Tag: Christianity

Holy Week begins on a triumphal note. We the disciples shout our hosannas, and we watch as the world praises our beloved Messiah. Everyone is at last giving him — and his followers — the right kind of attention.

This is probably the way most of us would have planned the culmination of Jesus’ ministry, if we’d been given the chance.

It is, however, only the beginning of Holy Week; and we know what’s soon to follow: betrayal, suffering, and death. Where we would have called for a reprise — a Palm Friday — God willed something far better. We call it Good Friday, and it is the only way to the glories of Easter Sunday.

We may recognize a pattern here. I think, for example, of the Church’s triumphs in the secular sphere. I recall the triumphal moment when St. Pope John Paul II lay dying. The world poured out its love. Young people filled the streets of Rome. All the media trained their cameras on the Vatican.

I also remember standing with a vast crowd on the White House lawn to sing “Happy Birthday” to John Paul’s successor. Our song leader was the president of the United States.

Lately, though, the newscasters and pundits have been less inclined to praise the Catholic Church. And some world leaders are eager to make us feel the edge of our Good Friday, calling us Neanderthal for refusing to accept gender ideology and scoffing at the Church for defending the humanity of stored embryos.

Which is our moment? When the culture gives us palms? Or when it gives us the back of its hand?

The answer lies in Holy Week. You and I must truly give ourselves to the season this year. We must live it deeply, meditating on the Word, praying the liturgy with body and soul.

Use Holy Thursday as the key. What, after all, made calvary a sacrifice? The event did not meet any of the sacrificial requirements of the Jerusalem Temple. It seemed to be an ordinary execution.

But it was indeed a sacrifice. All Christians agree on that point.

At the Last Supper Jesus gave his body to be broken, his blood to be poured out, as if on an altar. The Eucharist is ordered to the cross. But the Eucharist is also ordered to the Resurrection — a glory we could not have experienced if we had lingered forever in Palm Sunday.

It’s the resurrected humanity of Jesus that we consume in our holy Communion, in the Eucharist. We come to it by way of triumphs, but they are fleeting. We come to it by way of pain, but that, too, will pass. We receive the Host as a pledge of lasting glory, and we have the grace to endure the rest. Here we have no lasting city. But we have hope, because we know Holy Week.

Pitești, Argeș County, Romania, March 19, 2024

Photo: Basilica News Agency   

A new medical rehabilitation center was blessed on Friday, March 15, 2024, by His Eminence Archbishop Calinic of Argeș and Muscel of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The center is based at the Church of St. Paraskeva in Pitești, reports the Basilica News Agency.

The service of blessing was attended by the medical staff, and the hierarch spoke about the important role that doctors have of treating those in distress, which they received from God.

The new center is especially intended for those who of meager financial means who are suffering from orthopedic or neurological diseases. There are also specialists who will work with children with various disabilities, as well as with the elderly who need motivation to maintain an active social life.

This is the second such center opened by the Archdiocese this month.

The video below gives a glimpse of the rehabilitation center:

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When you think of Montessori education, you don’t think of Catholic nuns. But Dr. Maria Montessori wanted just that: a Catholic order of religious sisters dedicated to the education method that became her namesake.

Two years before her death, Montessori (1870–1952) expressed her wish that a religious order would exist to promote and develop Montessori-style education. More than 70 years later, the Servants of the Children of the Light is now a reality, thanks to Mother Chiara Thérèse.

Following “many years of personal discernment,” Mother Chiara brought the idea to her local Ordinary in Manden, North Dakota. Originally named Julie Jacobson, she took the name Chiara Thérèse and received her habit in 2020, taking her first vows on Jan. 3, 2021, the feast of the Epiphany.

“The Lord often brings about new religious communities in response to a need in the world at a particular moment or time in history,” she continued. “Although the Lord needs the ‘yes’ of human instruments, he works independent of us, drawing souls to live out this new form of life in the Church.”

The community was established as a Public Association of the Christian Faithful for Women in view of becoming a religious institute in the Diocese of Bismarck on Oct. 1, 2020.

“The inspiration for the founding of the community comes from the Holy Spirit,” Mother Chiara Thérèse said.

Founding a religious order is a long process, and the group currently boasts two members.

Earlier this year, on Jan. 6, Mother Chiara Thérèse professed her final vows, and novice Sister Lucia Rose received her habit during a special Mass at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck.

“The process of beginning a new community follows the path of Christian life, and a solid foundation is necessary in order to grow and flourish,” Mother Chiara told CNA.

Though the community is small, it has received international support.

“We have been blessed to have the support of many people in the Church, far and wide; from our local bishop to the faithful in the Diocese of Bismarck, to people from all over the world,” she noted.

“I was taken aback, at the time of foundation, to hear from individuals across the world, as far away as Australia, Sweden, Wales, and Canada,” she continued. “Their voices resounded in unison as all exclaimed their joy that Dr. Montessori’s dream of a religious community was finally being realized.”

Since its establishment in 2020, the community has “had the grace of establishing ourselves in a proper convent, through the generosity of many benefactors,” Mother Chiara explained.

The Servants currently serve at Christ the King Catholic Montessori School in Mandan, a city just west of Bismarck.

“We continue to form young people — body, mind, and soul — through this method of education,” she said. “The early years of formation of the young sisters takes place at our convent. After the profession of simple vows, the sisters will pursue an AMI Montessori diploma, according to the age of the children they feel called to serve.”

“We continue to be open to what the Lord is asking of us and pray that we can remain faithful to the call we have received,” she noted.

Dr. Maria Montessori’s name has become synonymous with a style of education for children that is tactile, playful, and practical. It’s designed for the developmental needs of the child.

“Dr. Montessori desired that the child be respected and honored in this world, so often made only for adults,” Mother Chiara explained. “Therefore, from her we draw our deep desire to not only assist the child but to understand and respect the child in all his moments of development.”

Montessori became the first female doctor in Italy and studied psychiatry with a focus on education. In 1907, she opened a child care center in Rome,“Casa dei Bambini” — Italian for “Children’s House,” where she worked with disadvantaged children.

Catholic religious education was initially an integral part of Maria Montessori’s educational program, but as secular Montessori schools were established in the U.S., the religious element was dropped from the curriculum.

“We know that Dr. Montessori was a devout Catholic. In fact, she said, as E.M. Standing recounts, that ‘her own method could only find its fullest expression when applied to the teaching of the Catholic faith,’” Mother Chiara explained.

“In 1950, two years before her death, Dr. Montessori spoke of her desire for a religious community to carry out her work,” she continued. “She was convinced that she alone could do little in comparison to how a religious community could spread her work throughout the world.”

Dr. Montessori wished for the community to be called “The Servants of the Children of Light.”

“Therefore, it is her desire that is finally being realized after all of these years!” she noted.

Mother Chiara explained the Montessori “learned much” from the Catholic Church “as she formulated and developed her method of education,”

“Dr. Montessori also believed that ‘the true respect of the child is only possible when one respects God in the child,” Mother Chiara noted, citing her own translation of “Dio e il Bambino,” (“God and the Child”), a book of Montessori’s writings that have not been fully translated into English yet.

“From this flows our community’s unique fourth vow: to serve Christ in the child. We do so not only to safeguard our charism but also to truly serve the child as Dr. Montessori prescribes in her method,” Mother Chiara continued. “She said that a Montessori guide (or teacher) must root out all pride, impatience, and anger if he is truly going to lead the child to develop into the ‘man he is to become.’ ”

Vladimir, Vladimir Province, Russia, March 19, 2024

Photo: pravoslavie.ru     

Thanks to years of work from dedicated restorationists, the 12th-century Bogolyubovo Icon of the Mother of God has been restored to its former glory.

The icon is on display in an exhibition at the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum that opened on March 15, reports Pravoslavie.ru.

The Bogolyubovo Icon in 1990. Photo: pravoslavie.ru     

The icon has seen a lot over the centuries: fires and robberies at the monastery, Bulgar raids, the yoke of the Golden Horde. The icon has been damaged, new layers have been added, and there have been many attempts at restoration over the years—in fact, project curator Alexander Gormatyuk says there more than 20 layers were discovered during the restoration process.

In 1772, after the miracles of the healing of a pestilence in Vladimir, annual processions with the icon began, sometimes lasting several months, which exposed the icon to all the elements.

In 2009, the icon was turned over to the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum, and it was thought it was beyond saving. Nevertheless, restorationists set to work.

Photo: pravoslavie.ru     

Initially, it was planned only to bring the icon out of an emergency state and stabilize it, but the many layers added over the centuries reacted differently to any changes in the microclimate. Thus, experts set to work removing the layers to get down to the original icon, and in 2015, the original face was revealed.

The restoration process continued until finally the icon was ready to go on display, in its own dedicated room, where specific lighting, temperature, and humidity conditions are maintained.

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While church groups in different nations have been discussing what to do with Father Marko Rupnik’s works after sex abuse allegations against him came to light, Brazil’s Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida, the major Catholic shrine in the South American country, has apparently decided with no debate it will not halt the installation of giant murals produced by Centro Aletti, where Father Rupnik is still listed as director of spiritual art and theology atelier.

During a program that was aired Feb. 28 by TV Aparecida, owned by the sanctuary, Redemptorist Father Eduardo Catalfo, the shrine’s rector, along with Aparecida’s administrator, Father Fábio Evaristo, announced the basilica’s new south facade will be inaugurated May 11.

That was the second of the temple’s four facades to be covered with Father Rupnik’s mosaics depicting biblical scenes. The north facade — Father Rupnik’s largest work in the whole world, covering 43,000 square feet — was officially presented to the public in March 2022.

“On the eve of Mother’s Day, we want to make this beautiful delivery, as a gift, as a big thank you to all of you who help us build this great sanctuary,” Father Catalfo said during the show, addressing the people who donated money for the installation of mosaics in Aparecida.

That was, as a matter of fact, an occasion for asking for more donations.

“We are in the second phase, we are on our way to a church under construction. We really need you to continue collaborating with us as you help us to make concrete this beautiful dream of transforming our Mother’s house into a little piece of heaven, into a huge open-air Bible,” Father Catalfo continued.

In 2023, when the Jesuits banned Slovenian-born Father Rupnik from continuing his artistic work — before dismissing him from the order in June 2023 — the works commissioned by Aparecida had to be suspended. The sanctuary told the press on different occasions last year that “it was waiting for the church’s official guidance on that matter.”

No official resolution has been put forth by the Brazilian church since then. But the works on the south facade’s colonnades went on. The shrine refused to comment for OSV News on the matter.

Father Rupnik’s majestic mosaics in Aparecida prompted criticism among some analysts in Brazil as soon as they were presented years ago. Experts warned that they represent substantial changes in the original project conceived by the Brazilian-born artist Cláudio Pastro, who died in 2016.

Pastro, a well-known religious artist in the Catholic world who combined Byzantine forms with Brazilian popular artistic traits, depicted a grandiose Garden of Eden inside the basilica, while the outside was entirely covered with exposed bricks.

The facade’s clay bricks played the role of intensifying the significance of the biblical scenes portrayed inside the basilica, explained Marina Massimi, professor who heads the research group “Time, Memory and Belonging” at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Advanced Studies, which focuses on the Brazilian cultural heritage.

Aparecida is the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in Brazil. A statue of Our Lady of Aparecida was found in 1717 by three fishermen in the region where the basilica is located today. It’s made of clay, just like the houses in the area.

“Rupnik’s work invades aspects of Pastro’s project. Devotees who visit the basilica now realize there are stylistic differences. The Brazilian artistic heritage must be protected,” Massimi told OSV News.

People with knowledge on the matter say that after Pastro’s death, the Redemptorists wished to transform the sanctuary into an international pilgrimage destination. That’s why they decided to ask an internationally renowned artist — Father Rupnik — to work on the basilica.

In an undated video published on the webpage of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo’s Laboratory of Politics, Behavior and Media — in which there is a research group specifically dedicated to Father Rupnik’s works — Italian-born Bishop Carlos Verzeletti of the Diocese of Castanhal, in the Amazonian Pará state, describes how his friendship with Father Rupnik resulted in his coming to Brazil.

They first met in 2000, when Bishop Verzeletti was in Rome and read one of Father Rupnik’s books. He was fascinated by the now ex-Jesuit’s ideas and asked for a personal meeting with him. Bishop Verzeletti ended up receiving authorization to translate all of Father Rupnik’s books into Portuguese. He said that 13 of them have already been released in Brazil.

In 2005, Bishop Verzeletti told Father Rupnik that a cathedral was being built in Castanhal, and the priest told him he would produce a mural for it. In 2009, he came for a 24-hour visit to the cathedral and began to produce sketches after that. The mosaic was built in 2014 and in 2017.

With Bishop Verzeletti’s help, Father Rupnik agreed to take part in the bishops’ conference meeting on sacred art in Curitiba in 2017.

“The Redemptorist priests of Aparecida asked me to intermediate it (his work in the shrine). It took me a lot of effort and talks till I persuaded him to accept such a great challenge,” Bishop Verzeletti confirmed in the video.

He said that Archbishop Orlando Brandes of Aparecida “got very excited as well.” Archbishop Brandes declined to talk to OSV News about the matter. Bishop Verzeletti never answered OSV News interview requests.

Daniel Seidel, a lay Catholic who heads the Brazilian bishops’ conference’s Justice and Peace Commission, told OSV News that “it’s rather negative that there is no debate concerning Rupnik’s intervention in Aparecida.”

“Brazilians don’t have information about that problem, as if only the sanctuary’s rector was responsible for making that decision,” he said.

Seidel argued that before asking whether the murals should be removed or not, Catholics, especially Aparecida’s devotees, should be adequately informed about the controversy.

“For us Catholics, esthetic matters are not dissociated from ethical and moral ones. For ecclesial abuse victims, it’s terrible that we’re not even talking about that,” he added.

The Justice and Peace Commission has been working to assist clergy abuse victims on many occasions, giving them support and legal guidance. It also is giving orientations on addressing abuse in the church to dioceses all over the country.

“Unfortunately, the Brazilian church still responds very timidly to Pope Francis’ demands concerning the adequate handling of abuse,” he lamented.

Unlike other countries, where associations of clerical abuse victims have been consolidated and are now taking the lead in the debate on Father Rupnik’s murals, Brazil still doesn’t have strong organizations that represent survivors.

A few years ago the organization Cicatrizes da Fé (Scars of Faith in Portuguese) was created by lawyer Guilherme Dudusand and a colleague in order to help clergy abuse victims. The association is still on its way to becoming a formal entity, but it already assists 40 victims.

“I think that implanting Rupnik’s murals in Aparecida is an outrage for all abuse victims. Those mosaics should be taken out of the shrine and destroyed,” Dudus told OSV News.

He thinks Centro Aletti, which is based in Rome, should give the money it received back to the sanctuary and that such resources should be invested in projects to help abuse victims and Brazilian religious artists.

“Aparecida came to us in great simplicity. We don’t need to decorate her shrine with mosaics made by an abuser,” said Dudus, also a devotee of Aparecida.

Massimi agrees. She thinks the money invested in the murals should be given back to the devotees who donated it.

“It’s about time to promote a campaign to put pressure on the Redemptorists. They are not the owners of the shrine, they’re its guardians,” she concluded.

Kiev, March 19, 2024

Photo: news.church.ua     

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine asked forgiveness from his flock on Forgiveness Sunday and encouraged everyone to reconcile among themselves in order to begin Great Lent with spiritual peace.

“We stand on the threshold of a blessed time, and according to our good custom, or rather according to the words of the Lord, we try to reconcile with each other on this day as much as possible, so that we can embark on the saving path of Great Lent in peace and spiritual quietude and reach the bright feast of Christ’s Resurrection,” the Ukrainian primate said, reports the UOC’s Information-Education Department.

The point of fasting, His Beatitude reminded, is to cleanse ourselves of the impurities of both flesh and spirit and to free ourselves from sin.

He continued:

In order for our fast to be useful and our asceticism to be useful, there’s one condition that the Lord has given us in today’s Gospel: If you forgive people their iniquities, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, and if you do not forgive people their iniquities, your father will not forgive you your iniquities (Mt. 6:14,15). That is, there’s a condition that if I want God to forgive me, I must forgive the one who has offended me. No matter where he is, who he is, I must forgive him.

If we hold grudges, we make ourselves incapable of receiving God’s forgiveness, Met. Onuphry preached. Thus, we must force ourselves, if necessary, to forgive others.

“It’s difficult, but you have to force yourself. And gradually, with the help of prayer, self-reproach, you’ll be able to forgive another from the bottom of your heart,” His Beatitude said.

He then asked and offered everyone forgiveness.

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San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller has restricted a local priest and a ministry known as the Mission of Divine Mercy (MDM) for disobedience and for spreading “false teachings,” presented as prophecies, against Pope Francis.

The apostolate and priest who was sanctioned, meanwhile, are defying the archbishop’s disciplinary measures and have held at least one unsanctioned Mass.

Garcia-Siller’s disciplinary action follows MDM’s publication of several messages on its website in which the group claimed “God the Father” told one of its members that the pope is a “usurper” and an “enemy of the Church.”

In response, García-Siller said in a March 15 statement that the group’s “status as a Catholic apostolate of the Archdiocese of San Antonio has been suppressed and revoked by official decree.”

According to the archbishop’s statement, MDM’s founder, Father John Mary Foster, refused to remove the messages from the group’s website despite repeated admonitions, thus breaking his vow of obedience and necessitating that he be barred from publicly practicing his priestly faculties.

Despite the archbishop’s ban, a representative for MDM told CNA that the apostolate plans to continue operating and that Foster celebrated Mass on Sunday.

What did the ‘prophetic messages’ say?

Based in New Braunfels, a town in the Texas Hill Country, MDM has operated as an approved Catholic retreat house and ministry devoted to promoting prayer and contemplating God’s will since 2010. According to García-Siller, the ministry has enjoyed good relations with the archdiocese until now.

Then in February, MDM began posting a series of supposed “prophetic messages” conveyed by “God the Father” to a member of the ministry, identified as “Sister Amapola.”

MDM claimed in one of its website statements that God had a message for priests in which he said: “You have not only let the smoke of Satan infiltrate into My Sanctuary; but you have allowed a whole army of demons to take your places. And you have allowed the usurper to sit on the chair of My Peter — he who is carrying out the Great Treason that will leave My Church desolate.”

The PDF of the following Message in both English and Spanish can be downloaded at

TO MY FAITHFUL PRIESTS
MARCH 1, 2024
MESSAGE RECEIVED IN ENGLISH BY SR. AMAPOLA

[God the Father] Write, My daughter, for My faithful Priests – Write for My sons who have…

— Mission of Divine Mercy (@MDMFaith) March 14, 2024

Several other similar messages were posted to the apostolate’s website claiming that the Church was filled with “demons” and “imposters.”

Foster endorsed the messages, saying in a video that the Church is facing an “extreme crisis,” which he said justifies his disobedience to the archbishop. He pointed to the controversial Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, which approved blessings for same-sex couples, as an example of “confusion and harm” being sown by Francis.

“From this statement and others of a similar nature that we’ve received, the terrible conclusion seems clear: Bergoglio [Pope Francis] is exercising illegitimate authority and acting as the enemy of Christ and his Church,” Foster said. “Given this extreme crisis, we are obeying God in publishing these messages, even without our archbishop’s permission.”

Archbishop bans MDM

García-Siller issued three official decrees on March 15, barring MDM as an apostolate, removing Foster as the group’s leader, and barring Foster from exercising priestly faculties.

“Whereas the activities of the Reverend FOSTER and the Mission of Divine Mercy have led to confusion and division and have caused grave scandal to the faithful … I WITHDRAW my approval of the ‘Mission of Divine Mercy’ as a Catholic apostolate,” one decree reads.

In so doing, the archbishop restricted the Christian faithful from associating with MDM and ordered that the apostolate not “use the name Catholic or call themselves a Catholic association.”

The archbishop further prohibited Foster from publicly exercising his priestly ministry on MDM grounds and ordered him to enter a “time of spiritual retreat” for six months. The decree said that if Foster violated the prohibition, he could face a total ban on publicly exercising his priestly ministry in the archdiocese.

The archdiocese declined to comment further on the matter, directing CNA to the archbishop’s decrees and statement.

According to the decrees, Foster and MDM have 10 days to appeal the archbishop’s decision.

MDM continues to defy archbishop

Emily Jebbia, a representative for MDM, told CNA that despite the archbishop’s ban, Foster celebrated Mass at the New Braunfels retreat center on Sunday. According to Jebbia, the Mass was attended by about 450 people, which she said is more than double the amount at a normal Sunday service.

Jordan McMorrough, a representative for the archdiocese, confirmed with CNA that the Mass was in violation of the bishop’s decree.

Jebbia said that though MDM has yet to confer with canon lawyers since the archbishop’s decree, apostolate staff plan to continue their ministry.

Jebbia said that MDM has previously had a “cordial” relationship with García-Siller and that they take the archbishop’s statement seriously. Nevertheless, she said that “given that we think this is an unprecedented situation in the Church, we have to act in an unprecedented way in obedience to what we believe God has asked us to do.”

Asked if MDM hopes to reconcile with the archbishop, Jebbia said “yes,” but she qualified her response by saying: “We hope that the [arch]bishop will be open to what is happening here at the mission.”

I have reached that age where I prefer to listen to people talking on the radio as opposed to singing. Since my musical tastes and preferences are varied and frankly, a little weird, I could never find a radio station that beats musically to the same drummer as I do. But that is what Spotify is for anyway.

Most of my driving to and fro is now done to the dulcet tones of sports talk radio. When the topic covers a sport I do not have much interest in, I switch to a nationally syndicated Catholic station. 

I was making my Saturday pilgrimage to a home improvement store, listening to the weekend priest/host of this station, when something caught my ear.

The priest was reading a letter from a listener who was concerned that the Church spends too much money on unimportant things and not enough money on the poor. It is a common complaint that I have heard many times. My snarky response usually goes something like, when you’ve been around 2,000 years and have a billion adherents, you do wind up collecting stuff. 

My personal snark aside, the priest gave a much better answer: It is all about beauty.

The priest respectfully disagreed with the letter-writer that a church should look beautiful for a number of very good reasons. First, it is a sacred space, the only space on planet Earth where bread and wine become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord and Savior. That fact alone should make us all want to be cathedral builders.

But the priest had another important reason. He recounted a parish of his that had a large soup kitchen operation and a church that was in shambles. There was rotting plywood where stained-glass windows should have been, and doors that were askew on tired hinges. He made it a No. 1 priority to change that, while at the same time increasing the services provided by the soup kitchen. His defense for spending money on a church building in a very poor parish was that beauty is a proof of God, and it does not matter whether rich or poor, true beauty is sought by seeking souls.

As the priest so eloquently explained, beauty is like another proof of God: love. Like love, we cannot feel or taste beauty, but understand it perfectly when we see it. And when he talked about beauty, he was clear that he was not talking about a popular culture, like People magazine’s “Most Beautiful People in the World” kind of measuring stick. He used the simple example of a sunset. Every sunset is just the sum of its meteorological parts, a series of atomic-level groupings imprisoned by scientific formula and laws. Yet, it inspires and touches our souls, just as the beauty of the Notre Dame Cathedral or the works of DaVinci, in a very democratic way.

As fate, or divine intervention, would have it, a few days later I was indulging a guilty pleasure: the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow.” For the uninitiated, it is a show where people bring family heirlooms or garage-sale finds to antique experts to evaluate. It is part family history, cultural history, and game show, as sometimes there is true excitement, like when the $2 vase from the neighborhood thrift shop turns out to be a product of the Newcomb College Pottery school, made by one of their artisans in 1901, and worth enough to send a kid to college.  

On this particular rerun episode someone came to the roadshow with a pencil sketch by the late neo-impressionist primitive artist Jean-Michel Basquait. I realize there is a big element of subjectivity in all art, but the work presented looked to me like it was drawn by a 3-year-old in a hurry. But the appraiser on the show could not say enough about it and placed a value of $400,000. I would not be making any friends in the rarified air of modern art salons, but I would not give 400 cents for that drawing. 

I thought of the priest on the radio and his take on beauty, and the need we all have, rich or poor alike, to see it and appreciate it as a gift from God to us. I counted my blessings that I did not have enough money to buy the Antiques Roadshow drawing, and that sunsets, snow-capped mountains, and the cooing of a newborn baby come free of charge.

Much of what we know about St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, is learned through Scripture and through legends that have been told over time about his life. Although only two of the evangelists mention Joseph, he is described as a “just” man — meaning he is so good and holy that he shared in God’s own holiness.

Joseph gives us an example of how to be a just spouse and how to be holy in our relationships. We can see this best in how he treated Mary. Once he learned that God had a special plan in place for Mary and for Jesus, he surrendered fully to God’s plan, even turning down temptations to abandon his vocation to married life.

St. Joseph’s feast has been celebrated throughout the Church since the 10th century. Since 1870, he has been honored as the Patron of the Universal Church. He is the patron saint of workers, carpenters, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and southern Vietnam.

St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), Archbishop of Crimea. Photo: ruskline.ru Having fasted bodily, brothers, let us also fast spiritually. Let us look into these words, for they explain the aim and The Meaning and Significance of FastingFasting is a necessary means for success in the spiritual life and for attaining salvation; for fasting—depriving the flesh of excessive food and drink—weakens the force of sensual drives.

“>importance of the fast.

Why have the fasts been instituted? In order to accustom us to restraint. To what restraint? In the direct sense, to restraint from satiating and tasty foods. However, this is not the full extent of fasting—this is only bodily fasting, but it should be the school of spiritual fasting. What is spiritual fasting? It is restraint from everything that is harmful to us, from everything that corrupts our soul—that is, from the passions that lie at the foundation of all our sins. The holy fathers discerned eight main passions: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, grief, despondency, ambition, and pride. Why is gluttony listed first? Because whoever does not conquer this lowest, animal passion cannot conquer all the other passions.

The holy fathers, who deeply searched all that went on in their own hearts and studied the paths by which sin takes hold in the human heart, taught that all these passions are linked with each other in a direct succession; that is, if you don’t conquer a passion of a lower order, another more sophisticated passion is born in the heart. And these two in turn evoke a third, and so on. This unbroken interconnection of the passions can be compared to a heavy chain that strongly entangles us, and in order to untangle it we have to begin not from the center, or from the end, but from the beginning. Fasting is instituted precisely because gluttony is the beginning of this chain, and the original basis for all our other passions.

If a person always eats to satiety, is always too full, ever gorging himself with tasty and sweet foods—especially if he drinks a lot of wine—then this gluttony leads him into fornication. And fornication is a very base passion, so vile that it should not be named among Christians, as the apostle Paul said in his Epistle to the Ephesians (cf. Eph. 5:3).

But what happens if a glutton falls into fornication? He will need money to keep his lovers, moreover, big money. His soul will burn with the longing to acquire more and more earthly goods in order to attract depraved women. In other words, he will become possessed with the passion of the love of money. As the apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to Timothy, love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10).

But if a person with a satiated stomach, who lives a life of fornication, makes it his goal to acquire wealth, then he will inevitably fall into the passion of anger. He will become irritable, angry, cursing and swearing, hating anyone who prevents him from reaching his base goals.

But often in order to stop such a man on his sinful path, the Lord sends serious illnesses or ruin, forcing him to experience profound humiliation or the death of close ones. And then the next passion comes into its own: grief. Grief is an extreme falling of spirit that follows any crushing event in life. And if a person in his grief does not remember love, good deeds, and God, then he will inevitably also fall into the next passion: despondency.

Despondency leaves a heavy mark on the soul. Nothing interests that person any longer; it seems to him that he is laboring in vain, and he gives up, stops praying, and leaves the Church. Deep despondency often even leads to suicide.

We can see that all these passions are linked with our flesh, with its lusts, and have their roots in the first and main passion—gluttony. Two passions remain, which are the most destructive and terrible, and are no longer directly linked to the fleshly lusts, but possess the hearts and souls even of great ascetics if they start to think that they have already reached the heights of the virtues and sanctity. This is vanity, and pride that follows after it. Even if a person has virtues, he should not think that he has earned them by his own labors, but rather he should see God’s grace in them.

But what can we say about ascetics? The passion of St. John Cassian’s Institutes: On VaingloryHow our seventh combat is against the spirit of vainglory, and what its nature is.

“>vainglory is infinitely multi-faceted. We are vainglorious about everything—some about their physical beauty, riches and luxurious clothing, grandiose houses, or physical strength; others are vainglorious about their deep intellect, all-around education, and talents. The vainglorious person inevitably becomes proud—he looks down on everyone as insignificant, as knowing nothing, and worthless.

Meanwhile the wretch himself does not see that he is possessed by the mortal sin of pride, the most terrible of all passions, for it is the spiritual essence of the devil and hateful to God. Every proud person is abominable to the Lord. At the reading of the Epistle of the apostle James you have heard many times that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6). The proud person can never please God, even if he spends his whole life in ascetic labors. That is how destructive the passion of pride is.

Close your eyes, lower your head, and direct the gaze of your mind to your heart, and search which passion, which snakes are nesting there. Find all of them, and only then make bold to approach confession. Hide nothing.

The fast is before you, the time of Repentance is the Second VictoryWe constantly recall the words of the saints, that it is greater to see your sins than to see angels. Why is it greater?

“>repentance and salvation. Many people do not understand the importance of the fasts and do not observe them. But it is bodily fasting that helps us repent and be saved; because, as we have already seen, gluttony is the mother of all the other passions, but it is also the simplest one to overcome. If we fulfill this easy commandment, which is not beyond our strength—if we bridle our stomach—then we will also receive power over the more complicated passions.

In order to overcome all the passions without exception, it is necessary to learn abstinence. Without bodily fasting, this is impossible to achieve. Just as in school, students are gradually led from the lower courses of knowledge to the higher, from the alphabet to higher mathematics, so also must temperance begin with the alphabet, with bridling our stomachs.

This is why fasting is so important. But many do not understand this and neither observe the fasts themselves, nor teach their children to observe them. And not only do they not teach them—even during Passion Week, mothers feed their children meat, saying, “Eat, eat, children! No matter that it’s Lent. God sees that we always eat poorly. God will forgive, God will not hold us accountable for it…”

Oh, yes, He will hold you accountable if you corrupt your children! Every mother should accustom her children to fasting from an early age, as it was in the old days, when our people kept the fasts.

Do not underestimate the significance of fasting—accustom your children to fasting from the earliest age, and pay no attention to the mockery of blasphemers. Let them laugh as they sink into their own lusts, but you bless God, Who teaches you through His Church to war with the passions. Follow the commands of the Church in everything, for she is your mother, who is kind, pure, holy, and teaches you only what is salvific. Do not forget about fasting, but hold to all the Church’s statutes with all your might, like a child holds on to the hem of his mother’s dress. And the Lord will lead you to the place of your heart’s yearning, to the kingdom of light, the kingdom of grace. Amen.