And now for something completely different...

From Conception to Birth by Alexander Tsarias

Prayer of Confidence in St. Joseph

O Dear St. Joseph, faithful foster father of Jesus Christ, I devoutly come before thy sacred image and implore thine aid and intercession in my present necessity.  I know and firmly believe that to thee all things are possible with God, and that the sweet Infant Jesus, who on earth was subject to thee, His reputed father, can now in Heaven refuse thee no request.  Thy faithful servant, the seraphic St. Teresa, experienced this and declared that never did she present to thee a petition that thou didst not grant; at the same time she invites all to have recourse to thee, assuring them that they will not depart from thee unconsoled.

Encouraged by this promise, I fly to thee, O holy Joseph, foster father of Jesus Christ and chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, beseeching thee by the tender love thou didst bear to both, to bestow on me thy love and mercy.  Comfort me in my present trial and affliction and obtain for me, through Jesus and Mary, that God the Father may grant my petition.  Send up to the Heart of thy beloved Jesus but a single sigh, lovingly present to Him my request; then I shall certainly obtain it and be consoled in my distress.

Our Father...
Our Father...
Our Father...

Hail Mary...
Hail Mary...
Hail Mary...

By Ven. Martin von Cochem based on the testimony of St. Teresa of Avila
Excerpted from Favorite Prayers to St. Joseph, Tan Books and Publishers, 1997

St. Joseph the Worker

St. Joseph the Carpenter, Georges de La Tour, c. 1640

THROUGH WORK man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature.

Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Laborem exercens

Jesus I Trust in You

All that the Church says and does shows the mercy that God feels for man. When the Church has to remind about a neglected truth, or a betrayed good, it does it always motivated by a merciful love, so that men may have life and have it in abundance (cf. John 10:10). From divine mercy, which puts hearts at peace, also arises the authentic peace of the world, peace among peoples, cultures and religions.

Pope Benedict XVI

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Titian - Resurrection - 1544

Scourging at the Pillar

JPII

O Holy Trinity,
we thank you for having given to the Church
Pope John Paul II,
and for having made him shine with your fatherly tenderness,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit of love

He, trusting completely in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself
in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd
and has pointed out to us holiness
as the path to reach eternal communion with You.

Grant us, through his intercession,
according to your will, the grace that we implore,
in the hope that he will soon be numbered among your saints.
Amen.

Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/intercessionJP2.htm#ixzz1qtMTMp5q