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A year dedicated to the consecrated life called to conversion

In November last year, the Holy Father Francis, in a meeting with the superior generals of the religious, announced the desire to dedicate 2015 to reflection and prayer of praise to God for the light given by the Spirit in the conciliar decree Perfectae caritatis on the renewal of life religious and to ask for additional generosity from the religious themselves on the fiftieth anniversary of its promulgation. 
This particular year, which opens on November 30th of this year and will close on February 2nd 2016, wants to be considered a moment of grace for an update of the commitment of consecrated persons within the life of the whole Church.

John Paul II, soon to be a "saint", was a theologian and devotee of Saint Joseph

by Tarcisio Stramare

25 years have passed since John Paul II, on 15 August 1989, on the occasion of the first centenary of the Encyclical Quamquam pluries of Leo XIII, promulgated the Apostolic Exhortation “Redemptoris Custos” (RC). This is a doctrinal document of great importance, to be considered as the "magna charta" of the theology of Saint Joseph, of which the "part" assigned to him by God in the decree of the Incarnation of the Word, which predestined Mary to be the mother of the Son of God. Saint Joseph is also included in this decree, "called by God to directly serve the person and mission of Jesus through the exercise of his fatherhood: precisely in this way he cooperates in the fullness of time in the great mystery of redemption and is truly 'minister of salvation'” (RC, n.8). The joint presence of Mary and Joseph, sealed by the same bond of charity, is part of the mystery of the Incarnation: "Precisely in this mystery Joseph of Nazareth 'participated' like no other human person, with the exception of Mary, the Mother of the Word Incarnate.