A cordial welcome to our monthly appointment in the company of Saint Joseph in this month of October punctuated by luminous iridescence for the commemoration of important saints. On October 1st we remembered the young Church doctor Teresa of the Child Jesus, yesterday Saint Francis of Assisi, on the 11th Saint John XXIII, the good Pope, who was baptized with the name of Angelo Giuseppe, of whom he was a great devotee , on the 15th the great devotee of Saint Joseph, Saint Teresa of Avila. On the 18th we celebrate Saint Luke, the evangelist of divine mercy. Furthermore, for my religious family, on October 24th we celebrate the feast of Saint Luigi Guanella, the father of the poor and the consoler of those who are tired in life due to the burden of disability.
In the frame of these luminous halos of light, ours is an appointment full of affection, esteem and listening to the harmony of sounds that only the soul in love and rich in faith can experience.
We want this evening to be in harmony with attention and prayer with all people of good will, with grandparents, with married couples who are experiencing a moment of grace in the daily struggle of knowing how to identify the path to take for a good and effective education. for the children. We also wish to pray for engaged couples and couples experiencing relationship difficulties.
This evening we want to speak "heart to heart" with Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.
We dream and hope that Saint Joseph will be our teacher not so much for the words he did not pronounce, but for the listening he was able to give to the will of God and insert into our fragile life those words that gave him comfort in doubt and determination will in obeying this announcement of salvation.
We have repeated several times that the silence of Saint Joseph was not mutism, a resigned, passive silence, but it is a silence illuminated by radiations with many facets that reflect luminous colours, almost indications of roads to follow in order to walk on the right path of holiness, as the fullness of evangelical bliss.
As always at the beginning of this radio event, I want to express a cordial greeting to everyone: to the listeners, to those who listen to us at home or on the street returning from work, to those who are preparing dinner, but, in particular, to those afflicted by many adversities, by adversities such as poor health, the internal discomfort of depression, and, at times, even intolerance towards life itself. We want to inject a breath of goodwill into the difficulties of the relationship with the condominiums, and, even more, the malaise in family life such as the relationship between husband and wife and parents and children; where we have lost the habit of saying - as Pope Francis often suggests - to "ask permission to do something, apologize, say a smiling thank you". But also a greeting with a particular smile to those who are angry with life itself, to those who have not yet found a strong and valid reason to live.
But there is a particular embrace for those who feel useless in life, alone, for those without friends. With this prayer we would like to be close to him with much friendly warmth and brotherly affection.
In this prayer, Pope Francis helps us to contemplate in the house of Nazareth the splendor of true love, which through divine grace flows as a source of trust and hope for the future. Contemplating means identifying with this married couple who love each other, help each other, love each other and plan their future on the foundation of divine Providence.
Many times the contemplation of this family of Nazareth dismays us at the considerable distances that separate our lives from the ideals dreamed and contemplated.
Then from our discomfort arises a cry for help so that the holy family of Nazareth can come to our aid and restore lifeblood to our human relationships, a renewed energy to the difficult profession of human living.
How much we would like our feelings to conform to the feelings of Joseph and Mary towards the mission that God had assigned to them and how we would like the Holy Family of Nazareth to also make our families places of communion and cenacles of prayer, and authentic schools of Gospel and small domestic churches.
prayer
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
we turn to you with confidence.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
make our families too
places of communion and prayer cenacles,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
never again will there be an experience in families
of violence, closure and division:
anyone who has been hurt or scandalized
may you soon find consolation and healing.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
We ask you to raise awareness in everyone
of the sacred and inviolable character of the family,
its beauty in God's plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
listen, answer our plea.
Amen.
The family is a place of evangelical holiness, achieved in the most ordinary conditions.
You can breathe the memory of generations and have roots that allow you to go far. It is a place of discernment, where one is taught to recognize God's plan for one's life and to embrace it with trust. It is a place of generosity, of discreet, fraternal and supportive presence, which teaches us to come out of ourselves to welcome others, to forgive and feel forgiven."
In his trip to Nazareth almost fifty years ago, Paul VI called the house of Nazareth a school: a school where one learned to build relationships with God and with men. School of love, prayer and mutual attention.
A Church that is an extended family in the territory knows how to place itself in parish realities, in ecclesial groups with the love of a father and a mother who live with loving participation the responsibility of the guardian, who protects without replacing himself, who corrects without humiliating, who educates with example and patience.
In the Bible there is a permanent question: the Father of life asks: where is the brother. It is God's question to Cain, who asks for information about his brother Abel. Cain absolves himself of responsibilities and says that he is not the guardian of his brother Abel. Cain's disengagement does not please God. The Creator gives every human creature not only the responsibility for creation, but above all for people. We must and can exercise these responsibilities by carefully participating in the events of daily news with a silent wait illuminated by prayer open to the Father's will.
Let us not forget that the Church is the family of God, but above all, it is a family of children who recognize each other as brothers and sisters and have Jesus as their elder brother, who has contracted with the Father and with us a pact of love and eternal custody of our life. In a responsible family, no one is allowed to consider someone only as a burden, a problem, a cost, a worry or a risk: the other is essentially a gift, which remains so even when it travels different paths. Diversity is the arduous road to ever greater wealth.
The ecclesial community is an open house. The Church, far from the desire for external greatness, is welcoming in the sober style of its members and, precisely for this reason, it is an accessible bridge to the hope of peace that lies within every man, including those who - tried by life - have a wounded heart and suffering.
«With the power of divine grace, the Church can truly illuminate the future of man's night, pointing out to him with demonstrated credibility the future goal by sharing his steps, precisely because the Church as a community of men and women lives the experience of being incessantly regenerated in the heart merciful of the Father".
After the Prayer to Saint Joseph
We will have a musical break
Saint Joseph, help us to always stay close to Jesus,
not only when we are in church,
but above all when we are with family,
at work, with friends, at the bar and among people.
How deeply you loved Mary,
help us to love our family with passion and
all the people we meet on the street;
help us to see in their faces the physiognomy of your son Jesus.
We nail you that our houses resemble your house in Nazareth,
that we can always live in an atmosphere of love and serenity,
may there be bread and peace in our homes,
fruit of honest and dignified work.
May our family truly be a domestic church,
where you feel loved and where you love.
Saint Joseph welcome us all under your mantle,
we rely on you who have experienced the anxiety of tomorrow,
job insecurity and daily worries
of a life lived as a gift of ourselves to others.
Help us always to be of Jesus and with Jesus.
Help us to live with others as brothers and sisters
who are not afraid to live the gospel,
to let ourselves be guided by the Word of Jesus.
And when one day in heaven Jesus
pointing his merciful finger at each of us
he will ask us like Peter: "Do you love me?",
help us to answer: "You know, Jesus, that I have loved you and I love you" in my brothers and sisters.
Saint Joseph who was a teacher of human life for Jesus,
help us to be his true disciples.
Giosy Cento You are great God
I like to resume our reflection in this hour of spirituality, in the setting of this month of October with the bright colors that cover the leaves of the trees in autumn. Nature, in this season, at first glance, seems to show a tired smile, but instead it is the joy of having been able to give life with fruits and joy with colors. Autumn is certainly a farewell to the beautiful season, however the first months of autumn are surrounded by the colors of hope, it is a farewell, a warm greeting full of expectations. It is a benevolent and hopeful goodbye in the spring season.
Autumn, beyond the offer of colors, especially to our elderly, who in their youth did not know supermarkets. In their time the village shop had everything indispensable for life, which was added to the large supplies that mother nature allowed to be stored in the pantry or in the granaries. Autumn offers wine for the joy of the heart, fills the containers with oil to support health.
I would think that it was precisely in the autumn when Joseph's eyes fixed on the beauty of Mary and he began to dream of a wedding with this young girl from Nazareth.
The synodal document on the "Amoris Lætitia" family, published in recent months, highlights the figure of Joseph, involving him not only because he represents the husband and the father, but also because the biblical figure of this Patriarch is full of ever new suggestions , very current.
A very modern and always close image that can always add something and still say a lot to the contemporary world. In a reflection Some points of the exhortation, in fact, express a certain "Josephine" inspiration.
We want to borrow the eyes of Saint Joseph as a man, husband and father and look at Mary. For this we take help from a hypothetical letter written by Msgr. Tonino Bello at Saint Joseph.
Tonino Bello writes: «Tell me, Giuseppe, when did you meet Maria? Perhaps one spring morning, as she returned from the village fountain with the amphora on her head and with her hand on her hip, slender as the stem of a cornflower?
Or perhaps one day on the Sabbath, while he conversed apart with the girls of Nazareth, under the arch of the synagogue? Or perhaps one summer afternoon, in a wheat field, while lowering her splendid eyes, so as not to reveal the modesty of poverty, she adapted to the humiliating profession of gleaner?
When he smiled back at you and touched your head with his first caress, which perhaps was his first blessing and you didn't know it? And at night you soaked the pillow with tears of happiness. Did he write you love letters? Maybe yes!
And the smile with which you accompany the nod of your eyes towards the cupboard of paints and paints makes me understand that in one of those empty jars, which no longer open, you still have some! Then one night you took courage with both hands and went under her window, scented with basil and mint, and softly sang to her the verses of the Song of Songs: "Get up my friend, my beautiful one and come, for behold, the The winter has passed, the rain has stopped, it is gone; the flowers have appeared in the fields, the time for singing has returned, and the voice of the dove is still heard in our countryside. The fig tree has put out the first ones fruits and flowering vines spread fragrance. Arise my friend, my beautiful one and come! O my dove, who is in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the cliffs, show me your face, let me hear your voice, because your voice is sweet. and your face is graceful. And your friend, your beautiful one really got up, came onto the street, startling you, took your hand in hers and while your heart was bursting in your chest, she confided in you there, below. the stars, a great secret. Only you, the dreamer, could understand it. Of an angel of the Lord. Of a mystery hidden over the centuries and now hidden in his womb. Of a project bigger than the universe and higher than the firmament above it.
Then she asked you to get out of her life, say goodbye and forget her forever.
It was then that you held her to your heart for the first time and said to her trembling: "For me, I willingly give up my plans. I want to share yours, Maria, as long as you let me stay with you."
She said yes, and you touched her womb with a caress: it was your first blessing on the nascent Church."
For a few weeks, social life has also resumed its ordinary path: the children have returned to school with the joy and nostalgia of the holidays in their eyes and hearts.
If someone lives with nostalgia and memories for the category of grandparents, the work is not finished, on the contrary, additional activity is required of them.
This is why at the beginning of the month of October, celebrating the feast of the guardian angels, we also celebrated the feast of grandparents, these providential guardian angels of the grandchildren. Grandfathers and grandmothers are the blessed angels ready to intervene in every.