Refer to chart with Blessed Conchita

Unwillingness of intellect yield to sound doctrine, rise of Christian mothers, French Revolutions. Usurp sound doctrine of Church replaced by counterfeit of communism.

Arrogance don’t have to listen to the Church. Then hypocrisy, you must listen to me. Who is the legitimate voice that people will listen too.

Big lie state cant enforce morality, this is a canard. Someone’s morality enforced. True law found in natural law or law of licentious.

“Homily at Camden Yards (October 8, 1995)

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”

Homily at Camden Yards (October 8, 1995) 

 Law is just when it is moral, becomes unjust when its it immoral or amoral

Throw away quote, do what you want with own body. JC doesn’t tell us to ignore when others are in error. We are our brothers keeper.

Lie to not care what our brother does. Crash, libertine throw away garbage, I don’t care whatever if it does not impact me, this is not loving.

Christians called to be concerned. Authentic responsibilities to ourselves and others.

Authentic responsibility, unknowingly impacted by the errors, must peel back to find the truth. Go back, then correct, to build out.

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Unlike St. Margaret Mary, who was a cloistered nun, Conchita lived in the world—married, raising nine children, and participating in her parish life. Her life exemplified that holiness is not confined to convents or clerical offices. She demonstrated that the lay state, especially motherhood, could be a path to deep mystical union with Christ. Her writings, infused with theological depth, were born not in solitude, but in the heart of domestic life. She offered the day-to-day trials of motherhood as spiritual sacrifices, forming a “communion of suffering” that bore fruit for the Church.

Conchita’s mystical life blossomed into visible apostolic works. She founded or inspired multiple Church-approved movements: the Apostolate of the Cross, the Works of the Cross, and the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. Each was rooted in the spirituality of the Cross as a living flame of divine love, calling laypeople and clergy alike to holiness through sacrificial love. These were not merely devotional groups—they were channels of spiritual renewal, focused especially on supporting priests through prayer and hidden suffering. Her writings continue to guide the spiritual life of both lay faithful and religious today.

Conchita’s central insight was that suffering, offered in love, becomes a communion—a way to join Christ in redeeming the world. Just as Margaret Mary had opened hearts to the Sacred Heart’s mercy, Conchita opened the path of the Cross to all, making clear that every soul, regardless of vocation, can join Christ’s saving work. Her vision teaches that the fire of divine love is not extinguished in pain but intensified. In this way, the Cross—like the Heart—is a burning flame of mercy, and Conchita’s life stands as a radiant example of how ordinary suffering, embraced with faith, sanctifies the world.

“Blessed Margaret Mary received the burning love of the Sacred Heart; Conchita received the confirmation of divine suffering in the Cross aflame with that same love.”

Suffering as Communion and Mission

“The Cross revealed to Conchita was not a private consolation. It flamed with love. It was a spiritual mission that had to bear fruit in the Church.”

Pain & suffering hatred in a profound way. Catholic Christian must love their cross, others without faith will not accept it.

France, St. Margaret Mary, see Christ love burning for me, cross flames act of charity. Love in action.

God is profound, love flows into creation. What He loves, becomes.

Absurdity of Christianity, His love burst forth in suffering.

Fror Mothers, immediately recognizable. Love burst forth into suffering, including the manner in which children are born.

Image of Sacred & Immaculate Hearts good for imagination.

Let Jorge Treviño’s healing and Conchita Cabrera de Armida’s hidden life be a resounding call to each of us: holiness is not reserved for the convent or the pulpit—it is possible in the hospital room, the kitchen, the ache of suffering, and the quiet surrender of our daily duties. Conchita, a wife and mother with no formal theological training, became a vessel of divine wisdom and intercession simply by offering everything—her joys, her losses, her very body—to the Heart of Christ. In a world obsessed with noise and power, her life and Jorge’s healing proclaim a deeper truth: the Cross still bears fruit, miracles still happen, and the path to sanctity is open to all who say “yes” to love.

Blessed Conchita,

Teach us to embrace the Cross as gift,

Pray for us,

Amen.

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VIII. Canonization Process, miracle for Blessed. 20 miracles under investigation for sainthood.

The miracle proposed for the beatification of Concepción Cabrera de Armida centers on the medically inexplicable healing of Jorge Guillermo Treviño, born in 1960 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.[1] Jorge lived a healthy childhood and early adulthood, married, and had two children. Beginning in 1986, at age 26, he developed severe gastritis and later contracted hepatitis, followed by a cascade of worsening health conditions, including hypertension and neuromuscular dysfunction. By the early 1990s, his symptoms intensified: involuntary muscle contractions, intense cramping, fainting, and partial paralysis. Over the years, Jorge lost the ability to walk unaided, suffered extreme muscle rigidity, and became dependent on a wheelchair and eventually a battery-operated chair. Between 2004 and 2007, he underwent multiple hospitalizations and medical tests—including MRIs, spinal procedures, and electrical studies—all without success. No diagnosis could explain his deterioration, and his prognosis was bleak.

In May 2008, Jorge was scheduled to receive a Botox-based palliative procedure to relax his rigid muscles, but on the evening of Thursday, May 22, 2008, something extraordinary occurred. While in the hospital chapel of the Cross of the Apostolate with his wife Cecilia and friends, Jorge asked for prayers through the intercession of Conchita. After receiving a blessing with a relic of the Cross and falling asleep, he began to move for the first time in years. Around 7:10 p.m., while still sleeping, he gradually opened his paralyzed left hand, stretched out his arms and legs, and awoke visibly transformed—his face relaxed, free of pain, and reciting the Our Father. Witnesses noted his newfound peace and mobility. By 7:25 p.m., he was fully conscious and walking unassisted. The Botox procedure, scheduled for Saturday, May 24, was canceled. That night at 11:40 p.m., with his extended family present, Jorge continued to walk and move normally—permanently healed. His doctors, unable to explain the sudden recovery, confirmed the complete reversal of his debilitating condition.

The Archdiocese of Mexico City thoroughly investigated the healing, gathering medical testimony, witness accounts, and documentation, and submitted the case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Jorge’s healing—occurring after over 20 years of progressive decline and confirmed by imaging, electromyography, and clinical exams—was deemed scientifically inexplicable. He and his wife publicly gave thanks at a Mass on June 6, 2008, at the Cross of the Apostolate. The case remains under final review in Rome as the proposed miracle for Conchita’s beatification. If approved, this healing would affirm not only Conchita’s intercessory power but also the sanctity of her hidden vocation: a wife and mother conformed to Christ Crucified, now revealing her fruitfulness in the mystical body of the Church.

Jorge Guillermo Treviño Gutiérrez is alive today. Following the miraculous healing attributed to Venerable Conchita’s intercession in May 2008, he made a full and permanent recovery, walking unaided and with no neurological issues. Jorge went on to live a normal life—marrying, becoming a father, and serving as a visible testament to the divine kindness of Conchita’s intercession.

Natural miracle, would even know about a woman 120 years prior. Interior mystic, predominant work not public. Many know Elizabeth Seton, schools, even so took couple hundred years to be canonized JPII.

Anyone canonized, need a level of cult, awareness of faithful heroic virtue.

Her goodness better known, not just this fortunate man. A great honor and cross who carry weight of the miracle. Great producer of faith, but a weight with it. Obligations upon these souls who bear witness to the One who weight such a miracle

Blessed Conchita Cabrera de Armida’s mystical vision of the Cross in 1894 was not a private consolation but a profound apostolic calling. In this vision, she received the Cross as “burning with love”—a symbol not of mere suffering, but of redemptive charity. She understood it as her mission to bring souls to Christ through spiritual motherhood and sacrificial love. This vision laid the foundation for the Apostolate of the Cross, a movement inviting all people—especially the laity—to participate in the redemptive mission of Christ through prayer, sacrifice, and union with the Cross.

Conchita’s mission built directly on the legacy of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus had revealed His Sacred Heart aflame with merciful love. In a powerful affirmation of spiritual succession, the Lord told Conchita:

“I revealed My Heart to Margaret Mary, and the Cross to you.”

Profoundly struck, charity love in action. Sacre Heart burning love for us. Active love manifested by the Cross. Continuity across time. Deepening of the teaching. Christ love burns for us. We are called to be His Body on the earth, displayed on the Cross. Perfect charity.

[1] magiscenter.com – “The Miracle that led to the Beatification of Blessed Conchita”

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VII. Define Mystic, refer to St. Brigid show and definition. Brigid is the measure.

A mystic, in the Christian tradition, is someone graced with an extraordinary intimacy with God, often expressed through visions, interior locutions, or spiritual revelations meant not for spectacle but for the sanctification of the soul and the edification of the Church. The essence of mysticism is not in the phenomena themselves, but in the soul’s profound union with God and conformity to Christ crucified. True mystics are often drawn into deep suffering, purification, and spiritual abandonment, where their interior lives become hidden altars of intercession. The Church has always approached such experiences with reverence and caution, recognizing their potential for both spiritual insight and spiritual danger if not properly discerned.

The model for discerning authentic mysticism was powerfully shaped by the case of St. Brigid of Sweden (1303–1373). Brigid’s extensive revelations, particularly concerning the Passion of Christ and the need for ecclesial reform, were carefully evaluated by theologians and confessors over time. Her writings were tested according to three enduring principles: 1) conformity with Scripture and Catholic doctrine; 2) the spiritual fruits evident in her life—humility, obedience, and charity; and 3) her willing submission to ecclesiastical authority. Brigid never claimed authority over the Church but deferred to it, and her writings were preserved and circulated under spiritual direction. Her canonization in 1391 and later designation as a patroness of Europe affirmed not just her personal holiness, but the legitimacy of her mystical voice within the life of the Church.

This process—doctrinal fidelity, spiritual fruit, and ecclesial submission—became the enduring benchmark by which future mystical claims would be judged. From St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross to more modern figures like St. Faustina Kowalska and Concepción Cabrera de Armida, the Church has continued to evaluate mysticism according to the Brigidine model. The goal is not to validate spiritual spectacle but to discern authentic divine action and ensure it serves the good of the faithful. In this way, St. Brigid’s legacy extends far beyond her visions; she helped the Church develop a prudent, consistent, and spiritually fruitful path for welcoming the mystical without being misled by it.

Level of discernment gift of the Church. When gift is lacking leads to error and heresy.

Personal experience

Be wary of a gospel preached contrary to Christ

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Biographical Sketch: Concepción Cabrera de Armida (1862–1937)

Concepción Cabrera de Armida, affectionately known as Conchita, was born on December 8, 1862, in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, into a devout Catholic family of comfortable means. Her early life was steeped in the rhythms of the sacraments, traditional piety, and the cultural Catholicism of 19th-century Mexico. Yet despite her deep spiritual sensitivity from a young age, Conchita received only a sparse and basic formal education—typical of many girls of her time and social class. She did not attend higher schooling, was not fluent in Latin or foreign languages, and never underwent formal theological or philosophical formation. In this way, she differed sharply from someone like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was classically trained and intellectually formed in New York’s best private circles before her conversion.

At the age of 21, Conchita married Francisco Armida and bore nine children. Through the joys and sorrows of family life—including the death of her husband when she was only 39—she discovered her profound vocation: to suffer and intercede in union with Christ for the sanctification of priests and the renewal of the Church. From this hidden vocation emerged one of the most prolific mystical bodies of writing in modern Catholic history. Without academic training, she produced more than 60,000 handwritten pages, rich in theological insight, mystical vision, and ecclesial depth—rivaling the output of many Doctors of the Church. Her writings, guided by spiritual directors and approved by theologians, form the spiritual foundation for the Works of the Cross, five apostolic initiatives including the Apostleship of the Cross and the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit.

That such a vast, sophisticated treasury of spiritual writing emerged from a laywoman with minimal education is nothing short of extraordinary. Her intellect was not formed in the lecture hall but in the crucible of suffering and silent prayer. Her words flowed not from scholarly learning but from contemplative union with the Crucified Christ. Pope Pius X reportedly called her “a saint,” and Pope Benedict XVI, through the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared her Venerable in 2019, affirming her heroic virtue. Conchita’s life and writings stand as a radiant witness to the action of the Holy Spirit in the soul and as a living contradiction to the idea that formal education is a prerequisite for profound theological contribution. In her, the Church recognizes a woman wholly immersed in the lay vocation, whose hidden holiness flowered into wisdom that continues to nourish the Church today.

7 gifts of the HS, immersed in life of grace, no limits to how the Lord can use one

JC chose fishermen, not scribes & Pharisees, less learned, and perhaps more open. Don’t want to presume.

Harder to be humble about truths stumbled across. Conchita could not be confused where truth was found.

Profound wisdom from raising to 9 children. Enormous education on loss of spouse.

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St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Concepción Cabrera de Armida (Conchita) uniquely exemplify the Church’s teaching on the universal call to holiness—a message formally proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council but already lived in their life’s generations earlier. Neither woman came from a cloister nor began with spiritual privilege. Both were immersed in the duties of marriage, motherhood, and social upheaval. Yet amid the ordinary rhythms of family life and the extraordinary trials of widowhood, they responded to God’s invitation to holiness not by escaping their circumstances, but by sanctifying them. In doing so, they revealed that the path to sainthood is open not only to priests and religious, but to every baptized soul.

Seton and Conchita each lived out this call in different ways—Elizabeth through her active service, and Conchita through her interior offering. Seton’s life testified to holiness through charitable action: she founded schools, served the poor, and planted the roots of religious life in the fledgling American Church. Her faith transformed the landscape of Catholic education and care. Conchita, while less visible, embraced the mystical path of redemptive suffering, spiritual motherhood, and union with Christ Crucified. Her writings and spiritual insight continue to guide laity and clergy alike, affirming that a laywoman, even without religious vows, can become a spiritual pillar in the life of the Church.

Together, they anticipate and affirm the Council’s teaching that every Christian—regardless of vocation, gender, or status—is called to sanctity. Their lives prove that holiness is not a matter of status, but of surrender. By offering their whole selves to God within the very heart of daily life—whether founding schools or changing diapers, enduring loss or writing in the night—they became radiant examples of grace in action. Seton and Conchita show that sainthood is not reserved for the few but is the destiny of all who love without counting the cost.

Necessary statement to modern world. Church articulate something when its misunderstood. Modernism, men of the enlightenment sanctity not attainable. Not interested in sanctity without grace, certain meant were hedonist. Church 1960s, losing reality all men called to holiness, respoken in new voice. Name it, from God a call of universal grace, final end, union with Him, forever.

Church has always taught salvation for but needs to speaker more clearly.

This early Church Father emphasized that every Christian is called to spiritual ascent—not just monks or mystics, but all who seek God in earnest.

Writing for laypeople, St. Francis shattered the idea that holiness belonged only to cloisters or altars, insisting it was possible in every state of life.

This defining statement of the modern Church affirms that the call to holiness is not optional or selective—it is the baptismal vocation of every Christian.

Aware that God because loves in a particular love, has only one aspiration achieve our end, live in Him, become holy, called to saints. Don’t aim for purgatory, might miss.

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And in the quiet center of this storm stood a wife, a mother of nine, and a mystic: Conchita. She lived through it all. From the fall of Maximilian to the Cristero War, her life spanned emperors and revolutions, pontiffs and persecutions. Yet she neither ruled nor fought; she prayed, suffered, wrote, and loved.

In San Luis Potosí and later in Mexico City, she bore witness not in public protest, but through a burning interior life—offering her sufferings in union with Christ, recording mystical visions that would inspire generations. Her writings would eventually span over 60,000 pages—spiritual treasures that revealed the Cross not merely as suffering, but as generative love.

In an age of collapsing empires and ascending ideologies, Conchita offered another kingdom—a garden of grace hidden in the soul. Hers was a testimony that rivaled the noise of revolution with the silence of mystical surrender.

III. Elizabeth Ann Seton, HS often works on a particular idea in multiple locations

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Concepción Cabrera de Armida (“Conchita”) were both wives, mothers, and deeply devout Catholic women who responded to the call of God in radically different historical and cultural contexts. Seton, born in 18th-century New York, converted from Episcopalianism to Catholicism after the death of her husband, ultimately founding the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious community for women. Conchita, born nearly a century later in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, remained a laywoman throughout her life, sanctifying her role as wife and mother to nine children while also embracing a profound mystical union with Christ. Both women suffered the loss of their husbands while raising children yet turned their grief into a deeper embrace of their spiritual missions.

While Seton’s legacy is primarily active and external—founding schools, orphanages, and a religious congregation—Conchita’s is deeply interior and mystical. She received interior locutions and visions of Christ, which she recorded in more than 60,000 pages of spiritual writings. Through her spiritual motherhood, she became a hidden pillar of renewal for the priesthood and Church, particularly in a Mexico ravaged by secularism, revolution, and religious persecution. By contrast, Seton’s holiness was shaped amid the anti-Catholic environment of early America, where her courage and trust in Divine Providence laid the groundwork for the flourishing of Catholic education and religious life in the United States.

Despite their differences in vocation and expression, both women illuminate the sanctity possible within lay life and the domestic sphere. Elizabeth’s public service and founding work complement Conchita’s hidden mystical life and sacrificial offering. Each woman bore witness to the Cross—not as defeat, but as redemptive love. Through suffering, prayer, and deep fidelity to Christ, they embodied the truth that sanctity is not bound by status or state of life, but by total surrender to the will of God.

Gracious gift from the Church, twin union labor & prayer, womanhood, natural & spiritual motherhood. JC loved His Mother, spiritual & corporal works of mercy, supernatural and natural. How do we make best use of gifts given to us? Exteriorly while interiorly a rich life. Both unites us to God, our own family, and entire Christian  family.

Conchita in a sense more universal. Don’t ask to do, real message be open to interior revelations our Lord longs for this conversation.

[1] Kathleen Beckman, Beautiful Holiness: A Spiritual Journey with Blessed Conchita Cabrera (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2023)

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Despite these forces—or perhaps because of them—the Church entered a paradoxical era of flourishing mysticism and missionary zeal. Pius IX would convene the First Vatican Council in 1869, defining the dogma of papal infallibility even as the Papal States fell in 1870. His successor, Leo XIII, would emerge as the great statesman pope, issuing Rerum Novarum (1891), the encyclical that would shape Catholic social teaching amid industrial exploitation.

Amid persecution in Germany (Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, 1871–1887) and France (with the Third Republic’s anti-clerical laws from the 1870s), the Church endured through divine grace manifesting in its saints. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897) would later offer her “Little Way” as empires crumbled; John Bosco and Damien of Molokai anchored an age drifting from God. In the early 20th century, Pius X, as priest and later pope, would fortify the Church against modernism, while Mexico’s trials, intensifying in the 1920s, forged new martyrs.

Rerum Novarum JPII revisited this important document. Body of work given to us not born all of its fruit. Modernism heresy, a bit left behind, an urgent need. Need a scholar to revisit and bring our attention to it.

Living consequences concretely under these errors.

III. Mexico in Turmoil: The Cross and the Revolution

For Mexico, the years from 1862 to 1937 were marked by nearly unbroken instability, yet God was at work in the hidden hearts of its people. After Maximilian’s fall, the liberal reformers of the La Reforma era reasserted a strict separation of Church and state, expropriating Church lands and suppressing religious orders. President Benito Juárez led the charge, expropriating Church lands and curbing its influence. His successors, notably Porfirio Díaz, pursued modernization policies inspired by Europe, often at the expense of indigenous and Catholic traditions, though Díaz pragmatically tolerated private devotion to maintain social order.

San Luis Potosí, where Conchita was born in 1862, had once been a center of silver wealth and colonial religious fervor. By the late 19th century, it had become both a cultural crossroads and a stronghold of conservative Catholic resistance. Churches still rang with sacred music, processions wound through cobbled streets, and within private homes, faith quietly flourished amid the political hostility.

But the most dramatic trials lay ahead. The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) would devastate the country. What began as a populist uprising against the long-standing Díaz regime devolved into a brutal civil war. Peasants, bandits, generals, and ideologues fought for shifting causes, and the Church—perceived as an ally of the old order—was increasingly targeted. Priests were exiled, churches desecrated, religious instruction banned.

Then came the Cristero War (1926–1929), a desperate uprising of Catholics—many rural, poor, and fiercely devoted—against the anti-clerical policies of President Plutarco Elías Calles. Under his regime, public worship was outlawed, religious orders suppressed, and priests executed. In this crucible of blood and faith, the souls of Mexico shone. “¡Viva Cristo Rey!”—Long live Christ the King! — became their battle cry and their prayer.

Grahm Greene novel, Blessed Miguel Pro man of many costumes for fear of murder, great rallying cry executed by the state

In America, ignorant level of anti-Catholicism.  Child martyrs, extreme hostile and dangerous

See desecration and attacks in Africa, onslaught against the faithful. Those who live free take serious obligation to defend our liberties and fought gained. Rights are not assured.

Churches burning in France, appalling.

King Charles, opening mosques as if great for England. Schizophrenia.

Christianity has enemies, identify, and name them without prejudice. Love for the truth fight an enemy.

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Historical Background (1862–1937): A World on Fire, A Garden of Grace[1]

In the mid-19th century, the world stood at the crossroads of spiritual upheaval and political reinvention. The Church, long persecuted, was entering yet another age of trials—yet also, providentially, of hidden saints. The world that Concepción Cabrera de Armida entered in 1862 was fractured but fertile, wounded but waiting. She was born not in Rome or Paris or Madrid, but in the arid hills of north-central Mexico, in a quiet colonial town that would become a hidden stage for grace: San Luis Potosí.

The year 1862 marked a turning point across continents. Europe, once the stronghold of Christendom, now reeled under the pressures of nationalism and secularism. In Italy, Garibaldi’s unification campaign had swallowed the Papal States; the temporal power of the Pope was dissolving before the eyes of the faithful. Pius IX, then in the sixteenth year of his long pontificate, stood against the tide with the clear voice of the Syllabus of Errors (1864), denouncing the modern world’s growing rejection of truth, revelation, and divine authority.

France, meanwhile, sent troops to Mexico under Napoleon III in that same year—1862—beginning the ill-fated French intervention that would install Maximilian of Habsburg as Emperor of Mexico. His rule was brief, tragic, and symbolically rich: a Catholic monarch imposed by foreign power in a nation fiercely asserting its republican identity. His execution in 1867 would sear itself into the Mexican conscience.

Beyond Europe, revolutions of industry and ideology began to reshape the modern world. Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) challenged traditional views of creation, sowing seeds of doubt about man’s divine origin, though its full impact would unfold later. Marx’s Das Kapital (1867) laid the groundwork for revolutionary atheism, a specter that would haunt the 20th century. In Europe, the seeds of godless materialism and militant secularism germinated, while in Latin America, these ideas remained nascent, overshadowed by local struggles but destined to influence future conflicts.

[1] Warren H. Carroll, The Crisis of Christendom, vol. 6 of A History of Christendom (Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press, 2013)

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Sacred Scripture offers a profound prefiguration of Saint Joseph in the figure of the Old Testament Joseph, son of Jacob. Betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, Joseph rose to become the trusted advisor of Pharaoh. Through divine wisdom, he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and prepared Egypt for the coming famine (Genesis 41:29–57). His prudence and foresight saved countless lives. Similarly, Saint Joseph saved the Holy Family by leading them to safety in Egypt, responding to divine warnings with immediate and unwavering obedience. The parallel is striking: both Josephs were foster fathers in times of crisis, entrusted with the preservation of life. The Old Testament Joseph’s stewardship during famine prefigures the New Testament Joseph’s stewardship of the Bread of Life Himself, Jesus Christ.

Moved by eloquence and elegance of the stories God uses. Stories filled with drama.

Lord teaching us with images, a Jospeh would come save lives of Israel. Taught us about the superior Joseph to come.

Joseph brough her to Bethlehem, House of bread, laid in a manger, a bed of food.

At the foundation of every human family is the gift of embodied love: the man gives himself to the woman, and through this gift, new life is conceived. The husband’s act of self-donation is essential. When fatherhood is wounded—when men abandon, betray, or neglect their role—the entire family structure begins to crumble. Motherhood, too, suffers when fatherhood is weak. The crisis of fatherhood therefore precedes and precipitates the crisis of motherhood. Healing must begin with the restoration of fatherhood: a return to a vision of masculinity rooted not in domination or passivity, but in strong, loving sacrifice. Where natural fathers fail or are absent, the Church must implore the Lord to supply the lack through spiritual fathers and community support.

XII. Exhortation

The modern world desperately needs a renewal of fatherhood. Saint Joseph stands as a luminous guide for this renewal. Fathers must be men of faith, courage, and perseverance. They must be willing to sacrifice, to protect, to provide, and to lead with wisdom and love. They must reject the false promises of individualism and consumerism, embracing instead the high calling of service within the family. In times of personal weakness or societal failure, they must turn to Saint Joseph, their mighty protector and exemplar. Through his intercession, may fathers today be strengthened, families renewed, and society rebuilt upon the solid foundation of faithful love.

Fatherhood, foundation, must be preserved, first principles. Need to set something in motion. For good or ill, man is the active agent in society. Alice Von Hildebrandt, called to be both/and, women premier passive agent. Bring a newness to that given.

First impetus is the father, plant the seed, received, grow in security, grow in newness.

Litany of St. Jospeh, “most” superlative adjective of everything.

Man becomes the best of himself the most giving, most obedient, most chaste.

Poetic prayer to St. Joseph seemed fitting:

“O St. Joseph, silent strength, patron of all who labor,

Karen Early 2025

References

XIII. Addendum

Litany of St. Joseph

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Joseph most just, pray for us.

Mirror of patience, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

He made him the lord of his household,

Let us pray:

Litany of St. Joseph | EWTN  https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/litany-of-st-joseph-247

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