Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fr. P. Josef Moreno: Discourse to Priests on Devotion to Saint Joseph

"To you I now turn, venerable Ministers of the Altar, Priests of the Most High, wise dispensers of the Blood of Jesus Christ, and entreat you to execute the command which God has given to you, by the mouth of a great king : 'Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you'.(1) And, since one of the most illustrious Doctors who have flourished in the schools assures us that St. Joseph must be regarded as the exemplar of all those who held any considerable position in the Church, (2) you cannot excuse yourselves from choosing him as the object of your particular devotion. You, then, I conjure who so often touch the Body of Jesus Christ, love this saint, who was the first of all men who had the honour to receive the Saviour into his hands. You, who sacrifice Jesus on the altar during the Divine Mysteries, venerate this saint, who may glory in having offered to the Eternal Father the first-fruits of the Adorable Blood of the Incarnate Word in His Circumcision. Consider Jesus on the altar lying on the sacred corporal, as Joseph contemplated Him in the Crib wrapped in His poor swaddling-bands; bear this Man-God through the streets of our cities, and to the houses of the sick, but let it ever be with the same sentiments of piety with which St. Joseph was animated when he held Him in his arms during the journeys he made. Finally, distribute to the faithful this Divine Saviour hidden under the appearance of bread, but endeavour at the same time to do this with all the reverence wherewith St. Joseph presented Him to the shepherds who came to adore Him." (3)

1 Gen. xli. 55.    2 Albert the Great, in Lucam, cap. i.    3  Fr. P. Josef Moreno, Diicurso viii.

 ~ Fr. P. Josef Moreno ~ 
Excerpt from The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph by Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

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