Month: November 2017

“And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
–Luke 1: 46-48

Meditation
This feast day commemorates the date when Mary visited St. Catherine Laboure in 1830 in Paris, France. There, Our Lady gave St. Catherine the image of the miraculous medal and asked her to have a medal struck out of it. She told Catherine that great graces would flow for those who wore the medal. Originally, the medal didn’t have a name. However, that changed pretty quickly. St. Catherine had the medal made, and hundreds of thousands of people requested their own medal to wear around their necks. Great graces were poured out over all those who wore the medal. Several miracles were attributed to this medal, and it very quickly received its name.

Live It! Practical Tip of the Week: Get a Miraculous Medal and have it blessed by a priest. Wear it around your neck, and God will do miraculous things in your life.

Prayer
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

“And (Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Luke 2:51-52

Meditation
If our ultimate desire as humans is to encounter God the Father, how are we to do it? Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that we preeminently see God the Father in the face of His Son, Jesus Christ: “In His Face we truly see who God is and what He looks like!” Now, who contemplated the face of Christ more than anyone else? Mary and Joseph – a mom and a dad! Where did they do it? In their home! For this reason, the Holy Family was truly “paradise on earth” – God was present, their hearts were one in love for God the Father and each other, and evil was banished outside. We are not only capable but called to imitate the Holy Family in establishing a similar paradise in our own homes. This is truly how the Kingdom of God blossoms on earth! As Pope St. John Paul II stated, “The future of the world and of the Church pass by way of the family.” Therefore, be a saint in your home because that is where charity begins.

Live It! Practical Tip of the Week: Be a saint in your home with hearts full of love. Find Christ’s hidden face in your spouse and children. Keep anything evil on the outside. Experience a foretaste of Paradise.

Prayer
St. Joseph,
Mystery hidden from the wise and learned,
But revealed to the little ones.
Take me to Nazareth and train me in your ways.
Reveal to me Christ’s hidden face present in my children.
Unveil for me the love of the Holy Spirit present in my spouse.
Teach me to manifest for them the Father who is rich in mercy.
Help me to exclude all evil from my heart and my home,
So that we might find union with God,
And experience his love, peace and joy.
Amen.
– By Steve Bollman

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.”
– John 14:8

Meditation
When we hear the Apostle Philip’s words to Christ, is there something that resonates deep within us? This passage speaks to our ultimate desire as humans, to know God the Father and experience His merciful love. Fatherhood is not simply a man-made concept but a spiritual reality of our being made in the “image and likeness” of God! St. John Paul II stated, “Men reveal and re-live on earth the very fatherhood of God.” Wow! Fatherhood is not just something men do. It is who they are. So where do we look to know how to live our fatherhood? Christ’s response to Philip points us back to Himself: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” We are first and foremost called to look to Christ. However, where did Christ learn humanly how to be a father? From St. Joseph! His authentic fatherhood of Christ, though not physical, was absolutely real. Therefore, let us look to St. Joseph to understand how fatherhood goes much deeper than mere biology; it is truly a spiritual reality.

Live It! Practical Tip of the Week: Meditate on the last 3 Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary – the Birth of Christ, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Finding in the Temple. Consider the role of St. Joseph as a spiritual father to Jesus in each of these mysteries as you pray. Then, pick one concrete way you can imitate St. Joseph with your own children this week.

Prayer
St. Joseph,
Mystery hidden from the wise and learned,
But revealed to the little ones.
Take me to Nazareth and train me in your ways.
Reveal to me Christ’s hidden face present in my children.
Unveil for me the love of the Holy Spirit present in my spouse.
Teach me to manifest for them the Father who is rich in mercy.
Help me to exclude all evil from my heart and my home,
So that we might find union with God,
And experience his love, peace and joy.
Amen.
– By Steve Bollman

“The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them
even as thou hast loved me.”
– John 17:22-23

Meditation
The mysteries of marriage and family life hidden in the Holy Family are truly incredible! One mystery in particular, the call to perpetual virginity of Mary and Joseph, can teach us an important truth: physical union is meant to be an expression of a deeper spiritual union. In an approved apparition in Brazil, St. Joseph stated, “We lived a Trinitarian love, but it was a love united in the act of offering to the Eternal Father. Our hearts melted into the purest love as though becoming one heart living in three persons.” In Christ, all marriages are called to this spiritual union! If we miss spiritual union, we miss the most important aspect of the marital union. May we ever grow closer in our love for one another and in our love for God the Father.

Live It! Practical Tip of the Week: Be closer to your spouse spiritually than you are physically. Pray with your spouse and for your spouse every day. Be one in heart for love of God the Father.

Prayer
St. Joseph,
Mystery hidden from the wise and learned,
But revealed to the little ones.
Take me to Nazareth and train me in your ways.
Reveal to me Christ’s hidden face present in my children.
Unveil for me the love of the Holy Spirit present in my spouse.
Teach me to manifest for them the Father who is rich in mercy.
Help me to exclude all evil from my heart and my home,
So that we might find union with God,
And experience his love, peace and joy.
Amen.
– By Steve Bollman