Today's Gospel Reading

Gospel Reading Today

Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

'Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,

yet unwilling to expose her to shame,

decided to divorce her quietly.

Such was his intention when, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

“Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit

that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins.”

When Joseph awoke,

he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took his wife into his home.'

Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

Prayer to Saint Joseph

HAPPY SOLEMNITY OF SAINT JOSEPH, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 💕

+In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we humbly implore your powerful intercession to bring our urgent petitions to God. Please pray for us, that we may always follow the will of God in our lives. Please pray for our families, that it may be a cradle of joy, love, and peace. Amen.

SAINT JOSEPH Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Foster Father of Jesus March 19 - Feast

SAINT JOSEPH

Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Foster Father of Jesus

March 19 - Feast

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls - Pray for me.

Amen.

This prayer was found in the fifteenth year of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In 1505 it was sent from the Pope to Emperor Charles when he was going into battle. Whoever shall read this prayer or hear it or keep it about themselves, shall never die a sudden death, or be drowned, not shall poison take effect of them; neither shall they fall into the hands of the enemy; or shall be burned in any fire, or shall be overpowered in battle.

Prayer to Saint Joseph -Solemnity of Saint Joseph March 19

 Prayer to Saint Joseph

To thee, O Blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our tribulations, and while imploring the aid of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also. By that love which united thee to the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, and by the fatherly affection with which thou didst embrace the Infant Jesus, we humbly beseech thee graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased with His Blood and to help us in our necessities, by thy powerful intercession.

Protect, O most provident Guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen children of Jesus Christ; ward off from us, O most loving Father, all taint of error and corruption; graciously assist us from Heaven, O most powerful protector, in our struggle with the powers of darkness; and as thou didst once rescue the Child Jesus from imminent peril to His life, so now defend the Holy Church of God from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity.

Shield each one of us with thy unceasing patronage that, imitating thy example and supported by thy aid, we may be enabled to live a good life, die a holy death, and secure everlasting happiness in Heaven.

Amen.

Acts of Faith ,Hope and Love

Act of Faith ✝️

O my God!

I firmly believe all the sacred truths

which your holy Catholic Church

believes and teaches,

because you, the infallible Truth,

have revealed them.

O Jesus, increase my faith.

Act of Hope ✝️

O my God!

Relying upon your goodness

and promises,

I hope to obtain pardon of my sins,

grace to serve you in this world

and life everlasting,

through the merits of Jesus Christ,

my Lord and Redeemer.

O Jesus, strengthen my hope.

Act of ove ✝️

O my God!

I love you above all things

with my whole heart and soul,

because you are infinitely worthy of love;

I love my neighbor as myself,

for the love of you;

I forgive all who have injured me,

and ask pardon of all whom I have injured,

O Jesus, inflame my love.

Amen.

Bible Reflections for Lent

 

Acts 4:12

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." 

Isaiah 53:3-9

3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. 

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 

1 Corinthians 15:55

55 "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" 

1 Corinthians 15:21

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

Romans 10:9

9 because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Special Prayer for End to War in Ukraine by Pope Francis

Pope Francis recites a special prayer imploring God to forgive us for war, especially the war in Ukraine.

He made his own a prayer composed by the Italian Archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, making a few minor additions.


The Pope pleads with God to forgive all of humanity for the brutality of war, which he said turns our hands—created to care and tend the earth—into instruments of death.

Below is an unofficial translation of the Pope’s prayer:


Forgive us for war, O Lord.


Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners!
Lord Jesus, born in the shadows of bombs falling on Kyiv, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, who died in a mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, a 20-year-old sent to the frontlines, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, who still behold armed hands in the shadow of your Cross, have mercy on us!


Forgive us, O Lord.


Forgive us, if we are not satisfied with the nails with which we crucified Your hands, as we continue to slate our thirst with the blood of those mauled by weapons.
Forgive us, if these hands which You created to tend have been transformed into instruments of death.
Forgive us, O Lord, if we continue to kill our brother;
Forgive us, if we continue like Cain to pick up the stones of our fields to kill Abel.
Forgive us, if we continue to justify our cruelty with our labors, if we legitimize the brutality of our actions with our pain.
Forgive us for war, O Lord. Forgive us for war, O Lord.


Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore You! Hold fast the hand of Cain!
Illumine our consciences;
May our will not be done;
Abandon us not to our own actions!


Stop us, O Lord, stop us!
And when you have held back the hand of Cain, care also for him. He is our brother.
O Lord, put a halt to the violence!
Stop us, O Lord!
Amen.