1st May: Feast of St Joseph the Worker & Honouring the Month of Mary…
Lyrics
Dear St. Joseph, pure and gentle,
Guardian of the Saviour child,
Treading with the virgin mother,
Egypt’s deserts rough and wild.
Chorus:
Hail, St. Joseph, spouse of Mary,
Blessed above all saints on high,
When the death-shades round us gather,
Teach, oh, teach us how to die.
He who rested on thy bosom
Is by countless saints adored;
Prostrate angels in His presence
Sing hosannas to their Lord.
Now to thee no gift refusing,
Jesus stoops to hear thy prayer;
Then, dear saint, from thy fair dwelling,
Give to us a father’s care.
Dear St. Joseph, kind and loving,
Stretch to us a helping hand;
Guide us through life’s toils and sorrows
Safely to the distant land.
Comment:
Happy Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, to whom we pray for all those seeking employment or who are unhappy or suffering injustice at work. Saint Joseph The Worker, pray for them.
Comment:
We pray, too, for a glorious Month of Mary, and that Our Lady will bring great graces to our Conference, marking her Fatima Feast: Our Lady, Mother & Queen, we love you – please pray for us!
As always, this thread, whilst essentially devotional, may be used to discuss issues of interest and importance, relating, in this case, to St Joseph and/or Our Lady. Post your favourite hymns, prayers and poems; share any special answers to prayers you have received and any stories you have to tell us about the intercession of this great saint and our heavenly mother. Education and Edification is our aim – enjoy!
Comments (70)
Happy Feast of St Joseph the Worker to one and all!
I’m posting one of my favourite May hymns right here at the top for all to enjoy. Reminder: to post a YouTube video, just click on the video and select “copy embed code” then come here to click “paste” and, voila – this happens…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4FNjK4IEQ&w=1189&h=669%5D
Enjoy!
What a great month dedicated to Our Lady and commencing with a Feast of my beloved Patron, St. Joseph (my middle name). I have said before and I say again, nothing is refused by God to this great saint, if only we ask of him with trust. I have personally experienced the miraculous intervention of St. Joseph’s prayers in my life and can therefore attest to his powerful intercession with God.
A few years ago I was out of work. Being fairly well experienced in the IT/electronics industry I was naturally looking for a job that would pay a decent salary and provide a company car. Well, we’re living in those times when young inexperienced boys are being taken on by many firms because they are a cheap option. They settle for half the salary and a van. My age counted against me as well, it seemed that in my early 50s they thought I should be sent on a one way ticket to a Swiss clinic. Things looked pretty hopeless and I was feeling very despondent.
Then I decided to turn to St. Joseph for help, it was his March 19 Feast day. No sooner had I finished my petition to him than the phone rang, it was the manager of a London-based firm looking for a Scottish field engineer. Turns out the manager in question was also a Scot living in leicester. I later found out that we had both attended the same high school when we were young, though he was six years my junior. Anyway, I was not asked to attend an interview but rather to spend one week working with the company during which time they could observe me and I could observe them. The week came and went and I never looked back. I am now three years with that company and perfectly happy in my job, though I travel 3500 miles a month on the roads. And it is all thanks to that wonderful Saint.
It’s also worth pointing out that if we want to have a true and great devotion to Our Lady, then we should ask St. Joseph to obtain the grace for us. I’m sure that must please God very much.
In the meantime, here’s a video showing St. Joseph’s response to some nuns who turned to him for help.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjjspf2tN0&w=854&h=480%5D
Athanasius,
That is truly an inspiring story! And may Our Lady’s abundant graces be bestowed not only upon the CT Conference, but upon the world this year through the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
RCA Victor
I second that!
RCA Victor,
I agree, and I love those kind of stories. They really do inspire us with more faith and confidence. St Teresa of Avila said she had never petitioned St Joseph for anything that he failed to grant, and I keep hearing the same from people, as the examples on this blog.
Athanasius,
First of all, belated good wishes on your name day (St. Joseph) and the feast of St. Athanasius. The feast of St. Athanasius is very special since it was on his feast 41 years ago that I received my First Holy Communion.
Re the staircase of St. Joseph:
Some years ago, the Transalpine Redemptorists (when they were affiliated with the SSPX) published the story of the staircase of St. Joseph in their publication Catholic. I was so impressed that I cut out the entire article and saved it. It’s one of my favorites.
Good St. Joseph got me a job near an SSPX priory when I wanted to go to a traditional daily Mass and was unsure where to go. I did a novena to him and got a job at “St. Joseph’s School” a stone’s throw away from the priory. Needless to say, I took the hint he gave me and immediately found out more about the Society. Within a short time I realised I’d been fed misinformation, that the Society were not “schismatic” or “disobedient” and I began to attend Mass there regularly.
Thank you St. Joseph!
Here is a link to a beautiful poem about St. Joseph
http://motesnbeams.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/limbo-by-sister-mary-ada.html
Mary Murphy
Your own experience demonstrates again the greatness of this great saint. I’ll read the poem you linked shortly, thanks for posting it.
Mary Murphy,
That’s an inspiring story, just like Athanasius’s one – these are genuine miracles of faith, IMHO. You have been very blessed.
Happy feast day everyone and welcome to May, the month of Mary.
Having become a father in recent times, I have increasingly thought to ite ad joseph in prayer and hearing the inspiring stories of his intercession on this thread only encourages me. Thank you for sharing them, Athanasius and Mary Murphy.
Marian devotion in May always makes me think back to primary school. One of the few noticeably Catholic parts of my “Catholic” schooling was (in Primary 3, I think) when my class built a Marian altar in our classroom. I would have been about 7 years old.
It was quite modest, a couple of school-desks pushed together and covered with a white table cloth. Then a statue of Our Lady placed on top, flanked by two vases of daffodils.
I recall Our Lady looking rather battle-scarred, with Her statue having been repaired with glue from various accidents in the past (you know how clumsy / boisterous children can be). But She still looked beautiful. I remember the teacher instructing us all to ask our mothers if they had an expendable vase we could bring in for the daffodils, with the caveat that it would probably be broken or damaged in an accident.
I can remember us all gathering around the altar and singing “May is the Month of Mary*”. I have a happy memory of that on a very sunny, hot day in particular. It was a far more innocent time and seems a lifetime away (its over 30 years, to be fair!).
*does anyone know anything about this hymn? I presume its some modernist dross, but I remember liking it as a small child.
I googled it and found this below – it seems to be a mystery:
May is the month of Mary (Mary is beautiful)
This song about Mary was used in primary schools in England, Scotland and Ireland during the mid 20th century. No published versions have been found, but there are numerous on-line references to the first verse and chorus quoted below.
If you have any more information about where it came from, who wrote it, or what tune it was sung to, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.
http://www.godsongs.net/2016/05/may-is-the-month-of-mary-month-that-we-love-so-well.html
Don’t be fooled by the “mid-20th century” comment, I was at primary school in the 1980’s, honest!
The fragment of the lyrics given is:
May is the month of Mary,
Month that we love so well.
Mary is God’s own mother,
Gladly her praises we tell.
Chorus
Mary is beautiful.
Mary is fair.
Gladly we praise her
In love and in prayer.
Although I remember the last time of the chorus as being “in song and in prayer”.
Gabriel Syme,
I have never heard that hymn, so I tried to find it on YouTube just now, but no success. I’d love to hear the tune.
BTW, I’m not surprised about the line where they changed “in song and in prayer” to “in love and in prayer” – they’ve done that with lots of hymns, even the hymn to St Joseph at the top of this page. They changed the lines about death “when the death shades gather round us, teach us how to die” – I just can’t remember what they put in place, but I couldn’t believe it.
I found it! This is the new version of St Joseph where they changed the bit about death:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E_9SopjkRw&w=1131&h=636%5D
MM,
That’s dreadful. I have seen that a few times, where the words of a hymn have been watered down to fit the modern(ist) mentality, with “love” being a favourite replacement. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any examples off-hand and I’m due to spend some time away from my computer today (don’t all cheer at once) but I will give it some thought and see if I can jog…. er, my memory. The other kind of jogging just isn’t ME!
More later…
In Ireland, they tried to change the hymn “Ill sing a hymn to Mary” by getting rid of the lines “O teach me Holy Mary, a loving song to frame/when wicked men blaspheme thee, to love and bless thy name.”
This part was expunged from the official version, but not from the popular memory, much to my delight. The people keep singing away the original version, blissfully unaware of the new rules. It will never die! It’s brilliant! ( I mean the people who are left, that is, the ones that remain Catholic after the majority have been Protestantised by the new “catechesis” and liturgy.)
You know, in the New Springtime there are no “wicked men”, everyone is a jolly good egg. Ha ha.
A May Challenge: let this wonderful hymn, begging reparation for blasphemies against Our Lady, be sung in as many venues as possible!
Mary Murphy,
I didn’t know they’d changed the words of I’ll Sing A Hymn To Mary so I went to look on YouTube. I found one with the new version – dreadful. It’s not easy to find the old version but I found this one. However, for some reason they only sing two of the verses and they sing them twice! They omit other lovely verses, such as “O noble tower of David” – I don’t know what that’s all about. I also don’t like the brass instrumental bits, but the actual singing is nice.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLpIexoF-1A&w=1189&h=669%5D
Mary,
that’s one of my favourite hymns, so if I am ever in a place where they sing the butchered version, I’ll drown them out. It speaks volumes when these modernist clowns can’t just go and make up their own rubbish hymns, but choose, instead of destroy the much loved hymns which real Catholics treasure. I’ll sing a hymn to Mary is one of the classics. How dare they change the words to fit their diabolical agenda.
Editor, the hymn to Our Lady of Aberdeen springs to mind.
The proper words are
our Lady of Good Succour,
In the city by the sea,
Where the Don flows down the valley
To greet the silvery Dee,
The ashes of faith still smoulder
Where the fire of faith has been:
Bring the old faith back to Scotland
Our Lady of Aberdeen.
Our Lady of Good Succour,
The love of God grows cold
In a country that has forgotten
The saving truths of old;
But a brighter dawn is breaking
And a fairer hope is seen:
Bring the old faith back to Scotland
Our Lady of Aberdeen.
Our Lady of Good Succour,
In the happy days of old
Men decked thy gracious image
With silver and with gold;
Though darker days succeeded
Thou still art Scotland’s Queen,
Come back, come back to Scotland,
Our Lady of Aberdeen.
The new version is,
Our Lady of Good Succour,
we raise our thoughts to thee,
where the Don flows down the valley
to greet the silverDee.
Help us to foster bravely,
amid this beauteous scene, a faith
both deep and loving,
Our Lady of Aberdeen.
Our Lady of Good Succour,
in the counrty saints have trod,
Saint John the brave confessor
laid down his life for God;
with the zeal of great Columba
and margaret, saint and queen,
inspire anew thy children,
Our lady of Aberdeen.
Our Lady of Good Succour,
may the love of God enfold,
our people, and surround them
with gifts of grace untold.
May a brighter dawn be breaking,
and a fairer hope be seen
for our city and our nation,
Our Lady of Aberdeen.
Vianney,
So, they don’t want to ask Our Lady of Aberdeen to bring back the old faith to Scotland. Isn’t that really a tragedy. I think ecumenism has killed off the faith in Scotland.
Vianney,
The changes to the hymn to Our Lady of Aberdeen are clear evidence of a complete loss of divine and Catholic Faith. I loved singing that hymn when I lived in Aberdeen; it has such a rousing tune, yet, to be honest, I’m having difficulty remembering which version we sang. Have you any idea when the new, impoverished, version came into use?
Dear Gabriel,
My late father +Eugene told me this story:
At his Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish in upstate Pennsylvania, they had May crownings every year. After Liturgy, Father, the altar boys, choir, the girls of the Sodality of Our Lady and the faithful would process outside to the statue of Our Lady. There one of the Sodality girls would crown the statue of Our Lady.
One year, on the day of the scheduled May crowning, it was pouring rain with strong winds. Everyone was saying they should cancel the May crowning. Father said: “Don’t worry – the Blessed Mother will take care of it.”
At the end of Liturgy, the rain stopped! The sun shone brightly, and the May crowning went on as planned.
Only the Good Lord can give His sweet Mother a beautiful day for Her crowning.
In the Risen Christ,
Margaret
Athanasius and Mary Murphy,
Wishing everyone a Happy Feast Day of St. Joseph. As he is the Patron Saint of workers, it is no wonder that he answered both Athanasius and Mary Murphy’s prayers. Inspiring stories.
May Our Lady look after the Catholic Truth Conference on the 13th May – Amazing to think that it is 100 years since Our Lady appeared at Fatima.
Our chapel in Edinburgh has much to thank St. Joseph for over the years but I will tell you of his two latest miracles. Our pipe organ is well past it’s sell by date and we had the offer of one from the local kirk which had closed down. The organ was free but we would have to pay for it to be dismantled, moved up the road to the chapel and then rebuilt. The estimate given was £10,000 which was beyond our means and so we began praying to St. Joseph and told him “if we are get this organ then you will have to find the money.” About two weeks later a gentleman in the congregation handed me an envelope and said “there’s something towards the organ.” When I opened the envelope there was a cheque for £10,000 inside.
A few years ago we had been given a set of Stations of the Cross by a friend of mine. They are French oil paintings from the mid 1800s and very beautiful but had seen better days. The Head of Conservation where I worked put us in touch with an art restorer who examined them and detailed the repairs needed. The estimate to restore them was £7,500, again beyond our means, and we tried various organisations to see about grants but to no avail. Towards the end of last year we decided that they really needed to be restored before any more deterioration took place, and so we went to St. Joseph and asked him to provide the money. As it had been a few years since the art restorer gave his estimate I phoned him asking how much he thought it would cost now given the increase in the cost of living etc. He said that he had given us an estimate and that he would stick with that amount because it was for the church. (Stations of the Cross miracle number one.) A few days later I was again handed an envelope from another gentleman and inside was a cheque for £7,500. Stations of the Cross miracle number two.
Thanks for sharing those great stories Vianney.
Is the new organ the one currently installed in the Church, or is it still to be fitted?
One minor request for you – the next time a kindly-looking gentleman turns up clutching an envelope, do us a favour and direct him straight to the Glasgow chapel, will you? Haha! 😉
Gabriel Syme, the “new” organ has been installed at the back of the gallery. The organ that is behind the reredos is the original one from when the church was built in 1880 but is no longer fit for purpose. Ideally, we would like to have it removed so that we can have a bigger sanctuary. We are trying to obtain a Pugin and Pugin altar which would fit perfectly into an enlarged sanctuary. Three guesses who’s been given the job of obtaining it.
Wow Vianney, you must be well in with St. Joseph! Did I mention that my car is getting old?
Crofterlady,
I’m by-passing St Joseph and looking for an introduction to those two men – as a matter of urgency!
Joking, St Joseph! I know you won’t be offended!
I’ll put in a word for you with St. Joseph Crofterlady.
Vianney,
I’m now determined to come to Mass in Edinburgh on Sunday. Please introduce me to those two gentlemen… Tell them I’m 29…
Editor,
I don’t think they’ll believe the 29 part as they both have perfect eyesight.
Besides which, they might be desperate but they’re not suicidal…..Just kidding
Vianney,
Actually, I’ve had second thoughts. I just remembered what happened the last time I thought I’d met Mr Right (and found that is first name was “Always”)… So, the more I think about those two men, the more I’m reminding myself to learn from past experience….
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9hc7EvZNBFo/T-vgL9OBEgI/AAAAAAAJFdI/ApaF7mZwJGg/s1600/Funny+Wedding+Cartoon+(1).jpg
The stories here Of prayers answered are inspiring. However, I would like to ask what to do when you make novenas to St Joseph and your prayers aren’t answered. Why does this happen and what am I doing wrong ?
I have prayed several novenas to find a new job. I’ve been for four or five interviews but I haven’t been successful. Is this down to my lack of Faith in the power of St Joseph? Is it lack of trust ?
The answer must surely be that, for whatever reason, those jobs were not for you!
Or maybe the answer was simply ‘no’ -and there is something else further down the line for you. I remember when for the first time some years ago my husband faced unemployment. We were worried with a large mortgage and school fees to find. Eventually he was shortlisted for a really prestigious job, one of two candidates. He duly went for the interview and returned very crestfallen: he had come second. We had prayed hard for this and I could not understand why God had not listened.
However shortly after that he was head hunted for what turned out to be a much better job with a company he worked for until his recent retirement.
Not only that, we later heard that the other job never came to pass, the successful candidate found that the board had decided not to have a project director after all…
It has always been for me a great example of God knowing what is best for us even when it looks bad. So hang in there Petrus. St Joseph will hear your prayers.
That’s a great post, Elizabeth, which I really appreciate.
Petrus
You’re never going to get Prime Minister of Britain or President of the United States, so stop asking!
Seriously, I think Martin summed it up perfectly when he said those jobs you asked for are clearly not for you. But prayers like yours never go unanswered, something better will crop up when you least expect it. Patience is the key here. I assure you that something good will come from those prayers.
As for trust and faith, I don’t think any of us could claim to be champions on that front, so it’s not that.
Athanasius,
It’s the crown I’m after!
Petrus
Oh well, aim high they say! Petrus Rex has a certain ring to it, you’ll need to practice that hand wave!
Rex? You calling me a dog?
Petrus,
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4nazch9qe4&w=854&h=480%5D
Petrus,
All I can say is Woof!!
RCA Victor, What do you think of this version of the staircase story?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qla4AlgR7w&w=854&h=480%5D
Crofterlady,
Athanasius has certainly pegged this act of deception for what it is, but let’s dig a little further:
1. The Sisters didn’t know the man who appeared on a donkey with a “few simple tools.” and who then disappeared after the staircase was completed with no pay.
2. Yet, the man who, this video claims, actually built the staircase must have been known to them, since they paid him! Why would he accept pay for working in the school, but not for working on the staircase?
3. A scientific analysis of the wood revealed that although it is some sort of subspecies of spruce, nothing like it exists on earth. Er, last time I checked, nowhere on earth rules out France……
4. Yet we are supposed to believe that a French master craftsman (see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnons_du_Tour_de_France ) built this in France and transported it in segments to New Mexico.
5. According to “legend,” it took the mysterious carpenter several months to complete the staircase. Now how could it have taken several months, pray tell, for a French craftsman to merely assemble sections of a pre-constructed staircase?
6. The French craftsman was gunned down,according to the obituary. Hmmm….can anyone explain how St. Joseph could have been gunned down?
7. Has any French craftsman, or any other craftsman on earth for that matter, ever built a staircase like this, with no visible means of support?
8. The Frenchman who allegedly built the staircase had “sophisticated carpenter tools,” yet the man who built the staircase had only simple tools.
9. The woman historian is “almost certain” that the Frenchman was a “Companion” (secret guild member), but offers no evidence whatsoever.
10. What does the staircase at St. Vincent Sanitarium look like, also allegedly built by the Frenchman. Nothing like this one, I’d wager!
11. I’d say the obituary listing the Frenchman as the builder is simply a lie.
In short, I’d have to say that this “historian” is nothing of the kind, but more like a charlatan.
Crofterlady,
More interesting background on this “Frank Rochas”: he has an entry on “Find a Grace,” which also claims that he built the staircase (with no evidence):
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41908725
OK, one more!
As this website points out, the mysterious man who appeared to construct the staircase was an elderly, gray-haired man. Frenchy Rochas, however, would have been not quite 40 years old when the staircase was built, since he was born in 1843!
http://www.pratanacoffeetalk.com/2011/03/mystery-of-staircase-solved.html
Crofterlady
I’m sure RCA Victor will agree with me when I say that the video you linked is typical of an unbelieving world. There’s no way any human being built that staircase with two 360 degree turns without central support. It defies gravity. Also, the wood used, as we heard in the video, has a sub species which is not known in this world. And to top it all, there are no nails holding the staircase together, just wooden pegs.
In summary, the words from the Song of Bernadette spring to mind: “For those who have faith no explanation is required. For those who have not, no explanation will suffice”.
Athanasius
I agree – I haven’t had time to search it out, but I read somewhere that several engineers have testified that both the wood is unknown in the area, and can be dated to first century Israel and the other materials used were not known in that area.
C’est le mois de Marie, c’est le mois le plus beau… / It is Mary’s month, it is the most beautiful month…
Beautiful! Thank you for posting that lovely video, Lionel.
Happy Feast of St Joseph the Worker to all of you and especially to those who are looking for a job!
The devil is in action not far from my home:
Lionel,
Only yesterday I had an email exchange with a reader on our email list, who, it turns out, lives in France, and he said he thinks civil war is on the cards in France due to the political situation there.
We must pray to St Joseph and Our Lady – that must have been frightening to see all that violence so close to your home.
Editor,
I was especially afraid that the rabble would set fire to my building…
I went out only to go to the Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
The smell in the street was pestilential; I got sick of it.
The Kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is, for the moment, in the hands of the devil!…
If the liberal elite continue to lose ground around the world then they will see to it that civil wars erupt, and potentially global war. They will not relinguish power peacefully! It is more urgent now than ever that the Pope and the bishops make that consecration of Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.
That is right, Athanasius, this consecration should have been done long ago!
Lionel
The Pope will be in Fatima on May 13, on the 100th anniversary, and yet he shows no sign whatever of granting Our Lady’s request. It’s folly in the extreme and it will prove very costly to the world in the not too distant future.
So you are saying Russia invading Independent states, imprisoning political opponents, and supporting foreign tyrants, just to list a few things, isn’t worthy of critical comments from international bodies, or foreign states?
Martin
Are you for real? Britain and the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and turned those once-stable countries into war zones and breeding grounds for ISIS. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died as a result and the Western world is now flooded with millions of migrants seeking to escape the carnage. Christianity has all but been eradicated from those middle eastern countries for the first time in 2000 years.
They then wanted to add Syria to their list of countries to destroy but were prevented from direct assault by MP’s in Westminster who had had enough of it. So what happened instead? They started a revolution in the country that has now lasted six years.
In Ukraine the democratically elected President was overthrown by revolution because he decided not to join the EU. Who do you think started that revolution? Russia, perhaps?
You’re a very foolish person indeed if you truly believe that Putin is the only evil doer in the world’s unrest while our leaders are wonderful defenders of freedom. They are all Godless warmongers, the lot of them. Just look at the lengths they went to to stop Trump from having conciliatory talks with Russia. And if Assad did drop that chemical bomb on his own people then he must have the IQ of a house plant.
He has won the war in Syria, so there was absolutely no reason for him to do that. Besides which he would surely have known that to do such a thing would turn all the leaders of the world against him. That’s what happened, but was it him who dropped the bomb? We have been shown no evidence of that, just as we were shown no evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when the decision was made to flatten his country. We now know that he had no such weapons. It was all a lie.
Nowhere in my post did I defend the military actions of any other nation. I queried why you admired a despotic leader, and an aggressive nation. In your response you compounded your error.
Martin,
You attitude in this is completely illogical. You appear to endorse the position of the so-called democratic leaders of the allegedly “free West” which is to make certain other leaders Bogey Men who get blamed for everything, no matter the facts. To say that, is not to “admire” Putin, any more than acknowledging that in Nazi Germany there was a certain level of economic progress, is to “admire” Hitler.
I know it’s not PC to use Hitler as an example, ever, but I am not, never have been and never WILL be PC.
There is, for example, evidence that political opponents of the present regime have been murdered in the UK upheld by parliamentary enquiries and the courts.
I have not defended one western leader but I upheld that they can rightly criticise illegal, and immoral, acts undertaken by a regime defended by some here.
It is illogical to criticise western regimes and not allow criticism of others. That is the illogicality of the position espouse by some here.
Martin
You say I “admire” a despotic nation knowing full well that you’re twisting my comments out of all reasonable context. That tells me that you’re a troll, not in the least interested in objective debate. My advice to you is to get a life.
I’m sure I read that Sadam Hussein kept the Islamic extremists and terrorists in check!
Quite right, Petrus. Christians were much safer for a start.
The Remnant posted this recently:
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/3197-christians-and-the-assad-government-the-untold-story
In sum, this article agrees with you.
Petrus
Not only is that true but his Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, was a Chaldean Catholic. There was no Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq while Sadam Hussein reigned. Christians and Muslims co-existed in relative peace. That all changed of course under Bush and Blair. The really hypocritical thing is that Britain and America sold arms to Hussein for decades before suddenly declaring him a despot and bombing his country to rubble.
Athanasius,
I remember an American Government spokesman going on about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction and a journalist asked him how he was so sure that Saddam had them, and he answered, “because we sold them to him.” You couldn’t make it up.
Vianney
I know, it’s utterly ludicrous. They wanted to flatten Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that they sold him. Something doesn’t add up there!
Dear St. Joseph, please pray for us all, struggling through our lives while trying our best to live the unadulterated, integral Catholic Faith of the Apostles and of all our forefathers.
> Happy Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker…
In a speech given to the Christian Association of Italian Workers on May 1st, 1955, Pope Pius XII established the first day of May as the feast of St. Joseph the Workman. Whereas communism and its handmaid socialism fomented class warfare polluted with envy, the Holy Father declared that “far from being a stimulus for discord, hate and violence, May 1st is and will be a recurring invitation to modern society to accomplish that which is still lacking for social peace.”
Members of the Catholic Association of Italian Workers had gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their society by publicly renewing their commitment to the social doctrine of the Church. On that day Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The Pope assured his audience and the working people of the world that:
“You have beside you a shepherd, a defender and a father in Saint Joseph, the carpenter whom God in His providence chose to be the virginal father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. He is silent but has excellent hearing, and his intercession is very powerful over the Heart of the Savior.”
The Holy Father continued:
“We put your Associations under the powerful patronage of St. Joseph. There could not, in fact, be a better protector to help you to make the Spirit of the Gospel penetrate into your life. As we said before, from the Heart of the Man-God, the Savior of the world, this spirit abounds in you and in all men; but it is quite certain that no worker was ever so perfectly and profoundly penetrated by it as was the putative Father of Jesus, who live with Him in the closest intimacy and community of family and of work. Therefore, if you wish to be close to Christ, we also repeat again today, ‘Ite ad Joseph’ – ‘Go to Joseph!'”
No longer would the communists have the monopoly on a day of celebration on behalf of workers. Henceforth, the Catholic Church would have its own feast, and so continue its divine mission to guide, protect, and love the suffering, particularly those most in need of defense and help, the workers and other sons of the people.
“Accepted as such by Christian workers, and almost receiving Christian unction, the 1st of May, so far from being a renewal of discord, hate, and violence, is, and will be, a recurring invitation to modern society to accomplish that which is still lacking for societal peace: a Christian feast, that is, a jubilant day for the concrete and progressive triumph of the Christian ideals of the great family of labor.
“So that this meaning may be present, and in a certain way as an immediate exchange for the numerous and previous gifts which have come to us from all parts of Italy, we lovingly announce to you our intention to institute – as we in fact do institute – the liturgical feast of St. Joseph the Artisan, assigning to it precisely the first of May.
“Does this our gift please you, dear working men and women? We are sure it does, because the humble artisan of Nazareth not only represents to God and to Holy Church the dignity of manual labor, but is also always the providential guardian of you and your families.”
With this allocution Pius XII established a feast day to counter the communist May Day and the demented creed that inspired it. The Church was to have a festival to remind men of the dignity of work and to inspire societal life and laws that were founded on the equal division of rights and duties. Communism had been a machine for producing power, one that ignored all considerations but the utility of labor, destroying in the process the humanity of the laborer who operates the machine. To this madness the Catholic Faith would continue to be adamantly opposed, reminding its Faithful children in the illustrious example of the worth of the worker who is to be redeemed by the Son of God.
Source of the quotations: Pius XII, allocution to the Christian Association of Italian Workers: Acta Apostolicae Sedie 47 (May 1, 1955) pp. 403-4.
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