Monday, March 20 : Saint Claude la Colombière

We know very little indeed about the life of Saint Joseph. The Gospel relates only three or four of his actions, and an ancient writer has pointed out that we don’t find in it a single one of his words. Perhaps it is that… the Holy Spirit wanted to emphasize by this Saint Joseph’s silence and humility, his love of solitude and the hidden life. Whatever the case, we have suffered a great loss in this. If the Lord had permitted us to know the details of this great saint’s life, there is no doubt we would have found in it some excellent examples, some excellent rules, above all for those in the married state… Saint Joseph’s whole life can be divided into two parts: the first is that which preceded his marriage; the second, that which followed it. We know nothing at all about the first and very little about the second. Nevertheless, I assert that both the one and the other were very holy: the first because it was crowned by so advantageous a marriage; the second was even more holy since it took place entirely within this marriage… What great profit Saint Joseph must have drawn from the many years of conversation he had almost constantly with the Blessed Virgin!… I have no doubt at all that even the silence of Mary was extremely edifying and that it was enough just to look at her to feel drawn to love God and despise everything else. But what kind of speech must have been that of a soul in which the Holy Spirit dwelt, in which God had poured the fulness of grace and who had more love than all the Seraphim combined! What fire must have issued from that mouth when she opened it to express the feelings of her heart! What coldness, what ice must it not have melted! But what an effect it must have had on Joseph, who was already so greatly disposed to be inflamed!… This great fire, capable of setting the whole world alight, had only Joseph’s heart to warm and burn for so many years… If she considered Saint Joseph’s heart to be a part of her own, what care she must have taken to inflame it with God’s love!

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team