St. Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power by The Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P. - Chapter 2, Section 5-7

Section V.

Tradition on the Invocation of Saints.

The Tradition of the Church, from the earliest ages, proves to demonstration the Catholic doctrine of the Invocation and Intercession of the Saints. We have before us such abundance of material, what the French so happily call, embarras de richesses, that we regret that the object our little book, "Devotion to St. Joseph," compels us to confine ourselves to a few passages.

THE CATACOMBS OF ROME.

Every student of history knows that, in the first ages of Christianity, the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs were deposited in the Catacombs. The emblems and inscriptions on the walls of those venerable cemeteries, fresh to this day, attest the belief of those who cheerfully shed their blood for Jesus Christ. 0n the tomb of the martyr Sabbatius was found, in the year 1694, the following inscription:—

"Sabbatius, sweet soul, pray and entreat for thy brethren and comrades." *

We read on another tomb:—

"Atticus, thy spirit is in bliss, pray for thy parents."

0n the tomb of Priscilla was found the following invocation:—

"Anatolinus made this monument to his well-deserving son, who lived seven years. May thy spirit rest well in God, and thou pray for thy sister."

0n another:—

"Pray for us, because thee know thou art in Christ."

We shall give only one more inscription lately found in the Catacomb of St. Agnes:

"Young and innocent Dionysius, sleeps here with the Saints, remember us all in your holy prayers, especially the sculptor and the writer."

Now, no Protestants can deny or doubt that the faith was pure and undefiled in those early ages. Those early Christians received the faith from the Apostles themselves, or from their immediate successors. And what do we find? The Christians of that time, as we Catholics to-day, invoked the aid of the Saints of God in Paradise. They then carried their lives in their hands, and were prepared to meet, and did meet, death in its fiercest shape with courage and fortitude; yet they, who sealed their faith with their blood, loved Jesus not less because they loved His Saints; and did no injury to the merits of Christ, as sole Mediator, by invoking, as we Catholics do to-day, the  Intercession of the Saints who reign in eternal bliss.

The blood of the martyrs was the seed of Christianity; persecution, the wicked powers of earth and hell leagued together, could not destroy the Church built upon the rock. God was pleased with the fidelity of His people; liberty dawned upon the Church; the Christians issued from their hiding-places, and by voice and pen propagated and defended the Gospel of Redemption. Hence, in the writings of the earliest Fathers, we find passages that clearly prove the doctrine of the Catholic Church on the Invocation of Saints.

We shall quote only a few Fathers from the Greek and Latin Churches.

Section VI.

Early Greek Fathers on the Invocation of Saints.

0rigen, who was born in the year 185, and died in the year 253, writes thus: "And of all the holy men who have quitted this life, retaining their charity towards those they have left behind, we may be allowed to say that they are anxious for their salvation, and that they assist them by their prayers and their mediation with God." 0n the Lamentations he writes: "I will fall down on my knees, and not presuming, on account of my crimes, to present my prayers to God, / will invoke all the Saints to my assistance. 0 ye Saints of heaven, I beseech you, with sorrow, full of sighs and tears, to fall at the feet of the Lord of mercies for me, a miserable sinner." St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who wrote in the fourth century, says: "We must commemorate those who are gone before us—the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs— begging that, through their prayers, God would receive our supplication. We then pray for the holy fathers and bishops that are dead; and for all the faithful departed, believing that their souls receive very great relief by the prayers that are offered for them while this holy and tremendous victim lies upon the altar." This passage clearly proves the Catholic doctrine on Purgatory as well as on the Invocation of Saints.

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, who flourished in the fourth century, and died in the year 338, writes: "May we be found worthy by the prayers and Intercession of the Saints."

St. Ephrem, the glory of the Syrian Church, in the fourth century, prays to the Saints thus: "I entreat you, holy Martyrs, who have suffered so much for the Lord, that you would intercede for us with Him, that He bestow His grace on us." In another place the Saint prays: "We fly to thy patronage, Holy Mother of God; protect and guard us under the wings of thy mercy and kindness. Most merciful God, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the Angels and Saints, show pity to thy creature."* These words, written more than 1,500 years ago, clearly prove that Christians then believed and prayed as we Catholics do to-day.

We might quote passages from St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, and other Fathers, &c, but we shall content ourselves with one more Greek Father, St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, who was the glory of the Church in the fourth century, and died in the year 379. St. Basil, in his panegyric on the forty martyrs, says: "These are they who, having taken possession of our country, stand as towers against the incursions of the enemy. Here is a ready aid to Christians. 0ften you have endeavoured, often you have toiled, to gain one intercessor. Thou have now forty, all emitting one common prayer. Whoever is oppressed by care has recourse to their aid, as he has that prospers: the first, to seek deliverance; the second, that his good fortune may continue. The pious mother is found praying for her children, and the wife for the return and health of her husband. 0 ye common guardians of the human race, co-operators in our prayers, most powerful messengers, stars of the world and flowers of churches, let us join our prayers with yours."

From the above passages it is as clear as the light of day, that in the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries, the Greek Fathers of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Syria, Caesarea, and Constantinople, believed and prayed, as we Catholics do to-day in the nineteenth century. The faith of the Catholic Church is as immutable as God Himself, "yesterday, and to-day, and the same forever" (Heb. xiii. 8).

Section VII.

The early Latin Fathers on the Invocation of Saints

St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who flourished in the third century, and sealed his faith with his blood in the year 258, writes

"Let us be mindful of one another in our prayers; with one mind and with one heart, in this world and in the next, let us always pray, with mutual charity, relieving our sufferings and afflictions. And may the charity of him, who, by the Divine favour, shall first depart hence, still persevere before the Lord; may his prayer for our brethren and sisters not cease." Therefore, according to St. Cyprian, after death, as in life, we are to pray for one another.

St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, who wrote in the fourth century, and died in the year 397, writes: "' Peter and Andrew interceded for the widow' (Luke, iv. 38). It were well if we could obtain so speedy an intercessor; but, surely, they who implored the Lord for their relative can do the same for us. You see that she who was a sinner was little fitting to pray for herself, or at least to obtain what she asked. 0ther intercessors to the Physician were, therefore, necessary. The Angels, who are appointed to be our guardians, must be invoked; and the Martyrs likewise, whose bodies seemed to be a pledge for their patronage. They who, in their blood, washed away every stain of sin, can implore forgiveness for us: they are our guides, and see our lives and actions; to them, therefore, we should not blush to have recourse."

We shall quote but one more Latin Father, the great St. Augustin, who was born at Tagastum, in Africa, in the year 354, one of the greatest lights and Doctors of the Church of God. "The Christian people," writes the Saint, "celebrate the memories of the martyrs with a religious solemnity, in order that they may learn to imitate them, and may be associated to their merits, and be aided by their prayers." In another place be writes: "It is a proof of kind regard towards the dead when their bodies are deposited near the monuments of Saints. But in what are they thus aided, unless in this, that recollecting the place where they lie, we be induced to recommend them to the patronage of those Saints for their prayers to God. Calling, therefore, to mind the grave of a departed friend, and the near monument of the venerable martyr, we naturally commend the soul to his prayers. And that the souls of those will be thereby benefited who so lived as to deserve it, there can be no doubt."*

We might site passages from other Latin Fathers, but the above quotations clearly prove that St. Augustin preached the Invocation of Saints at Hippo, St. Cyprian at Carthage, and St. Ambrose at Milan, and that in the third and fourth centuries.

St. Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power by The Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P. - Chapter 2, Section 3 & 4

Section III.

The 0ld Testament on the Invocation of Saints.

The doctrine of the Catholic Church, that the Angels and Saints pray for us, that God hears their prayers for us, and that "it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and have recourse to their prayers, aid, and help, for obtaining benefits from God, through his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is our sole Redeemer and Saviour," is clearly proved from the 0ld and New Testament, and from the tradition of the Church.

In the Old Law, Angels prayed, and God heard their prayers for His rebellious people. An Angel thus prayed for the city of Jerusalem: "And the Angel of the Lord answered, and said: 0 Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda, with which thou hast been angry? This is now the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the Angel that spoke in me good words, comfortable words . . . Therefore, thus saith the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem in mercies; My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and the building line shall be stretched forth from Jerusalem . . . My cities shall yet flow with good things, and the Lord will yet comfort Sion, and he will yet choose Jerusalem" (Zac. i. 12-17). Here the prayers of the Angel obtained mercy for Jerusalem and the cities of Juda.

The Angel Raphael said to Tobias: "When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayers to the Lord" (Tob.xii. 12). Thus an Angel offered to God the prayers of His faithful servant, Tobias.

Jacob thus prayed: "And Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph, and said: God, in whose sight my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, God that feedeth me from my youth until this day, the Angel that delivereth me from all evils, bless these boys" (Gen. xlviii. 15). Here in the same sentence, and in the same prayer, he begs of "God" and the "Angel" to bless his boys.

Angels not only pray for and help individuals, but even nations and kingdoms have their protecting spirit, as is clear from the Book of Daniel "The prince of the kingdoms of the Persians visited me one-and twenty days: and behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there by the king of the Persians" (Dan. x. 13). In the Book of Machabees, the same doctrine, in even clearer terms, is taught and confirmed. The brave Judas Maccabeus, animated with soul-stirring words his gallant army to fight and die for the Laws of God and their native hills. "So he armed every one of them, not with defence of shield and spear, but with very good speeches and exhortations, and told them a dream worthy to be believed, whereby he rejoiced them all."

"Now, this vision was in this manner: 0nias, who had been high priest, a good and virtuous man . . . holding up his hands, prayed for all the people of the Jews. After this there appeared also another man, admirable for age and glory, and environed with great beauty and majesty. Then 0nias answering, said: This is a lover of his brethren and of the people of Israel; this is he that prayeth much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremias, the Prophet of God. Whereupon Jeremias stretched forth his right hand, and gave to Judas a sword of gold, saying: Take this holy sword, a gift from God, wherewith thou shalt overthrow the adversaries of my people Israel . . . And in his prayer he said after this manner: Thou, 0 Lord, who didst send Thy Angel in the time of Ezechias, king of Judah, and didst kill a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the army of Sennacherib, send now, also, 0 Lord of heaven, Thy good Angel before us" (2 Mao. xv. 12-23).

Here we see, in the first place, that two Saints, 0nias and Jeremias, long since dead, prayed for, and promised victory to the gallant army of Judas; and, secondly, Judas prayed the Almighty to send down his "good Angel" to protect them on the battle field.

The 0ld Testament abounds ,'with many other texts to the same purpose; but those already cited clearly prove the belief of the Jewish Church in the Invocation and Intercession of the Angels and Saints in paradise.

Section IV.

The New Testament on the Invocation of Saints.

This holy doctrine, this belief in the Intercession and Invocation of the Angels and Saints, is continued and confirmed in the the New Testament. 

We shall content ourselves with a few passages. In the Apocalypse, St. John writes: "And I saw seven Angels standing in the presence of God: and there were given to them seven trumpets. And another Angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the Angel" (chap. viii. 2-4). And again : " When he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four-and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having everyone of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of Saints " (Apoc. v. 8).

In the 0ld Testament, as we have seen, an Angel offered to God the prayers of Tobias. This doctrine is confirmed in the New Testament; for in the text just cited, we find "the prayers of Saints" offered to God by the hands of Angels in "golden censers" and "golden vials."

The same Evangelist prays thus: "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from Him that is, and that was, and that is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (chap. i. 4). Here St. John, in the same breath, and in the same terms, prays for "grace" and "peace" from " God" from praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same, watching with all instance and supplication for all the Saints" (Eph. vi. 18). Writing to the Thessalonians, the Saint says: "Brethren, pray for me" (1 Thes. v. 25). One text more. St. Paul to the Philippians says: "For I know that this shall fall out unto my salvation through your prayers" (Phil. i. 19). Here St. Paul, in the clearest terms, craves, covets, and values the prayers of his brethren. Now, if God's Servants oil earth, surrounded, as they are, with all the frailties to which flesh is heir to, can help and aid us, as St. Paul teaches us that they can, by their prayers, how much more the Saints who reign with God in glory.

That God shows mercy to sinners, through the prayers of His Servants on earth, is clearly proved from the following passage from holy Job: 'God said to Job's friends: My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, because you have not spoken the thing that is right before me, as my servant Job hath. Take unto you therefore seven oxen and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer for yourselves a holocaust: and my servant Job shall pray for you : his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you: for you have not spoken right thing* before me, as my servant Job hath. So Eliphaz, the Themanite and Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite went, and did as the Lord had spoken to them, and the Lord accepted the face of Job. The Lord also was turned at the penance of Job, when he prayed for his friends " (Job, xlii. 7-10).

We might quote many other texts to show how often the prayers of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and especially those of the prayers of Moses, obtained mercy and pardon from God for their faithless and sinful people.

Now, if it be lawful and profitable, and the word of God clearly proves it to be so, to ask the prayers of God's Servants on earth, how much more so must it be to desire and to obtain the prayers of those who reign with God in glory? If mortal man, who on earth "falls seven times," can pray for, and help his fellow-creature, how much more the soul that, in the Beatific Vision, sees God ,;face to face." If the soul of man, confined within the prison of the body, fettered and chained down by the corrupt frailties of human nature; and, moreover, sullied in the sight of God by so many lesser stains and sins, which no man during this life can avoid, yet can nevertheless pray for and help the sinful, is it not just and reasonable to believe that that soul when released from the prison of the body, freed from all human frailty, clothed with immortality, illumined by the glory of Paradise, absorbed, so to speak, in the infinite ocean of God's sanctity and loveliness, and thus become pure and holier in the eyes of God, has far more power to help those she prays for on earth?

But Protestants will say, that to ask the prayers of the Saints is injurious to the merits of Christ as our sole Mediator. Now, they must admit that it is lawful to ask the prayers of the living; and if the prayers of the Servants of God on earth detract not from the merits of the Redeemer, how can the Intercession of the Saints in heaven be injurious to Christ as our sole Mediator? Did St. John sin against the merits of Christ when he prayed for "grace " and "peace" "from the seven spirits" that stand before the throne of God? Did St. Paul detract from the merits of Christ when he so often asked the prayers of his brethren? 0n the contrary, it redounds to the merits of Christ; for the prayers of the Saints derive all their efficacy from the merits of Jesus Christ alone, as our sole Mediator.

Protestants yet reply, and say, the Angels and Saints cannot and do not know what is passing on earth, and have no concern with the affairs of men.

It requires no very heavy artillery to storm this last fortress. 0ur Blessed Saviour tells us, "there shall be joy before the Angels of God upon one sinner doing penance" (Luke, xv. 10). Now, penance or conversion is an interior act of the soul; how could the Angels rejoice at the conversion of sinners unless they knew what passes in the hearts of men? St. John says, "Another Angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given to him much incense that he should offer up the prayers of all the Saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God" (Apoc. viii. 3). Prayer is an act of the soul; how could the Angel " offer up the prayers of all the Saints," if he did not know them? Hence it is clear that the Angels know what passes in the souls of men.

We shall cite only one text more out of the many. The rich glutton in hell said to Abraham, " Then, father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him (Lazarus) to my father's house, for I have five brethren. That he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them" (Luke, xvi. 27).

From this it is clear that Abraham, though dead several hundred years, knew all about Moses, the Prophets, their writings; and hence all that was passing on earth. Therefore, from the inspired word of God, we must conclude that the Saints and Angels take an interest in the affairs of men, and know our secret thoughts and acts.

'Angels, Archangels," sings Holy Church, "Thrones and Dominations, Principalities and Powers, Virtues, Cherubim and Seraphim, Patriarchs and Prophets, holy Doctors of the law, Apostles, all ye Martyrs of Christ, holy Confessors, Virgins of the Lord, Anchorites, and all Saints, intercede for us" (Brev.). the "seven spirits," and from "Jesus Christ;" just as the Catholic  prays, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, help me;" "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me in my last agony."

No Protestant can deny that it is lawful to ask the prayers of the living, of God's Servants on earth, and that the living can intercede for, and help each other by their prayers; nay, more, that the prayers of the just on earth often obtain pardon and mercy for the sinner. St. Paul clearly proves this doctrine. He says: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to God'' (Rom. xv. 30). Again, "By all prayer and supplication,

St. Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power by The Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P. - Chapter 2, Section 1 & 2

CHAPTER II.

Section I.

The Doctrine of the Catholic Church on the Invocation of Saints, and on that of St. Joseph.


Before we begin to explain sweet and unctuous devotion to our holy patron, St. Joseph, a clear and simple exposition of the teaching of the Catholic Church on the Invocation of Saints, cannot fail to edify all, and, perhaps, enlighten some, of our pious readers. "Thy testimonies," cries out the Royal Prophet, "are wonderful . . . The declaration of thy words giveth light, and giveth understanding to little ones." (Ps. cxiii.).  The stamp or seal of the Church upon any Devotion carries with it absolute certainty. The seal of the ruling prince upon the current ore certifies to his subjects that the glittering coin is not gilt, but genuine gold; in like manner, the seal or approbation of the Church upon any Devotion is an absolute guarantee to the faithful that the Devotion is solid, in accordance with sound doctrine, and conducive to life everlasting. The intelligent Catholic ought to go farther; he ought to be able to give an account of the faith that is in him, and to refute and conquer, with the arms the Church puts into his hands, the impious heretic and unbeliever.


In this evil age, when bold and defiant infidelity stalks abroad, and attacks and scoffs at every sacred truth of our holy faith; when the most powerful governments of the world, and men in the highest station, as well as men of talents and learning, have leagued with the powers of darkness to rob the people of their faith, and destroy the Church of Jesus Christ, every Catholic should not only glory in his holy religion, and defend it, even, if necessary, to the shedding of his heart's blood; but should also be instructed and prepared to defend the faith, practices, and devotions of his holy Church.


Nothing, even the most sacred, has escaped the lash and insults of wicked men. "The fool," says the sacred Text, "said in his heart: there is no God. They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities: There is none that doth good. God looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together" (Ps. lii. 1-4). If there be wicked men—and they are a legion—who blaspheme God, as they do, no wonder that they should insult God's Saints. If impious men, in the pride of their intellect and heart, deny, as they do, the Divinity of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, what wonder, then, that they should ridicule the Mother and the reputed Father of the Redeemer, Mary and St. Joseph. And what is more to be deplored, these men calling themselves Christians, are so blinded by foul and damning heresy, that they think they honour God by insulting Bus Saints, and that they please Jesus by blaspheming His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. May God open their eyes to see the truth, and move their hearts to embrace it.


0ne of the most sublime and noble occupation of the genius of man is to " vindicate the ways of God to man," and to defend the Doctrines of God's holy Church.
Though simple devotion, not controversy, is our aim, yet we deem it a great privilege, yea, a labour of love, to defend, feebly, indeed, yet as best we can, the prerogatives of God's great Servants, and especially to trumpet the glories of Mary, the Mother of Jesus; and the sanctity and privileges of St. Joseph, the reputed Father of our Blessed Redeemer.


Before we touch on the arguments in favour of the Invocation of Saints, it is well to lay down clearly and distinctly the doctrine of the Catholic Church on this article of faith. For this we have only to refer to the Decrees of the Infallible Council of Trent.


"The holy Synod," declare the Fathers, "enjoins upon all bishops, and others who sustain the office and charge of teaching, that agreeably to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive times of the Christian religion; and agreeably to the consent of the holy Fathers, and to the Decrees of sacred Councils; they especially instruct the faithful diligently concerning the Intercession and Invocation of Saints . . . teaching them that the Saints who reign with Christ offer up their own prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful, suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and help, for obtaining benefits from God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is our sole Redeemer and Saviour; but that they think impiously who deny that the Saints, who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked; or who assert either that they do not pray for men, or that the Invocation of them to pray for each of us in particular is idolatry, or that it is repugnant to the word of God, and is opposed to the honour of the one mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus; or that it is foolish to supplicate vocally or mentally those who reign in heaven " (Sess. xxv.).


From this Decree, the teaching of the Catholic Church is, first, that the invocation of the Saints is, not absolutely necessary for each one's salvation, but is "good" and "useful;" secondly, that the aids and helps come to us, not directly from the Saints themselves, but from God, through their intercession and prayers; thirdly, that Jesus Christ is the sole and only Mediator between God and men, and that the intercession and prayers of the Saints derive all their efficacy and power from Him alone; and hence that the Intercession of the Saints is not injurious to the merits of Christ. "It is good and useful," says the Council, as we have seen, "suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and helps, for obtaining benefits from God, through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our sole Redeemer and Saviour . . . one Mediator of God and men."

Section II.

Communion of Saints.

How divine, and hence consoling, are the doctrines of the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church alone satisfies the reason of the intellect, as well as the feelings and the aspirations of the heart. The Divine Author of our faith is the same God who stamped His own image on the soul of man, and breathed into his heart pure and warm love. The great Creator has lighted up the heart of man with ardent, tender love for family and friends. To-day the family chain is broken; there is a missing link, a loved and loving one is gone to her everlasting account; here we are consoled by the doctrine of purgatory. Separation from this vale of tears only purifies and intensifies our affections for the dear departed. How happy the children feel that they can kneel and pray over the graves of their fond parents, and help them to the enjoyment of eternal bliss! But more heartless and cruel than the tyrant death, and colder than the grave, is the Protestant Creed, that snaps all connection between the living and the dead, and sternly forbids the loving daughter to whisper a prayer for a fond mother or sister in pain beyond the grave.


Consoling and holy, because divine, in like manner is the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. Every Christian says in the "Apostles' Cubed," "I Believe In The Communion Of Saints." Singular enough, Protestants retain the same Creed, make the same profession of faith; yet few appear to understand it, none to believe or practise it.  The Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints soars up, so to speak, to the highest and most purified affections and aspirations of the human heart, and strikingly illustrates the tender mercy of God.


A loved and loving member of the family circle departs this life, and wings her flight to paradise. The soul now lost, so to speak, in the blissful glory of God, vividly sees what it is to lose or win heaven. From St. Paul we know that faith and hope have ceased in heaven, that charity, the queen of virtues, reigns supreme; in fact, love is the essence of eternal bliss. What, therefore, is more natural than the belief that the child possessing the glory of God, looks down to those she loved on earth; looks, with a purer, holier, and more intensified love, to her fond parents, sisters, and brothers; watches over them, prays for them, never forsakes them, till with herself they reign with God in glory.


Nobody denies that friends on earth can pray for and help each other. What is more natural than to believe that this friendship is continued and intensified beyond the grave, and that the friendly soul, seeing the thousand temptations, dangers, and fearful risks to which her friend is exposed; and knowing the infinite and everlasting joys he can so easily obtain by a few years strife and fidelity, with unspeakably more energy and efficacy helps her friends to paradise.


There is another, and, perhaps, a greater consolation in the " Communion Of Saints." The Communion Of Saints means, the mutual interchange of good offices between the Church militant and the Church triumphant; between us on earth and all the Saints of God in glory. We honour, respect, love them, and thank, and praise God for their glory and happiness; the Saints, on their part, take the deepest interest in our spiritual welfare, watch over us, and continually pray and intercede with the Almighty for the salvation of our immortal souls.


It is encouraging, to know, therefore, that we, in our exile, in this vale of tears, exposed to countless temptations day and night, giving battle to three powerful and relentless enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil— the road of salvation beset with innumerable pitfalls, dangers, and risks; it is, we repeat, encouraging to look up to heaven, and to be assured that we have in heaven a mighty army, countless millions of Angels and Saints, who look down upon us with sympathy, take a deep interest in, and help us, in our struggles, and intercede with God for our eternal salvation.


Each country has her natural heroes, men renowned for deeds of greatness, sacrifice, and courage. These heroes are immortalized by the brush and the chisel, by prose and song, and are kept before the eyes of each rising generation as models of imitation and emulation. The Church, too, has had, in every age, her heroes, men renowned for deeds of sacrifice and greatness; she has had her. Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins; men who conquered the world, the flesh, and the devil; men who in human flesh have led the lives of Angels in heaven, and the lustre of whose virtues shine brighter as age succeeds age. These are the models the Church holds up to the youth of every age to admire, imitate, or emulate

St. Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power by The Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P. - Chapter 1, Section 2 & 3

SECTION II.
Mary.

After the great and holy names of God, the Blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and Jesus the Incarnate Son of God; and all the titles and names applicable to God alone, and which no creature dare assume—the next dearest and sweetest name on the Christian's lips is the name of Mary. The name Mary signifies "Sovereign Lady;" and how just are Mary's claims to this superb and unique title; for she is the Sovereign Queen of heaven and earth; crowned, not by the hands of an earthly monarch, but by the King of heaven, her own Divine Son, with the brightest diadem of glory.

The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Redeemer, Mother of God; and hence, in the mind of the Almighty from all eternity, she entered largely into the scheme of man's Redemption. After his fall, Adam was cast out of paradise upon a cold, lonely, bleak world; and the first gladdening ray of hope that shone upon his sad, despairing soul, was reflected from the star of Mary. The serpent seduced Eve, and through Eve fell Adam, drawing with him in his fall the whole human family. God promised a second Eve. "I will put enmities," said God to the serpent, "between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head" (Gen. iii. 15). Centuries rolled by; God sent Patriarchs and Prophets who foretold the lineage, name, and glories of Mary; and even the very year of Redemption. Among others, the Prophet Isaias thus writes: "Hear ye, therefore, 0 house of David, . . . the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (vii. 13).

We need no apology to the devout clients of Mary for transcribing from the 0ld Testament a few of the many exquisite passages applied by the Fathers, and by the Church in her Liturgy to the Blessed Virgin Mary. "And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut: it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut. For the Prince. The Prince Himself shall sit in it" (Ezek. xliv. 2).

Again: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung up. The mountains, with their huge bulk, had not as yet been established; before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was present, when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths. When He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters. When He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when he balanced the foundations of the earth, I was with Him forming all things" (Prov. viii. 22).
God, from all eternity, had destined the Blessed Virgin to be the Mother of Je us; from the pure blood of Mary's Immaculate Heart was formed, by the power and operation of the Holy Ghost, the Body of Jesus; so that Mary's heart was the remote fountain or source of the Precious Blood of Redemption. No wonder, then, that the Almighty showered upon the Blessed Virgin His choicest blessings in their plenitude. God was pleased, so to speak, with the work of His Hands; and seeing Mary's soul so pure, so chaste, so immaculate, so perfect, He thus saluted her: "Thou art all fair, 0 my love, and there is no spot in thee" (Can. iv. 7); "Thou art beautiful, 0 my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem .... One is my dove, my perfect one is but one. She is the only one." (Can. vi. 8.)

The New Testament verifies the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Blessed Virgin, and trumpet-tongued proclaims her dignity and sanctity. The Archangel Gabriel is the ambassador, sent from heaven by the most adorable Trinity, to treat with Mary concerning the Incarnation.

With what respect and reverence the Archangel treats the future Mother of God. The Gospel says: "The Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: Hail, full of grace: the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among women ... Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus" (Luke, i. 26, &c.). Thus God's Ambassador, in the inspired text, proclaims Mary's sanctity, styles her "full of grace;" announces that she had "found grace with God;" that "the Lord is with her;" and that she is "blessed among women." "With what respect, therefore, and fervour ought we ever to recite that sweet prayer, the "Hail Mary "—a prayer first pronounced on earth by the lips of the Archangel Gabriel. O Mary! may we love and recite daily and piously the holy Rosary, that sweet Canticle in honour of Jesus and Mary.

St. John the Baptist, while yet unborn, recognised the presence of Jesus, and of Mary His Mother, and was sanctified in his mother's womb. The Gospel thus narrates it: "And Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she entered into the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb: and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me. For behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. . . . And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." (Luke, i. 39, &o.)

In this sublime Gospel we find that St. Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Ghost," proclaimed the Blessed Virgin to be the mother of her Lord, and pronounced her "blessed;" and the unborn babe "leaped for joy '' in his mother's womb. And the Blessed Virgin, inspired by the Holy Ghost, prophesied "behold all generations shall call me blessed."

Thus, the 0ld Testament, as applied by the Fathers, styles the Blessed Virgin, " the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel;" "the enclosed garden;" "the sealed up fountain," "all fair,'' "without spot," "beautiful,sweet, and comely;" the " only one," the "perfect one;" the New Testament pronounces her "full of grace," and having "found grace with God;" and in no fewer than four places styles her "blessed," and proclaims that "all generations shall call her blessed."

From the authority, therefore, of the inspired Volume, we conclude, as we have before stated, after the sacred and holy names of the Blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; after the sweet name of Jesus, and all the holy titles given to our Blessed Lord, as God, and God Incarnate; that the next dearest, sweetest, and holiest name in heaven above, as well as on earth below, is MARY, THE BLESSED VIRGIN, THE MOTHER OF GOD. "When we speak of Mary, we speak of Jesus; speaking of her grandeur. we speak of God's own grandeur. After God nothing in heaven or on earth is greater than Mary, writes the devout Cardinal de Berulle. 0 Mary Immaculate, Mother of God! pray for us, watch over us, obtain for us from Jesus thy Divine Son, the grace to serve and to love Jesus all the days of our life.

SECTION III.
St. Joseph.

After the most sacred, and most adorable name of Jesus; after the sweet and holy name of Mary, the Mother of Jesus; the next dearest and most loving name, on the lips of the pious Christian, is that of St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, and the chaste spouse of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

If the Prophet Jeremias Was sanctified, as he was in his mother's womb, because he was destined to announce to the world the mysteries and revelations of the Almighty; if St. John the Baptist, whose eminent sanctity we have from the Divine lips of Jesus Himself, when He announced that none greater was born of woman, was sanctified, as St. John was, before he was born, because his mission was to baptise the Saviour, to point out the Redeemer in person, to say, "Behold, the Lamb of God;" surely, it is just and reasonable to believe, that signal favours, special privileges, and unique graces must have been showered, in the plenitude of their abundance by the Almighty upon St. Joseph, whose mission was of a far higher order than that of the Prophet Jeremias, or of St. John the Baptist; and whose privilege it was to approach nearer to Jesus than any other person, except the Blessed Virgin.

The heavenly appointed mission of St. Joseph was twofold. First, he was chosen by the Almighty from among the sons of men to be the spouse and guardian of the purest of virgins, the Immaculate Mother of God. "0 sublime elevation," exclaims a pious author, "0 admirable dignity of Joseph! whom the Mother of God, the Queen of heaven, deemed worthy to call her spouse." "The Evangelists," writes St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, "say but very little of the life and virtues of St. Joseph; but when they call him the spouse of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, they give him the most glorious title possible; for he was nearest to Mary, the purest creature ever made by God Almighty." Secondly, St. Joseph was chosen by God to be the guardian and protector of Jesus, as well as of Mary; by the labour of his hands to minister to their wants and comforts, and to be the Head of the Holy Family.

St. Joseph—first after Mary—heard from an Angel sent from heaven by the Almighty the secret of the mystery of the Incarnation. St. Joseph—by God's special order—was the Protector of Mary, and of Jesus before He was born; St. Joseph—first after Mary — adored and reverentially kissed the Infant Saviour in the crib at Bethlehem; St. Joseph watched over and protected the Divine Infancy of the Redeemer, and, at the bidding of an Angel, fled with Jesus and Mary into Egypt, to escape the hands of the cruel Herod. By the labour of the hands of St. Joseph, our Blessed Saviour received for years His daily bread; and, finally, St. Joseph died in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Enter a cathedral, a church, or a little country chapel by the mountain side, or shut in the bog—the high Altar is dedicated to God Almighty, or the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the Altar or statue at the Gospel side is sure to be under the invocation of Mary the Mother of God; the next in dignity and order is an altar or statue at the Epistle side in honour of St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary, and the reputed father and guardian of Jesus, our Blessed Saviour. Here we see the instinct of Catholic faith; we have the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

God knows the wants of His Church ; He knows "the times and the seasons ;" in her days of trial and need He raises up in her defence new friends and new protectors; hence, special systematic devotion to St. Joseph, like that to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, has, under the inspiration of God, grown up, and home abundant fruit, in the Church of the nineteenth century.

To explain—especially to the poor and uneducated—in the most simple manner, the nature of this solid and holy devotion to St. Joseph, and by God's grace to make our great Saint better known, and hence better loved, for God's greater glory, in honour of His Incarnate Son, who deigned to be reputed the son of Joseph; and to obtain for ourselves the grace of a happy death, through the intercession of St. Joseph, who died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, and hence the patron of a happy death, will form the subject of the following pages.

All the beauty of the most exquisite statue ever chiseled, all the perfections of the painting on the canvass, are reflected on the genius of the artist; so all the sanctity of the saints emanates from God alone, and proclaim His wisdom, power, and glory. "Wonderful is God in his saints" (Ps.lxvii. 36). "Blessed be God in his angels and saints."

PIOUS REFLECTION.

My soul! how dear and sweet the holy names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jesus is thy God, thy Blessed Saviour and dear Redeemer. Jesus will be thy Judge, and hereafter may Jesus be thy reward in paradise. Mary is the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus, and thy Mother and advocate. St. Joseph is the reputed father of Jesus, the chaste spouse of Mary, and the patron of a happy death.

RESOLUTION.

0 Jesus! my God, my love, and my all. 0 Jesus! my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Judge. "Too late have I known Thee, too late have I loved Thee." 0 Mary I my mother, my advocate, my friend; and, after Jesus, the love of my heart. 0 St. Joseph! so near and dear to Jesus and Mary. When tempted to offend God in any respect, I resolve to cry for help; to invoke the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; to say: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me."

PRAYERS.

Litany of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World, Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, worthy objects' of our reverence and love, pray for us
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, by the voice of all ages called the Holy Family, pray for us
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, names for ever blessed of the Father, the Mother, and the Child, who compose the Holy Family, pray for us
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, image on earth of the august Trinity, pray for us
Holy Family, tried by the greatest contradictions, pray for us
Holy Family, afflicted in your journey to Bethlehem, pray for us
Holy Family, rejected by all, and obliged to take refuge in a stable, pray for us
Holy Family, saluted by the concerts of Angels, pray for us
Holy Family, visited by the poor Shepherds, pray for us
Holy Family, venerated by the Wise Men, pray for us
Holy Family, persecuted and exiled in a strange country, pray for us
Holy Family, hidden and unknown at Nazareth, pray for us
Holy Family, model of Christian families, pray for us
Holy Family, living in peace and charity, pray for us
Holy Family, whose head is a model of paternal vigilance, pray for us
Holy Family, whose spouse is a model of paternal care, pray for us
Holy Family, whose Child is a model of obedience and filial piety, pray for us
Holy Family, who led a poor, laborious and penitent life, pray for us
Holy Family, poor in the goods of the world, but rich in the goods of heaven, pray for us
Holy Family, despised by the world, but great before God, pray for us
Holy Family, our hope in life, our support in death, pray for us
Holy Family, patrons and protectors of our Confraternity, pray for us
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, 0 Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Hear us, 0 Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

Let us pray.

O God of goodness and mercy, grant that we may always honour and imitate Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; so that pleasing them on earth, we may enjoy their presence in heaven. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power by The Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P. - Chapter 1, Section 1

CHAPTER I.

JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH.

Section I.

Jesus. 0 Sweetest, and dearest Jesus! To think on Thee makes the devout soul happy; to love Thee is a foretaste of heaven; but to possess Thee is heaven itself. To labour solely for Thy greater glory, 0 Jesus; to touch and win the sinner's heart; to bring back the strayed sheep to Thy fold; to diffuse among men a greater knowledge and love of Thee, 0 Saviour of the world, is the most noble occupation of the mind of man; and imparts to the pious soul the most supreme happiness that can be tasted here below. Jesus is our all; for Jesus is God: "In the beginning," says the Evangelist, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John, i. 1). Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, the glory, as it were, of the only-begotten of the Father), fall of grace and truth" (John, i. 14). Jesus is not only our glory, and the glory of paradise, but the glory of his eternal Father. "Every tongue," says St. Paul, " shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 11). He is "the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance" (Heb. i. 3j.

Jesus was the ray of hope that shone upon Adam, cast out from paradise upon a cold, bleak world. Jesus was the Messiah; the "Just 0ne;" "the desired of the eternal hills." Jesus was the long-expected Redeemer, for whose coming the Patriarchs and Prophets sighed and prayed. The Prophet Isaias, in touching accents, thus prayed : "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour" (xlv. 8). "Send forth, 0 Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth" (xvi. 1). Having petitioned the earth and the heavens for mercy, the Prophet appeals to the Messiah himself: "0 that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down; the mountains would melt away at thy presence. They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence" (lxiv. 1).

Jesus, as God, is power and glory; but far dearer and sweeter to us is Jesus as merciful Saviour; "with him," sings the Psalmist, "is plentiful redemption" (Ps. cxxix. 7). The name Jesus, or Saviour, is the most noble and the most exalted of all the titles of our Blessed Redeemer. "God," says St. Paul, "also, hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 9).

The sweet and all-holy name of Jesus was brought from heaven, and pronounced for the first time on earth, by the lips of the Archangel Gabriel. At the Annunciation, the Archangel delivered his heavenly message to the Blessed Virgin: "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus" (Luke, i. 31). Another "Angel of the Lord" appeared to St. Joseph, and said: "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. i. 20, 21). Jesus is our Saviour; through the merits of His Precious Blood we have been redeemed. "Neither is there salvation," says the word of God, "in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts, iy. 12). The Precious Blood of Jesus was the price of our Redemption. "Thou art worthy," says the inspired writer, "to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.... The lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom and strength, and honour and glory, and benediction" (Apoo. v. 9,12). "Power," therefore, "and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction," adoration, love, praise, and thanksgiving be to Jesus, our Saviour, and our Lord, from every creature for all eternity.

The holy name of Jesus is the power of the Catholic Church. To-day, as during the last nineteen centuries, the apostolio missionary quits country, home, and kindred, to evangelise the heathen nation, with his breviary under his arm, his crucifix in hand, his rosary beads in his pocket, and the holy name of Jesus on his lips. Jesus said to His Disciples: "Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every oreature. ... In my name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues: they shall take up serpents: and if they shall drink any deadly things, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark, xvi. 15-18). Confiding in the mighty power of the holy name of Jesus, St. Peter cured the "man who was lame from his mother's womb," by saying, " In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and walk. . . . And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and went into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God" (Acts, ill. 6). No wonder that the lame, the blind, the sick, and those labouring'under " all manner of diseases, "recognised t§eir God, and became "whole" at the power of Jesus; for Jesus said to His Disciplesi" Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you" (John, xvi. 23).
No wonder that the name of Jesus is sweet, holy, and powerful; for the name Jesus brings to, tour mind the whole scheme of man's Redemption. Jesus, as we have seen, was " the Just 0ne," " the desired of the eternal hills," "the Lamb," " theEuler," the long-expected Messiah, for whose coming the Patriarchs and Prophets prayed and sighed. The winning, the infinite love of Jesus in the Incarnation, in the Nativity, in His Hidden Life, and yet more in his Passion and Death, has won the admiration of the world; has peopled Christendom with cloisters, thus captivating in every age, and in every clime, the pure affections, the warm love of the young, the beautiful, and the fair. 0 dearest Jesus ! may we love Thee; 0 Jesus, may we serve Thee. To Thee, 0 Jesus, we consecrate all the affections of our hearts, now and for ever. 0 Jesus, purify and chasten our affections, and make them acceptable in Thy sight.

The holy name of Jesus, not only reminds us of His Life and of His Death, but it brings to our mind His mystical Life and Death upon our altars* The holy Mass is nothing less than the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ' In the holy Mass Jesus descends from heaven; and, to use the words of St. Augustine, "becomes incarnate in the priest's hands as He did in Mary's womb." n the Mass Jesus mystically dies, and sheds His Precious Blood for the Redemption of mankind. "The same Christ," says the Council of Trent, "is contained and immolated (on the altar) in an unbloody manner, who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the Cross. . . . For the Victim is one and the same; the same now offering Himself by the ministry of priests who then offered Himself on the Cross" (Sess. xxii., Can. 2). The sweet name of Jesus brings to our mind the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist; "the heavenly manna," "the bread of angels," " the wheat of the elect," "the wine producing virgins." In the Holy Communion we receive Jesus Christ Himself—His Body and Blood. The Council of Trent, assisted by the Spirit of God, defined, "that in the Sacrament of the most holy Eucharist are contained truly, really, and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Sess. xiii., Can. 1). 0 holy Faith! that teaches us such sacred, such sublime, and such consoling doctrines. 0 Jesus! may we love, and hear daily, if possible, holy Mass; 0 Jesus! may we love and receive worthily, and frequently, holy Communion.

Jesus, at His Ascension, returned to the bosom of His Eternal Father: yet, by a miracle worthy of the infinite love and mercy of God for man, the same Jesus remains day and night in every land, and in every clime, on countless altars throughout Christendom. From the tahernacle Jesus says to His children, "Come to me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. xi. 28). And, again, "This is my rest for ever and for ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it" (Ps. cxxxi. 14). All—the poor as well as the rich, the sinner as well as the saint—can approach Jesus; speak to Him, and tell Him their wants, their joys, and woes. The name of Jesus, therefore, is holy, powerful, sweet, and brings to our mind the whole scheme of Redemption and sanotification. Jesus is our hope and strength living and dying; and Jesus will be, we trust, our crown beyond the grave.

No wonder that St. Bernard, who tasted the sweetness of the love of Jesus, thus writes: "0 name of Jesus, worthy of all blessing and praise. What so fills the soul with sweetness and spiritual joy P . . . All food is dry if this oil be not poured upon it, and insipid unless seasoned by this salt. If thou writest, I find no relish in it unless I read there the name Jesus. If thou disputest or holdest conversation, I find no relish in it unless the sound of the name of Jesus be heard there. Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, and jubilation in the heart." (Serm. xv. in Can.)

The loving heart and honeyed pen of St. Francis of Sales have delighted the world with the following exquisite passage on the name of Jesus: "I have no time to write," says the Saint, "only the great name of salvation—Jesus. 0h f could I, oh! could we, pronounce this holy name of salvation from our hearts, what sweetness would it diffuse into our souls 1 How happy should we be had we nothing in our memory or mind but Jesus; nothing in our will but Jesus; nothing in our understanding but Jesus; nothing in our imagination but Jesus. In all things Jesus would be to us, and we should be in all things to Him. But, alas! I cannot express what I mean by pronouncing this holy name of Jesus; to speak of it, or to express it, we ought to have a tongue of fire."

0 sweet, and holy, and adorable Jesus! may Thy loving name he ever on our tongues, and engraven on our hearts during life; and may it be our last invocation at death.

St. Joseph: His Life and Character by the author of 'The Pilgrim" - Chapter IX & X

CHAPTER IX.

THE HIDDEN DEATH OF ST. JOSEPH.

'The Son of Mary—the Carpenter.'

Joseph is not mentioned here, and from this Bossuet infers that he was already dead, and that Jesus supported His widowed Mother by His labour. Mary was alone at the marriage of Cana, and alone at the Cross, for He left her in the charge of John. Joseph must have died in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Joseph had waited long to see the accomplishment of the mystery confided to his keeping, and he died, like Abraham, without seeing it. Like Moses on Mount Abarim, he saw the promised land afar, but entered not in. We are told that the monks of Citeaux were a living image of the life and death of man. It is said in the life of St. Stephen Harding, that they went forth to labour in the fields, and returned each night, leaving their work unfinished, to lie down and sleep. So did Joseph, and so does the Christian who looks for his reward, not for his success, but his obedience.

As the life of Joseph was hidden, so was his death.

i

St. Francis says that St. Joseph died like Mary, from the pure love of God; 'that intense desire of the soul to behold Him from whom she is an exile on earth; that desire which is the punishment of those who are separated from Him for ever.'

Our Blessed Lady and a few chosen saints, among whom is St. Joseph, died from love of God; not only with that love which 'is stronger than death,' nor even that love which so overflows the soul that, notwithstanding the agonies of that awful moment, the soul is so strong in the habit of love, that forgetting pain it quits the body in the act of love. But his was a love so intense that weak nature could no longer bear its violence, and the effort of love itself, tending towards its divine object, broke the bonds that confine the soul within the prison of this body, and set it free to plunge itself in the immensity of God. This was Joseph's death. Yet it had a resemblance to that of other men; so that they may look to him as an especial patron in the hour when they expect to pass through a space awful from its mysterious obscurity, where they must wait with a longing, which is its greatest torment, before they reach eternal bliss. Joseph knew that the gates of heaven, closed in chastisement of Adam's sin, were not yet opened; and that he must suffer long years of suspense before he could behold his Creator; nay, more; he must leave Jesus upon earth, and exchange His blessed presence for Abraham's bosom. But his soul, like that of David, was subject to God, and we may look on him as our model and patron, not only in his life, but in his death.

At first sight, the death of a saint absorbed in an ecstasy of love scarcely seems a model to us, who can only offer the natural horror of death as a sacrifice and a penance. But though Joseph had attained to a sanctity which might free him from that fear of the justice of God which torments the soul in death, yet he owed his graces to the merits of his Eedeemer as much, if not more than the greatest of sinners. He had only corresponded with them, not repaid them ; and he, with all his treasures of sanctity, died, trusting only in the mercies of God and the merits of Christ, saying, like the most imperfect among ourselves,

'Misericordias Domine in asternum cantabo.'

CHAPTER X.

HEROIC VIRTUES OF ST.' JOSEPH.

St. Francis De Sales, in his Conferences, writes on the virtues of St. Joseph, and this might seem enough. But he beholds him with the eyes of a saint; as when St. Thomas beheld St. Bonaventure in his cell, writing the life of St. Francis while in ecstasy; and he, though a saint himself, said, ' Leave a saint to write the life of a saint.' Yet others wrote, and with profit, the life of the Seraphic Father; and we, on whom the ends of the world are really come, may think, and read, and write of St. Joseph as we see him with human eyes, when he was a mere mortal like ourselves. St. Francis says, ' Some saints are great in charity, and some in austerity, there being as many different sanctities as there are saints;' and he illustrates the virginity, humility, and constancy of St. Joseph by the palm-tree; 'for the Holy Ghost makes us sing at the feast of a confessor

in delay' (p. 307). 'What must have been his humility, when he kept that dear Child in his workshop' (p. 301); 'his pure virginity, when he guarded that of the Queen of Virgins; and his perseverance against internal weakness, and against outward accidents V (p. 308.)

The same gifts of the Holy Ghost which descended upon the Apostles, to fill them with powers for their mission, imparted to Joseph gifts in proportion to the transcendent greatness of his office—angelic purity, singular prudence, heroic fortitude, unbounded patience, unshaken constancy, seraphic love of God, and intense affection for his Immaculate Spouse ; virtues becoming him who was appointed to relieve the 'famine in Egypt,' to preserve the Bread which came down from heaven to be the food of man. The dream of the Patriarch was fulfilled in the Saint. The stars adore him, that is, the blessed spirits reverence him, as it was revealed to St. Gertrude; and what wonder, since the sun and moon bowed down before him? Jesus, the Sun of justice, and Mary the Immaculate Mother of God, not only honoured, but obeyed him.

The faith of St. Joseph was simple, like his justice. He did not hesitate, says Bossuet, between reason and revelation—he acted in blind obedience. Abraham believed that the barren would bear a son; and Joseph that a Virgin should conceive, and bear a son. His faith was more tried, and more complete. In his own simplicity and uprightness he believed the word of an angel; in all simplicity he received the office of a father. The father's love was impossible by nature, but he had it by grace. His faith failed not when he saw the Christ in the weakness of an infancy which was left to all appearance destitute of help from His Heavenly Father. This was more trying to the faith than when at the crucifixion Mary beheld the human nature of our! Lord fail, because He was then visibly supported by the Divine nature; as when He said, ' Thou wouldst have no power if it were not given thee from above.' And his faith failed not when the Magi were saved from Herod by going another way; nor when the angel bade him fly by night, and then return, not because of God, but because his enemies were dead. And when he felt with Mary the grief of the three days' loss, his faith failed not in Christ, nor in God the Father, who had sent Him to redeem the world.

The Faith of St. Joseph.

Nazareth was perhaps a greater trial to tho faith of Joseph than Bethlehem, or Egypt, or Jerusalem. We naturally long for action; we count the moments of delay and suspense till the passive state becomes a positive agony. How would an ordinary man have borne to see so much evil going on around; the Jews worldly, the heathens proud and triumphant; to see the people for whom Christ was born, die without knowing Him; to see the Son of God as though He were deserted by His Heavenly Father, and given over to a poor carpenter, whose name it was a disgrace to bear? 'Nonne hie est faberfilius?' Yet he was patient, and left to the mercy of God the pending souls, the crimes of the heathen, the weary waiting of the Jews. The emperors went on with their wars and conquests; soldiers, officers, governors, war, peace, all going on with noise and public interest, such as it seemed would never pass away, while the Saviour of all was labouring in the carpenter's shop. And this trial of faith lasted through his life. He died without seeing any fulfilment of God's word. He left all in God's hands. He saw not the end of these things, but he lived and died in faith, in hope, and in love.

The Humility of St. Joseph.

If ever there was heroic humility, it was in Joseph. He saw Christ, and was silent. He rejoiced like Abrabam to see this day. Prophets and kings had desired to see it; he saw it, and concealed his joy. He knew it is the glory of God to conceal His word, and the glory of kings to search out his speech (Prov. xxv. 2). Joseph spoke to none but Jesus and Mary. He preferred to be hidden with them rather than to be known to the world. He preferred the portion of those who follow Christ, who are not of the world, though they are in the world. Bossuet says much on the humility of Joseph. Three great charges were intrusted to him: the Virginity of Mary, the Person of Christ, and the Secret of the Incarnation, which St. Bernard calls 'secretissimum et sacratissimum sui cordis arcanum.' Yet he concealed them all, not only in the obscurity of his hidden life, but in the daily intercourse with his countrymen, who despised him as a carpenter, and thought that 'no good thing could come out of Nazareth.'

The detachment of St. Joseph was perfect. Abraham left his country, St. Joseph left his home. He was detached from interest; he left his trade, and spent all he had in wandering homeless with Christ, and was persecuted for His sake and because he was with Him, knowing that he was truly rich and abounded, because in Him he possessed everything. He was detached from establishment, knowing that we have none here; for God has prepared us a city with foundations, and we leave Babylon for Zion. God gives us homes to rest in, but we are pilgrims; we pass through the desert, and use its pools for water. We honour our parents, yet if we hate them not for Christ's sake, when duty calls us from them, we are not worthy of Him; and whoever gives up relations for His sake will be doubly rewarded. The simplicity of St. Joseph was the same as his justice. He was upright with men, and also with God. He did not serve two masters. His obedience was simple, trusting, and fearless. If the master of the family had hesitated whether or not he should obey the decree of Augustus, on account of the danger it would be to his guardianship of Mary, what would have been the result? He went against reason and judgment, against everything but obedience, though the command was given by the mouth of a heathen; and, again, when they had performed all things according to the law of Moses, they returned to Nazareth.

And this is all that the Scriptures tell us of St. Joseph. Yet St. Ambrose, in his sermon on the third Sunday in Lent, has placed him among the saints whose life is a model for all. He says, ' We read of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and other just men, in order that we may, by imitating their footsteps, follow in the path of innocence laid open by their virtue. In the life of Joseph there are many kinds of virtues, and chiefly conspicuous is that of chastity. From Abraham we learn unflinching truth, from Isaac the simplicity of an honest mind, from Jacob we learn patience in labour. St. Joseph may be to us the mirror of chastity, for which he was loved by his parents above his brethren. The envy excited by this love is the point of his history from which we learn forgiveness of injuries. Joseph would not have been preferred to others if he had loved those only who loved him, and hated his enemies. He is chiefly remarkable for obeying what our Lord taught, though he lived before the gospel, for he loved his enemies, according to the command of our Lord.'

There is one important circumstance to be observed before considering the life of St. Joseph. It is that the knowledge of him and of his office, and the devotion towards him, has gone on increasing. The Holy Scriptures are almost silent about him, except so far as he took a part in the history of our Lord. Nor is his name mentioned in the age which followed that of the Apostles. And there is a natural reason why we should, as time goes on, know more about St. Joseph. 

We understand things better when they are past. As those who had seen the Lord did not understand His words till long after, so, when we contemplate the history of Him and His saints, our eyes seem to be opened to understand the Scriptures, like the disciples at Emmaus when our Lord was leaving them. Not long after the apostolic age, the devotion to St. Joseph began to appear, and it has gone on increasing in extent though not in intensity; for nothing can be said of him now which exceeds the language of the early Saints and Fathers of the Church. Perhaps the veil which appears to hang over St. Joseph in early days is a part of that wisdom which makes the Church suit her form of devotion to. the character and requirements of the times, and which caused her to conceal from the multitude the excellences and sublime prerogatives of our Lady, lest they should in their ignorance forget that she was not only the Mother of Jesus, but the Mother of God, or lest their idolatrous habits should lead them to worship a creature of such surpassing excellence. But as time went on a new danger arose, and men in the pride of their intellect forgot that Jesus was not only true God, but true Man. Then the privileges of Mary were brought out in a stronger light, that it might be seen how our human nature can be elevated by a new creation; and the Church taught her faithful children to dwell on the rank she holds in the great mystery of the Redemption, in that God had chosen a woman to crush the serpent's head; and that she was Immaculate, because sin is so hateful to Him,. that if the least shadow of it had passed over her, she could not have been His Mother; nor could the propitiation of the Cross have atoned for its malice if the Sacrifice had not been of stainless descent as man, as well as perfect as God. All this was not brought before the minds of men till they could bear it, and till it was necessary to their belief in the doctrine of the Incarnation. The knowledge of St. Joseph's office and power naturally followed. Perhaps St. Jerome was the first, and St. Bernard the next, in explaining the full sense of the Scriptures on the subject of St. Joseph. And when the heresy which raised human reason above grace had carried away three parts of the world into revolt against the authority of the Church, St. Teresa, who was especially raised up to stem the torrent by her prayers, was taught by God the greatness of St. Joseph's power, and the place he holds in the economy of grace. St. Teresa learnt much of him in her own simple way, and tells us how she was led to be the instrument of increasing the devotion to St. Joseph, not only in her Order, but throughout the Church. And she bears witness to the power of his intercession, and to his patronage of those who endeavour like him to lead an interior life with Christ. And there has been a chain of holy writers on the subject. Gerson wrote the life of St. Joseph in twelve poems called Josephina; St. Francis de Sales enumerates his several virtues; and we have the panegyrics of Bossuet, and the meditations of St. Alphonso, on the supernatural virtues of the Saint; while year by year we listen to the teaching of the Church upon his festivals. Let us not say, then, that we know little of St. Joseph; but rather, with full trust in his powerful intercession, end our meditations as we began, with

Sancte Joseph, ora pro nobis.

St. Joseph: His Life and Character by the author of 'The Pilgrim" - Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII.

HIDDEN LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.

'Et mater ejus conservabat omnia verba bsec in oorde sue.'

It is in the heart that mysteries are received and understood; the lips may speak, and the ear may hear, but the heart alone can understand by time and meditation. But did not Joseph consider? It is of Mary only that the Scriptures were to speak. He knew from the first that Jesus was the Christ; but this was far from enough. He had to learn His office and His Father's work, and he was astonished at the consequences of what he believed; and this is the characteristic of His teaching—at first a new and startling revelation, which, like the seed, grows and brings forth fruit according to the measures and weights of the heavenly balances. For eighteen years that growth went on, and all that time 'Jesus proficiebat sapientia et retate et gratia apud Deum et homines.' These words must be meditated by each; none can realise them for another. We are told that they believed His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth.

Our Lord taught Mary and Joseph, not by words, but by deeds. As Man, He increased in all perfection of mind and body, and His graces found favour with God, and even with man. Joseph beheld His immaculate innocence, His charity, His humility, and above all, His obedience.

'Nonne hie est f aber, filius Marine V Mark vi. 3.

We learn from other passages of the Evangelists several particulars of the life of Christ. He worked in the shop of Joseph; for people said when He began to preach, 'Is not this the carpenter V and in the first ages of the Church there was a tradition of the ploughs which Jesus made. He received no human learning, for when He began to preach in the synagogue of Nazareth—'Ubi erat nutiitus, et intravit secundum consuetudinem suani diei sabbate in synagogam et surrexit legere'—they said, ' How came this Man by all these things? How could He learn letters 1 Was not this the Son of Mary, the brother—that is, the cousin-german—of James, and Joseph, and John, and Simeon; and are not His sisters also with us V And they were right. Joseph could not teach our Lord His unanswerable reasoning and persuasive preaching; these were the emanations from the divine wisdom which dwelt within that second Adam of our nature.

The prophet foretold that He should be modest and gentle, not letting His voice be heard, not contending, or crying out in the streets, subject to His parents, meek and humble, and the joy of all who knew Him; so that St. Ephrem said. ' His companions used to say, "Let us go to Sweetness."' What must have been the gentleness of Joseph in such an atmosphere of divine love 1 for Jesus was in the midst of the Holy Family, illuminating each member as from a sun of light and heat, while He Himself, who is Light, was veiled by His charity.

'Jesus proficiebat sapientia et astute'

It is said of the Holy Child, after He was brought back from Egypt to Nazareth, Puer erescebat; and after His return from the Temple, Puer proficiebat. As a child, He was strengthened—' confortebatur'—until the age when His human nature made progress by that correspondence with the Will of God which united His Soul with His divinity. But this is a mystery too deep for contemplation. We only know that the human nature of our Lord was capable of increase as well as of suffering and death; but in Him was from the first the fulness of grace, and as Bossuet says, 'the increase was not in the possession of grace and of wisdom, but in His manifestation of them;' as the Church manifests the faith intrusted to her at the first by successive declarations of its mysteries, according as mankind required a fuller teaching. His human nature passed through all the stages of life, that He might teach the virtues of all conditions.

It is a great revelation that 'Puer proficiebat.' Jesus, full of divine perfection, improved the human nature He had taken by developing as well as manifesting its faculties. As that sinless body had grown towards the fulness of manly excellence, so had that perfect soul, finer and purer than that of Adam when created in the image of God, attained by degrees its force and its extent. And Joseph must have watched with loving awe that sanctity increasing more and more unto the perfect day, which men learn slowly—' here a little, and there a little.'

'Et gratia apudDeum et homines,'—' In favour with God and men.' Imb. ii. 52.

It seems as if the sacred historian gave in these few words a description of the house at Nazareth to be the model of all Christian families. We see the ineffable purity of Mary's life detached from the world and from all that belongs to it. We see the Holy Child increasing like the souls who were hereafter to be born of Him, of whom the Psalmist said, 'I will appear before Thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear.' 'Et homines.' The first stages of grace are lovely even to the natural feelings of man. The charity which unites the soul to God unites it also to all His creatures. The joy of her espousal is fresh; there has been yet no mixture of what belongs to earth, and there are some, even in this rough world, who preserve their baptismal innocence, or at least the sweetness and the perfume of its grace. There is a panoply around them like the legendary charm which made the champions of the cross invulnerable, and even the shafts of slander touch them not. The Fall has not so entirely destroyed the image in which man was made. There is a natural admiration of what is good, until it interferes with the selfish principles, and the worst and fiercest natures have seldom lost the tenderness with which it is natural to look at a child, or even on an innocent and gentle person, until sin has ranged them among the enemies of God and all that is good. If Jesus found favour among men, what must He have appeared to Joseph? We can only measure great things by small.

The Blessed Virgin was the Tabernacle of the most Holy, and no shadow of sin could touch her or obscure the reflection of His brightness. Joseph was the mysterious cloud which veiled from profane eyes the mystery of the Incarnation. St. Francis says our Lady belonged to him; he was like the male palm-tree, which bears no fruit, yet must overshadow the fruit of the female palm, and she was planted near him like the spouse in the Canticles. 'Sicut palma exultata sum in Cades.' The palm-tree is the type of Judaea, even on the coin of Vespasian, in which a disconsolate woman sits under a palm-tree. The Psalmist (xcii. 12) says the righteous is like the palm-tree planted beside the waters, as they are planted on the banks of Jordan and nourished by its sacred waters, so that Jericho was called the city of palms. The palm was especially the type of our Lady. Joseph was a saint before his espousal, much more, says St. Alphonso, when he was the spouse of her who was full of grace and whose office is to dispense grace; and St. Francis compares his growth in perfection to the mirror which reflects not the sun itself, but the reflection of the sun on that most pure mirror our Lady, on whom the rays of glory proceeding from the Son of God fell with full radiance and reverberated on St. Joseph.

If a life spent with Mary would sanctify Joseph, what must have been the heavenly influences of the presence of our Lord! Volumes have been written on visits to the Blessed Sacrament; but Joseph beheld Jesus. He spoke to Him and heard His answers. Others may hear His inspirations with the interior ear, but Joseph heard with his bodily ears His answers to his questions. His eyes are, as the Scriptures express it, the light of His countenance, and were turned on Joseph. The whole being of Joseph absorbed into itself the visible and tangible Presence which, when perceived by faith only, has power to raise the saints into ecstasy. How do we behave in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? and what must have been the life of Joseph while he spoke and moved and laboured, while he ate and drank and slept, in the visible presence of God 1 Those who attend on kings know the personal influence of a mere earthly sovereign, and what must have been that Presence which found favour with God and man. Yet let us remember that when the woman cried out in rapture, 'Blessed is the womb that bare Thee,' our Lord replied that those are more blessed who hear the Word of God, and keep it; and that He said to St. Thomas, 'Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.'

The external actions of St. Joseph were the same before and after the angel's revelations. He had still to labour, and now he must labour for a family; but what a family! It is said by a Lapide that his actions, in contributing to the support of Christ, related to the order of hypostatic union, and were therefore inconceivably superior to any others. If the kingdom of Heaven will be the reward of those who serve Christ in the person of the poor, what will He give to him to whom He can say literally, I was hungry, and you gave Me meat!

'Et erat subditua illis.'

St. Bernard says that Joseph was the 'fidelis servus et prudens quern constituit Dominus sua matris solatium.' Joseph worked at his trade in his own cottage. Mary performed the duties of the house, and aided Joseph. Jesus worked with him, swept the shop, sold the work, and carried the tools. He obeyed His Mother and His father also. What an intercourse between the Mother and Son! She full of grace, the only one, the chosen one of God, and He God Himself. She commanded, and He obeyed. She adored His person while she fulfilled her office, and Joseph filled his; for he held an office the most tremendous ever trusted to man. But weak and ignorant rulers often command saints. He knew what his office was, and had fortitude to perform it. It would be an error to think that the life of St. Joseph had no trials. If there is one suffering greater than another to those in command, it is to feel inferior to those who obey them. Elizabeth felt shame that the Mother of her Lord should visit her; and St. John cried out, 'Comest Thou to me!' St. Peter refused when Christ would wash his feet. Yet Joseph commanded Jesus! St. Alphonso says, if it was wonderful to see Joshua command the sun to stand still, and the sun obey the voice of a man, what was it for Joseph to command the Son of God? It was revealed to St. Bridget, that when St. Joseph said, Do this or that, He heeded it immediately; and Gerson says that He prepared the meals, and washed the vessels, and carried water from the spring, and washed the house. Overbeck has represented our Lord in one of his pictures as sweeping the chips of wood into the form of a cross.

We do not hear of Joseph pleading his unworthiness to fill his office of command, and our Lady immediately said, 'Ecce ancilla Domine!' St. John the Baptist pleaded, but yielded. This is true humility. Not only the sense of unworthiness, but the confidence in God, are to make us what He wills. Sarah was reproved for laughing, and Ahab for refusing to ask a sign, as though he mistrusted the power of God to use so vile an instrument as himself. But it is sometimes said of Joseph that he did as he was commanded; sometimes only the fact is recorded, leaving his acquiescence to be understood. Subditus Mis; and this may be said of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. He is with us in the Tabernacle, or He is raised up on the altar. He is exposed, that He may listen to our wants and give us Benediction; and what is He when He enters within us by Holy Communion 1 "We almost shrink with St. Peter to think of ourselves when we are made one with Him; that He is in a manner subditus!

And this is the last that is told us of St. Joseph. His life at Nazareth was thenceforth hidden. It was so obscure, that only his poor fellow-villagers knew of his existence; and this oblivion appears to the worldly not only death, but the silence of the tomb. The heathens thought that a name and the memory of past deeds was a sort of immortality, so that obscurity was to them a burying alive in the midst of living men. And there is in. man an ardour for action, which is the life of the natural man; it is the spring which moves the complicated machinery of mind; and there is an instinct, strongest in the noblest men, to use their strength in doing or in suffering. And men of weaker minds rush about the world from excitement, without an object, yet they can only be in one place at a time, and movement gives succession, not possession. They see and hear only a certain amount; they live in plenty, and consume only the daily bread. Even in spiritual things men misuse their activity; they seek the Lord at a distance, while they fly from Him in the midst of them and within them.

This hidden life, says Bossuet, is thought death by men, and they dread it; life, they say, is action, and he who does not act ceases to live. But there is an interior action, though the world knows it not, nor believes that there is action unless the body moves. Bossuet says that the obscurity in which our Lord passed thirty years was in order to destroy the pride of man. He can do nothing. God does all. Thus it is that the bidden life of St. Joseph is opposed to the pride of the world. Men only observe actions; the hidden life is beyond their reach, like death. He says again, the Cross is not enough even to conquer pride, but the hidden life destroys it. Christ Himself is still hidden in our tabernacles, and our lives are hid with Christ in God. We too are hidden. But when He appears, we shall appear with Him in glory, and know even as we are known.
The love of a hidden life and death will only come by degrees, as souls begin to discover that it is not really an obscure life and an ignoble death. These are views of faith which are learnt more by the study of the contrary than by a bare assertion that a hidden life is amiable. It is not amiable, unless we see that what appears bidden and useless is really glorious, active, and useful; and when we learn to apply this truth to life, it is still easier to apply it to death, which is only the door to life, the raising of the veil, the beginning of reality, the attainment of that for which we live. We live for God and for our sanctification; we die to arrive at God and eternal beatitude. And this led to the distinction of vocations; to the active and the contemplative life. It is not true that material change alone is action, and that the repose of the body is inaction. St. Gregory from his sick bed ruled the world; and so the soul, when all the avenues of sense are closed, may rise to heaven, and range in thought through, creation. The memory and intellect cannot be bounded by material things.

There are two vocations of God to man, the contemplative and the active, the life of Mary or of Martha. Thus, says Bossuet, there was one vocation to Joseph aud one to the Apostles; they were a light to reveal, and Joseph was a veil to conceal, Him who was the Saviour of souls, and her who was the Immaculate Virgin full of grace. Joseph was a hidden saint, and fulfilled his vocation.

Men live in the past and future; the realisation of the present ought to be the perfection of sanctity. Even the philosopher said, 'Age quod ages;' and no one can calculate the value of the least action done by Joseph, as he did it, and for whom; and when we are told that one action of our Blessed Lady exceeded in perfection those of all the angels and saints, we may consider the hidden life of Joseph as entirely beyond our comprehension. He knew the mystery of Christ, he knew of Mary, and he told nothing of them, nor of himself. Joseph was the veil which hid the mystery of the Immaculate Conception and of the Incarnation: his was greatness without fame, happiness without display, glory without praise. 'Gloria mea testimonium conscientise' (1 Cor.). When the Lord sought for Himself a man according to His own heart (1 Kings xiii. 14), and Samuel chose a king among the sons of Jesse, David was unknown even in his own family. The prophet passed by the strong, the comely, and the brave, and chose the gentle shepherd of Israel. Such was Joseph, the son of David. He was called to fill the highest office ever intrusted to man; not to be the leader of God's chosen people, but that of guardian or steward of the mysteries of God; and his graces were simplicity and detachment, and love of hidden life. The virtues which men esteem are those which are active and relate to man, and they neither seek nor understand the hidden virtues, where all that passes is between man and God; and yet in them the chief good is found. Joseph bore no office in the sight of men, but he was ' glorious in the secret devotion to God, all hidden in the privacy of his conscience.' Joseph was just, and justice or righteousness is between man and God alone—God and man Alone—and none can judge of it but God: it is a mystery profaned by revealing it to any who know not its secret. Our Lord bade us shut the door when we pray, that our prayer may be in secret; and the Psalmist prayed that he might abide under the shadow of His wings.

And this was Joseph's life, without event or change even to the last; a living death as regards the world, but life in the sight of God. He lived with Christ and Mary; he worked, he moved, he spoke all day and every day in His sight; his one thought was of Him. We are often told that sanctity consists not in doing great things, but in doing little things perfectly. We know that each action must have a right intention, and be faithfully performed for the love of God and man, and that its sole merit consists in this obedience. Men value actions by another standard, that of their utility. This leaves out every other qualification but that of interest. The victories of a conqueror, or the politics of a statesman, are as nothing in the sight of God if they are deficient in obedience; and the most ordinary acts of Joseph surpassed them all. It was no routine of trifles when he rose up to work, to eat with his family, to converse with them, and rest with them; for who were the persons? Christ and Mary. He was familiar with the presence of Jesus; he comes and goes, he hears and knows the mind of Jesus. All this is the material form of all spiritual life, and these things are not trifles.

Many, like the rich man, ask 'what they shall do to inherit eternal life;' but all are not told like him to sell their possessions. Joseph attained the height of sanctity in the most ordinary external circumstances. St. John Baptist was at that very time living in the desert. Born as he was, according to promise, not to nature, cleansed from sin in his mother's womb by the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, he was inspired, when he was seven years old, to leave his father's house and remain in the desert mountains of Judea, eating the honey which the wild bees lay up in the rocks, and dwelling in a cave on the side of a mountain under a wood of locust trees, whose fruit was his food, though the olives grew in the valley below, and the vines grew on the surrounding hills. He drank of the spring which flows from the rocks, and travellers yet see the ledge of stone on which he slept. There he dwelt alone in the sight of God and angels till he was inspired to leave the woody valley and the lofty mountain for the wilderness of Jordan, not near the palmtrees and the balsam of Jericho, but a sandy plain, where only willows and barren tamarisks shade the sacred waters. There, girt with a camel's skin, dwelt the first of ascetics and of hermits. He preached repentance, and all Jerusalem came out to hear him. It was like the preaching of Jonah at Ninive; and our Lord afterwards said of him that 'there was none greater than him among those born of women.'

It was at that very time that Joseph was leading a secular life in the greatest obscurity as a carpenter in the remote village of Nazareth. He only left it to make a yearly visit to Jerusalem. He had no work but his trade, and few knew him; yet he was guided in this ordinary life by visions of angels, and he filled the duties of his office as a just man.

Bossuet says of our Lord Himself, 'Look at the Divine Carpenter; He handles the saw and the plane; His tender hands are hardened with rough tools; He does not hold the "pencil of a painter nor the pen of a writer;" He works with His hands the will of God, and while all Jerusalem came out to hear the preaching of John, He whose shoe he was unworthy to lift was in His workshop in His native town, labouring for the support of His Mother.' And all this may be said in a degree of Joseph, who not only did this himself, but commanded his Lord to do so also.