4th Sunday of Saint Joseph

Presentation in the Temple

JOYS AND SORROWS - I

To think about the life of Saint Joseph is to discover a life full of joys and sorrows. the Lord teaches us through the life of the Holy Patriarch that true happiness is never far from the Cross. If we bear that suffering and trial with supernatural spirit, we will soon be rewarded with clarity and peace. With Christ at our side, sorrows turn into joys.

[First Sorrow and Joy]

When Mary his mother had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. (Matt 1:18) Joseph ... loved Mary with a pure and deep human love. Yet he felt obliged by his upright conscience to follow the Mosaic law in this regrettable situation. In order to protect Mary from public shame, Joseph decided to put her aside privately. This was a most painful test for both Joseph and Mary.

Just as his sorrow was great, so was Joseph's joy immeasurable when at last he was shown the ways of God's Providence ...

We can learn from Joseph's first sorrow and joy that the Lord will always enlighten those who seek him with a clean heart. God's light can shine through the most perplexing situations imaginable.

[Second Sorrow and Joy]

And it came to pass while they were there, that the days for her to be delivered were fulfilled. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger... (Luke 2:6-7)

We can imagine Joseph going from door to door in search of shelter and hospitality for his pregnant wife ... What must this terrible experience have been like for Saint Joseph? What were his feelings at the sight of his weary wife, her clothing travel-stained and every feature proclaiming her utter exhaustion? ...

All of this anxiety and suffering was quickly forgotten from the moment Mary held the Son of God in her arms. Saint Joseph realized that the Son of God was now his son as well. He kissed and worshipped him...

This alternating sorrow and joy should teach us that serving God is worth the effort, even though we will encounter difficulties, and perhaps poverty and pain.

[Third Sorrow and Joy]

And when eight days were fulfilled for his circumcision, his name was called Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:21) ... The actual ceremony was sometimes performed by the father.

... The name Jesus means Savior; it had been chosen by God himself and communicated through the message of the angel ... It was the desire of the Holy Trinity that the Son should commence his salvific mission on earth in suffering. It would seem fitting that Joseph was the one to inaugurate the mystery of the Redemption by shedding the first drops of his Son's holy blood. This blood would yield its full effect in the awful context of the Passion. The Child who cried upon the receipt of his name had thereupon begun his work of salvation.

Saint Joseph ... was well versed in the Scriptures and he knew, if only in an imperfect way, that there would come a day when his Son would have to shed his blood even to the last drop. Joseph was filled with joy to carry the child in his arms and call him Jesus ...

[Fourth Sorrow and Joy]

And when the days of her purification were fulfilled according to the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (Luke 2:22) ... When Joseph heard the prophecy of Simeon, surely a sword must have pierced his heart as well.

On that day in the Temple Joseph and Mary were given a more profound insight into the mystery of the Redemption which their Son would bring to completion. Saint Joseph was now able to understand a little better. He made this suffering his own...

Alongside this pain there was, of course, the joy of the impending universal redemption.

In Conversation with God, Vol. 6: Special Feasts: January to June

Are We There Yet?

No, mon, not yet.

You still got to kiss the egg ...
vote for this little Jamaican bobsled in
Best Blog by a Woman and
Most Informative Blog categories.

You can vote once every 24 hours.

Let's show those Swiss what we're made of!

My All Time Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

Still as funny as when I first saw it. Via The View from the Foothills.

On the Flip Side: Another Top 5 List

Switching around from yesterday, this was a tougher category somehow.

Top 5 Movies with Dramatic Actors in Comedic Roles

1. Dustin Hoffman - Tootsie
2. Tommy Lee Jones - Men in Black
3. Sigorney Weaver - Galaxy Quest
4. Jack Nicholson - Mars Attack
5. Mel Gibson - What Women Want

So c'mon. Drop those lists in the comments box.

A Day (or Two) Late ...

... and probably more than a dollar short. But I couldn't get Blogger to work yesterday afternoon when I came into possession of these graphics. And I hate to see them go to waste.

The story is practically dead but these make me laugh anyway so here they are. (Click on photos for larger view.)

Seen all over the blogosphere.

Thanks to Bill for sending me this one!

Damn Straight!

If Catholic bloggers complain about their awards now, one can only imagine what it's gonna be like at the General Judgement. Sheesh, hope St. Peter's got big ear plugs. And, one is afraid to imagine what kind of witness they are providing in the mean time; mean being the byword.

luminous miseries

I see some people who are having fun with the Catholic Blog Awards ... and some who aren't, which is a crying shame considering that we are all Catholic. Perhaps these awards are good on a second level as a annual litmus test for our own humility.

Anyway, enough heavy thoughts about all that.

Der Tomissar is totally hilarious with this whole thing.

College Catholic weighs in on the whole Catholic blog awards subject with great wit.

And Rick Lugari came back from his blogging hiatus to make me laugh out loud with his endorsements. I was especially touched by our Holy Father's endorsement of Happy Catholic. Go check it out, y'all!

Let's not forget that this is taking up precious bandwidth for cybercatholics.com. If you feel so moved, please note the Paypal link at the top of the awards page where you can help with the costs.

Now, don't go have so much fun that everyone forgets to kiss the egg! C'mon. You can vote once every 24 hours ... so what are you waiting for? Help this little Jamaican bobsled make a decent showing in the Best Blog by a Woman and Most Informative Blog categories. Go vote!

Are We Brave Enough to Ask for Humility?

If we want to build up our Christian life we must have a great desire of developing in ourselves the virtue of humility, pleading with Our Lord for it and facing up to our subterfuges and failings in this area while trying by our actions to root our self-love. Humility produces countless fruits and is linked with all the other virtues. It is associated in a special way with cheerfulness, fortitude, chastity, sincerity, simplicity, affability, and magnamity. A humble person has a special gift for friendship and, because of this, for being apostolic. Without humility there is no chance of living a life full of charity, the theological virtue prerequisite for being an apostle and a friend.

To become more humble, we have to be ready to accept the humiliation of finding victory elusive in our struggle to conquer our defects, and of being reminded of our weaknesses day by day. Often when we examine our conscience, especially on those occasions when we can do it more thoroughly, we can ask questions like these: have I managed to offer Our Lord in expiation the very sorrow I feel for having offended him so many times? Have I offered him the shame of all my inner embarrassment and humiliation at seeing how little progress I make along the path of virtue? (J. Escriva, The Forge) Then there are the humiliations inflicted on us by others — the ones we were not expecting or the ones that seem unfair or downright unjust. Do we bear these well for Our Lord's sake?

If we are searching for the firm rock of Our Lord's own humility in order to build on it, we are bound to find countless opportunities every day. We can try talking about ourselves only when it is really necessary — and not so much even then. We can be grateful for the little good turns people do for us. Keeping in mind that we deserve nothing, we can thank God for the countless benefits we receive. We can decide to make the world a more pleasant place for those who come in contact with us throughout the day. And what about those useless thoughts that revolve around ourselves? They can be cut off at the start. We should not miss any chance of lending a hand at home with the family, or at work, or anywhere else we may be. Instead of trying to be too independent we can allow ourselves to be helped, or we can ask for advice. If we are very sincere with ourselves we shall ask Our Lord to stop us finding excuses to explain away our sins and failings, those things that humiliate us and for which we sometimes have to ask other people's forgiveness. All of this is done with God's help and with the help of spiritual direction, which is only another way of coming into contact with him.

Fixing our gaze on Christ, we can have enough humility to admit our mistakes and set about putting them right...

In Conversation with God: Ordinary Time, Weeks 13-23)

Guilty as charged.

Part of my problem is that when I ask for humility, knowing that it is so very good for me, the Lord answers practically instantly. And humility is not easy to bear. It hurts. It stings. It cuts deep and can be hard to forget.

Of course, the goal is to get to where we can offer it to God and not mind at all. I am quite a long way away from achieving that goal which means that I have to ask for humility all the more. But because it hurts, that calls for courage ... or, as I often must do, for asking God to forgive my fear of the very thing I am asking for. The only thing that makes it possible for me to want such a thing is that I have been there before and seen the fruit it bears and the good it does me. Which helps make me brave.

Lord, keep us close to you. Make us humble. Amen.

Comic Actors in Dramatic Roles

Listening to the most recent installment of a favorite movie review podcast (occasional bad language warning for those who care ), I loved their Top 5 list idea this week. So I'm stealing it.

Top 5 Movies with Comedic Actors in Dramatic Roles

1. Bill Murray - Lost In Translation
2. Tom Hanks - Apollo 13
   
3. Jim Carrey - The Truman Show
4. Adam Sandler - Spanglish
5. Robin Williams - Good Morning, Vietnam

Honorable Mentions

1. Steve Martin - The Spanish Prisoner
2. Michael Keaton - Batman

A Couple of Good Causes

FUNDRAISING FOR POOR CLARES
Get the scoop at To Jesus Through Mary. Via Moneybags.

BRING CATHOLIC RADIO TO NORTH TEXAS
Answer the poll in the top right hand corner at Guadalupe Radio Network.

Are We Smart Yet?

More Mensa ... and I will just admit up front that this one flummoxed me (that's right, I said flummoxed!).

Jake walks into a store, picks up an object and says, "How much is 1?" The clerk says $1.00. Jakes says, "Okay, here's $3.00. I'll take 111."

What is he buying?

Cool Runnings

Tom said it best (he always does).
When it comes to the Catholic Blog Awards,
Happy Catholic is the Jamaican bobsled team.
The mere fact that somehow I slipped in is a miracle.

But that doesn't mean we can't give the Swiss a run for their money.
So, c'mon ... kiss the egg!

(And if you don't know what that means
then hie thee to a rental store and catch up on Cool Runnings)

Catholic Blog Awards Voting

Ok, y'all shouldn't have but I'm awfully happy that you did ... Happy Catholic is nominated for both Best Informative Blog and for Best Blog by a Woman.

Now, Open Book is also in both of those and is usually a runaway winner but just to be nominated is so fantastic! *kissing hands to everybody*

And we certainly can give Amy a run for the money, right? Voting is allowed once every 24 hours so I feel no compunction this year in urging everybody to vote early and vote often.

As for the other categories, many of them have more than one of my favorite blogs nominated so I am going to have to give this some deep thought. However, I will urge all at this point to vote also for The Anchoress in Best Political Blog.

Remember, it's all for fun ...

A Few Details About the Catholic Blog Awards

For those who have questions about how the nominations work or if the award voting will be actually happening, Dom has the scoop. The best part of his post? His advice to lighten up. After all, if these aren't fun then there's no point.

Divisions in Christianity

I have a real weakness for the most basic of books sometimes. Even when you think you know it all (and I definitely don't but anyway) you can always learn a bit of something new. Now I already knew this but as I recently was quite shocked (really, really stunned actually) to see on two different blogs there were commenters questioning the historical accuracy of the fact that the Catholic Church was the original Christian church. I mean, even when I didn't believe in God at all, I knew that much.

So when I saw this I thought I'd pop it in here because it is a very good and succinct explanation, even though it is highly unlikely that either of those two commenters read this blog.

There were no major divisions among Christianity until AD 1054, when the Orthodox and Catholic Churches parted company. Until then, for a thousand years there had been one Christian church, with the bishop of Rome (also known as the pope) as patriarch of the West and the other bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and finally Constantinople as fellow partiarchs of the East. The schism between the (Greek) Orthodox and the (Roman) Catholics later subdivided into the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches in the East (AD 1448) and the Catholic and the Protestant churches in the West (since the Reformation in AD 1517). Before the schism of the eleventh century, the terms "Catholic" and "Christian" were often used synonymously by believers in both the East and the West because "catholic" merely meant "universal" (from the Greek word katholikos).

Women in the Bible For Dummies

Whew!

More Mensa

Find the word that fits the definitions below when it's: (1) a whole word and (2) divided into two words.

1. Whole word: pained expression
2. Two words: (a) severe (b) star performer
   

Fellini Would Have Been Proud

We caught the end of the opening ceremonies in Turin ... our minds were boggled. I guess that opening ceremonies are the Olympic funnybone. Although they sure know how to light a torch with style ... once the poor thing finally gets there.

Without a Doubt

If there is someone on your blogroll who makes your world a better place just because that person exists and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence on your blog.

Not just someone but many, many "ones" who have enriched my life both through their blog and through coming to visit mine. Via TO who is one of them.

A Little Poem for Advertising Agencies

When a client proves refractory,
Show a picture of his factory.
If the boss still moans and sighs,
Make his logo twice the size.
But only in the direst cases
Ever show the clients' faces.

Attributed to David Ogilvy

Brought to mind by a client who wanted his bio on his website because "his customers" were complaining. Right. His customers ... what an ego.

Podcast Spotlight

CATHOLIC MORMON PODCAST
I ignored this podcast at first, thinking that anyone who thought there was such a thing as a Catholic Mormon was very, very confused. Luckily, I later saw a description and gave it a try. Rob was a cradle Catholic who had fallen away from the Church. Sarah was a devout Mormon. They met, fell in love and knew they needed to resolve their religious differences. Searching for the truth they spent alternate weekends at RCIA and with Mormon missionaries for a year. At the end of it all, Rob was back in the Church and Sarah was undecided. It took another year of RCIA for her to feel that Catholic was the way to go.

This podcast is done for those who may be on a similar path, no matter what the religions at odds among mixed religion couples. Rob and Sarah take turns talking about different aspects of the world's largest Christian religion (Catholicism) and the world's fastest growing religion (Mormonism). They have an easy going and personable style.

I have found it very informative about the Mormon faith. They have been generally accurate about Catholicism (just off on a few details that have been relatively minor so far) so I think they probably are at least that accurate about the Mormon faith as well.

If you have questions about either faith, or how they relate to each other, this is a great place to start getting some answers.