Joseph, Model for Our Times

"Whoever loves his life will lose it" (Jn 12:25). That is why the Virgin Mary unceasingly invites us, in all her apparitions, to this difficult spiritual battle, which happens through fasting, prayer and penance, as in Lourdes, where she repeated: "Prayer, prayer, prayer and penance, penance, penance!"

On this difficult path, which goes against the grain of the pervasive contemporary mentality, Joseph proves to be a particularly powerful ally and remedy for our time.

Far from wanting to control his own life and enjoy it according to his own plan, Joseph, on the contrary, gave up his life in an exemplary way, entrusting himself to God, seeking His justice, and renouncing the legitimate desire to have biological children, in order to be available to God’s plan for him. He denied himself, even in his fundamental aspirations, not out of servile obedience to a cruel God, but out of filial love for the Father in whom he had complete trust, the Father who gives beyond what we can imagine, and who prunes His vineyard only so that it may bear more fruit.

This is how Joseph was able to find his path in life and achieve success, beyond anything he could have hoped for.

Excerpt from: Joseph, modèle de vie pour notre temps, ( Joseph, Model for Our Times), Editions Marie de Nazareth, Paris, 2020.

(Unavailable in English and Spanish.)