Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent

St. Joseph

Today we’re sharing the example of two saints whose feasts days fell during the week.

As in other areas of Christian life, St. Joseph is a great exemplar for us of Lenten virtues that we would do well to ponder and emulate.

He first teaches us about the silence needed in Lent. The state of the desert is meant to be one of exterior and interior silence, when we remove ourselves from the distractions that crowd our lives with so much noise that we can’t hear God and so much clutter that we can’t see Him. St. Joseph is a man of silence, who didn’t speak a word in Sacred Scripture. Silence is not so much an emptying but an active listening to the God who in silence speaks. In 2005, Pope Benedict stated that in a world like ours, which does not foster quiet and recollection, we all need to be “infected” with St. Joseph’s silence so that we can hear God’s voice.

Second, St. Joseph teaches us about the obedience Lent cultivates. Lent is about learning to obey as Christ obeyed. St. Joseph shows us the way. We see his prompt obedience in his response to God who spoke to him in dreams not to be afraid to receive Mary into his home, to arise and flee with Jesus and Mary to Egypt, and to return with them to Galilee. It would have been easy for Joseph, even in a pre-Freudian age, to deconstruct these dreams according to the standard of his conscious desires. Each dream was asking him to do something life-changing: to alter his notion of what his marriage would entail, to leave his job and his relatives completely behind and journey through the desert; to return once life was settled. In each of these circumstances, however, Joseph obeyed immediately. He teaches us how to have Christ’s obedient mindset.

Prayer to St. Joseph

To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our afflictions, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.

As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.

Amen

See more about St. Joseph here

Fifth Sunday of Lent

To help you take this prayer to heart, you can pray the words, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,” every time you do one of the following:

do a kind deed for someone.
become the recipient of a kind deed.
take a moment to rest.
think of someone they love.
think of someone they dislike.
hear someone compliment another.
see someone in need of help.

This practice will remind you to see Christ in the people they encounter, which will help you grow in friendship with the Lord.

Lent is a time of spiritual renewal for all of us. By taking St. Patrick’s Breastplate to heart, people will draw closer to God and one another.

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

AMEN

Lent is a time to think of others

Times are difficult for everyone at the moment particularly the most vulnerable people in the world. This week perhaps we can help the Lenten Campaign of Trocaire. Trocaire is the overseas development agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which facilitates. our commitment to the needs of the Third World.