3rd Sunday after Easter

Tomorrow is the third Sunday after Easter. However, it is also a day in which we honor St. Joseph, true spouse of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, as 'Protector of the Church'. It couldn't take place on his day in March, since it can't take place during lent, especially if it should fall on a Sunday. So, the 3rd Sunday after Easter is when it is celebrated. We probably won't hear about this because it's been taken out of the 1962 missal. This solemnity of St. Joseph was promulgated in the 15th century for the western Church, and is still in force today.

St. Joseph was guardian of the Holy Family, His Mother and Himself, and Jesus has granted him to us also, as our guardian during our lives, and especially, at the hour of our death. Just as He gave His Mother to us as our mother on the Cross, He would like us to have Joseph as our father. The priests who do our Mass are Italian, and are the 'Servants of Charity', are devoted to St. Joseph. One prayer they follow is as follows:
St. Joseph, Foster-father of Jesus and true spouse of the Virgin Mary, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death. Amen'

He is the patron saint of dying people, for a happy and holy death. We need his intercession during this life, and especially during our last moments.

I would like to end with a hymn from a Monastic Rite:

May the heavenly host praise thee, O Joseph! May the choirs of Christendom resound with thy name, for great are thy merits, who wast united by a chaste alliance to the holy Virgin.
Seeing that thy Spouse was soon to be a Mother, a cruel doubt afflicts thy heart; but an Angel visits thee, telling thee that she had conceived of the Holy Ghost the Child she bore in her womb.
Where Jesus was born, thou hadst to take Him in thine arms, and go with the little fugitive to Egypt's distant land. When he was lost in Jerusalem, thou didst seek after him; and having found him, thy tears were mingled with joy.
Other saints receive their beatitude after death, when a holy death has crowned their life; they receive their glory when they have won the palm: but thou, by a strangely happy lot, hadst, even during life, what the blessed have in heaven--thou hadst the sweet society of thy God.
O Sovereign Trinity! have mercy on us thy suppliants, and may the intercession of Joseph aid us to reach heaven; that there we may sing to thee our eternal hymn of grateful love. Amen.

St. Joseph, Foster-father of Jesus and Protector of the Church, pray for us.



The reading of the GOSPEL (John XVI. 16‑22.) At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: A little while, and now you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me: because I go to the Father. Then some of his disciples said one to another: What is this that he saith to us: A little while, and you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me, and, because I go to the Father? They said therefore: What is this that he saith, A little while? We know not what he speaketh. And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask him, and he said to them: Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: A little while, and you shall not see me: and again a little while and you shall see me. Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice: and your joy no man shall take from you.

What is the meaning of Christ's words: A little while and you shall not see me; and again a little while and you shall see me?

St. John Chrysostom applies these words, which Christ spoke to His apostles a few hours before His passion, to the time between the death of Jesus and His Resurrection; but St. Augustine, to the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension, and then to the Last judgment at the end of the world, and he adds: "This little while seems long to us living, but ended, we feel how short it is." In affliction we should console ourselves by reflecting, how soon it will terminate, and that it cannot be compared with the future glory, that is awaiting eternally in heaven him who patiently endures.

Why did our Saviour tell His disciples of their future joys and sufferings?

That they might the more easily bear the sufferings that were to come, because we can be prepared for suf­ferings which we know are pending; because He knew that their sufferings would be only slight and momentary in comparison with the everlasting joy which awaited them, like the pains of a woman in giving birth to a child which are great indeed, but short, and soon forgotten by the mother in joy at the birth of the child. "Tell me" says St. John Chrysostom, "if you were elected king but were obliged to spend the night preceding your entrance into your capital city where you were to be crowned, if you were compelled to pass that night in much discomfort in a stable, would you not joyfully endure it in the expectation of your kingdom? And why should not we, in this valley of tears, willingly live through adversities, in expectation of one day obtaining the kingdom of heaven?"

Enlighten us, O Holy Spirit! that we may realize that this present life and all its hardships are but slight and momentary, and strengthen me that we may endure patiently the adversities of life in the hope of future heavenly joys.


CONSOLATION IN TRIALS AND ADVERSITIES
You shall lament and weep. (John XVI. 20.)

That Christian is, most foolish who fancies that the happiness of this world consists in honors, wealth, and pleasures, while Christ, the eternal Truth, teaches the contrary, promising eternal happiness to the poor and oppressed, and announcing eternal affliction and lamentation to those rich ones who have their comfort in this world. How much, then, are those to be pitied who as Christians believe, and yet live as if these truths were not for them, and who think only how they can spend their days in luxury, hoping at the same time to go to heaven where all the saints, even Christ the Son of God Himself and His Mother, have entered only by crosses and sufferings.

And, we know, that God Almighty will not send us anything which He knows that we cannot bear. He is testing us and strengthening us all the while.


AND, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!! When applicable, of course.