Saint Joseph Catholic Church RCIA

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas!

02/22/2024

01/15/2024

The CASSOCK is a sign of consecration to God. Its black color is a sign of mourning. The priest is dead to the world, because everything worldly no longer attracts him. It is decorated with 33 buttons on the front, representing the age of Our Lord. There are 5 buttons on the sleeves, representing the 5 wounds of Our Lord. It also features 2 side clips that symbolize the humanity and divinity of Our Lord. The priest wears it with a band around his waist, a symbol of chastity and celibacy. Some have another 7 buttons on the upper arm, symbolizing the 7 sacraments, with which the priest comforts the faithful.
The cassock is also a sacred remedy against vanity. While an ordinary man needs to spend time in front of his wardrobe or the mirror to check if that jacket matches that shirt or if the color of the tie is appropriate, the priest wears the cassock and that's it. You don't even need to ask yourself “what will I wear today?” Your outfit is one! Therefore, it is also a symbol of loyalty and constancy. At baptisms the priest wears the cassock. If it's a wedding: cassock! If it's a birthday: cassock! What if it was a funeral? Cassock! In joy and in sadness, in health and in sickness... it is always the same thing. And it could not be otherwise, since the priest is the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ who is the same: YESTERDAY, TODAY and FOREVER!!
Shared from another Catholic Warrior.

01/02/2024

Who are the three wise men in Catholic tradition?
Tradition tells us that their names were Caspar, Melchior and Balthassar. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh! These gifts represent Christ's Kingship, Christ's Divinity, and Christ's Mortality in the flesh! The men were astrologers who were looking for the star that would lead them to the promised Messiah. The original story can be found in Matthew 2. After Jesus was born, "behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem"

12/15/2023

R.C.I.A. Rite of Acceptance 2023! We are well on our way towards the Easter Vigil. Very exciting time for Saint Joseph Catholic Church RCIA. Welcome brothers and sisters in Christ!

12/14/2023

St. John of the Cross, Pray for us!

11/01/2023

Happy feast of All Saints’ Day

10/16/2023

Saint of the Day for October 16
(July 22, 1647 – October 17, 1690)
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque’s Story

Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus.

Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. “The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering.” After considering marriage for some time, Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation nuns at the age of 24.

A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity. A fellow novice termed Margaret Mary humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.

On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” with the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her.

During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.

Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator. A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.

After serving as novice mistress and assistant superior, Margaret Mary died at the age of 43, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”

Reflection

Our scientific-materialistic age cannot “prove” private revelations. Theologians, if pressed, admit that we do not have to believe in them. But it is impossible to deny the message Margaret Mary heralded: that God loves us with a passionate love. Her insistence on reparation and prayer and the reminder of final judgment should be sufficient to ward off superstition and superficiality in devotion to the Sacred Heart while preserving its deep Christian meaning.

09/24/2023

The King of Kings!

The King of Kings. Charles Butler.