Happy St. Joseph's Day!

And in Italy, Happy Father's Day!

Buona Festa Del Papà!
🇮🇹

#StJoseph #SanGiuseppe #Italy #Italia #FestaDelPapà

Quote of the day, 19 March: Saint Teresa

Once, when in need, for I didn’t know what to do or how to pay some workmen, St. Joseph, my true father and lord, appeared to me and revealed to me that I would not be lacking, that I should hire them. And so I did, without so much as a penny, and the Lord, in ways that amazed those who heard about it, provided for me.

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Book of Her Life: Chapter 33, no. 12

Teresa of Avila, St 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Saint Joseph holds a bouquet of Easter lilies, lilium longiflorum. Image credit: arley_design / Adobe Stock (Asset ID#: 1260853483).

Quote of the day, 14 March: St. Raphael Kalinowski

[In 1874, Saint Raphael] Kalinowski was already living a quasi-Carmelite life before he had even decided to join the Carmelites.

“I long for a regulated life, because nothing disturbs interior harmony so much as the absence of exterior peace—and how destructive that is! I’m beginning to convince myself that the worst thing in this world is to spend your time being torn apart inside. I aspire after one thing: to maintain purity of heart, because a conscience free from all sin allows the soul to lift itself up to God and helps it sustain the burden of life with a good heart. Also I am very stressed and today I started to look for an occupation which could engage all the hours of my day. Unemployment, in effect, is most injurious to an interior life, because it opens the door of our soul to the devil.”

In March 1874, Kalinowski had begun a novena to his patron St. Joseph, and this reminded him to write to his parents and thank them, especially his mother, for inculcating in him a devotion to St. Joseph.

Kalinowski wrote to Father Fiszer, his spiritual director in Irkutsk, and included in it a letter for the exiled Bishop [Kaspar] Borowski. In replying to this letter, Fiszer remarked:

“I read your letter aloud to His Excellency. The good old man listened benevolently and in regard to your desire to consecrate yourself to the service of God, he gave me this message: ‘go to a warm country and put it into effect.’ His Excellency is quite sure that the sacrifice of your life will be of benefit to humanity and will redound to God’s glory and that you will find immense good.”

Timothy Tierney, o.c.d.

Chapter 9, Transition Period

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press  Australia.

Featured image: Saint Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski, edited from the photo taken 30 March 1897. Photo credit: Discalced Carmelites (Used by permission)

Nicht alle haben spitz auf­ra­gen­den Tür­me, die das Stadt­bild beherr­schen. Sie sind manch­mal ganz unschein­bar. Und wie alles im Wed­ding sind auch die Kir­chen oft ganz anders als das, was man land­läu­fig unter Sakral­bau­ten versteht. 

[…]

Am Mittwoch, den 24. Dezember, finden im Wedding und Gesundbrunnen zahlreiche Gottesdienste zu Weihnachten statt – von Familiengottesdiensten mit Krippenspiel bis zur Christmette am späten Abend. Auch an den beiden Weihnachtsfeiertagen gibt es Gottesdienste. Eine Übersicht:

[…]

The amount of ice on the outer lighthouse as of tonight ... December 19, 2025 in St. Joseph, MI.

Photo by Joshua Nowicki

#art #photography #lighthouse #winter #lakemichigan #michigan #stjoseph