May God’s will be done. Be Thou blessed for everything, O Lord; and give me Thy pardon and the light of grace. Bless my loved ones, all of them; grant to their souls conversion and holiness. May my dear (ones) be Christians and apostles.

Give the grace to the souls I love, light and supernatural life to every soul. Bless and guide the Church and sanctify her priests, my spiritual father among them. And take me all together to Thyself, in life, death, and for eternity. Amen.

O Lord, I offer Thee this trial with the intentions that I noted. Let it bear fruit one hundred-fold, and let me lay in Thy Heart my sufferings, desires, and prayers, to be disposed of as I have asked of Thee. O Mary, pray for me, for us, now at the hour of our death. Amen.

From a visit to the Blessed Sacrament : To expiate for others and for myself. To merit for others and for myself. To obtain for others and for myself.

My God…for those I love…that Thy light may shine on them, that their souls may be sanctified by Thee…Today I abandon myself, placing my burdens in Your Heart and surrendering all to It.

+The Servant of God Elisabeth Lesuer who offered all her sufferings for the conversion of her atheist husband Felix who, after her death and reading her journal, converted and later became a Dominican Catholic priest.

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Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love; to you we turn with trust. Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families, too, may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth:  may families never again experience violence, rejection and division; may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth, make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph: graciously hear our prayer. Amen.

From the Vatican News Site

The post What is a Family? first appeared on AirMaria.com.

 Saint Joseph in the divine plan: Together with Mary, Joseph is the first guardian of the divine mystery. Together with Mary, and in relation to Mary, he shares in this final phase of God’s self-revelation in Christ. … One can also say that Joseph is the first to share in the faith of the Mother of God… Joseph’s marriage to Mary is the juridical basis of his fatherhood. It was to assure fatherly protection for Jesus that God chose Joseph to be Mary’s spouse. It follows that Joseph’s fatherhood, a relationship that places him as close as possible to Christ, comes to pass through marriage to Mary, that is, through the family. 

“Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 1:20)

 The Son of Mary is also Joseph’s son by virtue of the marriage bond that unites them. By reason of their faithful marriage both of them deserve to be called Christ’s parents, not only His mother, but also His father, who was a parent in the same way that he was the mother’s spouse: in mind, not in flesh…The Savior began the work of salvation by this virginal and holy union, wherein is manifested his all-powerful will to purify and sanctify the family, that sanctuary of love and cradle of life… through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families. 

Excerpts from Redemptoris Custos  by Saint John Paul II

A prayer to Saint Joseph:  O guardian and father of virgins, Saint Joseph, to whose faithful care Jesus Himself and the Virgin of virgins, Mary, were entrusted: for the sake of these two most precious treasures, I beg and treat you to preserve me from every sin so that I may always serve Jesus and Mary most chastely all my mind, heart, and body. Amen. 

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