rabbit's foot no that's wrong if you're doing it to piously ask for his intercession and you're disposing it reverently in a nice place area and it's done with dignity the church does not say it can't be done so maybe more important is to have your house blessed i get it the people want the statues and there's even kits but have your house blessed when you move into it all right so now god bless all of you because we want to finish with our next slide actually a couple more slides but the prayer to saint joseph this is an ancient one that's over 1900 years old let us pray to saint joseph in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen next slide oh saint joseph i never weary contemplating you and jesus asleep in your arms i dare not approach while he reposes near your heart press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me and ask him to return the kiss when i draw my dying breath saint joseph patron of departed souls pray for me in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen god bless you for joining us today we are so grateful that you've opened your heart to receive remember god says we don't get to great to heaven without grace we don't get grace without trust what is trust trust is accepting the help offered you god is giving us the ultimate help in joseph and mary in a worldly sense of course jesus is the ultimate help but with joseph we have everything we need the help of each other we need the help this is why with the body of christ is heaven hell and purgatory the church triumphant in heaven the church militant on earth and the church suffering in purgatory we need the help of each other so we just talked about today getting the help from a great saint next week i'm going to be talking about why we have saints please join us next saturday i'm going to talk all about relics and incorruptible saints and do we worship the saints we're going to talk about all that but we also need the help of each other and you guys have become our marian family if you're not part of our marian family yet please consider joining us at mic prayers dot com mic prayers dot com brother mark's showing the slide it's no cost it doesn't it it there's no money it just i mean yeah if you want to support us financially and keep our mission going that's beautiful god puts it on your heart god bless you it's not a requirement what it is is you join us so that we pray for you you pray for us and you share all the graces by decree of the holy see i'm not making this up i'm the director i'd be in trouble if i made this up i'm the director of the association of marian helpers and being a marian helper if you take this and you really want the graces you'll pray for us we pray for you you can receive all the graces of our masses prayers rosaries penances just like you were a marian priest of the immaculate conception that's incredible so join us it takes less than 10 seconds doesn't cost any money and you know what else please if you're on youtube or facebook hit the like if you're on youtube please subscribe to our youtube channel because the more subscribers we have the more that youtube places our videos out in the suggested videos to watch of other people tons of you have come to our marian family you see father i saw your video on on my previews god's using you don't think god did that to get you in here he did it to get you in here and that's the beautiful grace he showed that video before you and you responded to it help us now get it to even more people if you haven't subscribed it's just a click of a button and then click the notification so you'll be you know notified when we post a new video god bless all of you and you know i didn't have a slide for it but you can also i explain all this in my book called understanding divine mercy even though we can't understand divine's mercy i explained that in the book that god gives us a way to understand him through divine mercy and you can get my book understanding divine mercy at shopmercy.org and the dvd that we showed the beginning is there too god bless you and you know what i'll tell you what else you can't afford any of these things send me an email i've said this before and i will send it to you i know that god provides for some that can you know support us financially but there's others who cannot i'll send it to you and father don calloway's book today for any donation and that was marion.org s t joseph god bless you we're just trying to keep this ministry going and you guys have been a major part of it oh i can't tell you how honored i am that you're part of our marian family thank you and god bless you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen hi i'm father chris ayler and i'm excited to tell you about the completion of my newest project it's been a long time in the making it's called understanding divine mercy my new book from marion press that finally in one place i feel gives you the all the answers of everything you need to know about god's divine mercy in fact it answers what is divine mercy who is saint faustina and what message did god give her for the world how about the feast of divine mercy and what do you have to do to receive the graces that jesus promises on this one day of the year we talk about the meaning of the image and how to pray the naveena and how to understand the chaplet and what to do in the hour of mercy and much much more answering questions like why would a merciful god allow such suffering so please we hope that you'll pick up a copy of this book for you and your loved ones because if you get the understanding of what god's mercy is you will understand why jesus said it's mankind's last hope of salvation so please visit us at shopmercy.org or give us a call at 800-462-7 thank you and may almighty god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Rating: 4.9255605 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, spiritual Communion, confession, fr. chris alar, divine mercy, St Joseph, St. Joseph, Saint Joseph, Holy family, Jesus Mary Joseph, consecration, year of st. joseph

Id: OcxPXcfZn-Y

Length: 84min 59sec (5099 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021