Saint of the Day for May 1

The Story of Saint Joseph the Worker

Catholics recognize and venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, as the exemplar of redeemed humanity.

Miserable sinners like us find ourselves in an awkward position when it comes to God and perfect people like the Blessed Virgin Mary. I would approach this issue from several different angles:

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said 'Seek the welfare of the city ... for in its welfare you will find your welfare' Jeremiah 29.7.

Calling People of Goodwill: The Bible and the Common Good, is a new resource from Bible Society and Together for The Common Good for Christians to use as individuals and in groups. We argue that the Bible has a unique ability to bring people together from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to seek the welfare of everyone. The Bible demonstrates this through the idea and practices of what we call the common good.

Life is not easy, and the Catholic Church cannot make it so, but it can make it better with consolations and grace and truth that never changes.

The world doesn’t get us. Sometimes we are ganged up on and persecuted. Often, we are misunderstood. Always, we are one, holy Catholic and apostolic.

We are unique, enduring, resistant to whims, unafraid to stand alone, and in love with the Blessed Mother. History is on our side and so is Scripture, even if we don’t always have it memorized.

The Gospel is taken from St Luke. It is the story of the sinful woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, drying them with her hair. At any time, but particularly during this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, this Gospel story should stop us dead in our tracks and cause us to take a very deep look at ourselves and our relationship with the Merciful Lord.

A discussion of the Resurrection from "Raised from the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles" by Father Albert J Hebert, SM

"Now God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up also by his power. "
- 1 Corinthians 6:14

On the eve of the commemoration of the Armenian people martyrdom at the beginning of the twentieth century, the ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan recalls Francis's journey and its significance for the future

Saint Faustina received visions of our Lord, in which, Jesus instructed her to tell the world of His infinite Love and Mercy. She recorded these visions in her diary; later published under the title Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of St. Faustina. Here, St. Faustina writes of Jesus’ desire to establish a solemn feast dedicated to spreading the Divine Mercy of Christ to all humanity:

Greetings,
I am an Iraqi baby named Tia,
My parents were forcibly displaced from Mosul two years ago and I was born in Jordan,
I received the sacrament of baptism yesterday at the Church of John the Baptist in Madaba,
The priest gave me the name of the wife of the Prophet of Iraq, Ibrahim, namely Sarah.

For the 40 days of Lent the word “Alleluia” is gone from the liturgy of the Church. It is never said even once. Then during the Easter Vigil, the priest intones the great Alleluia and it seems like the Church can’t stop repeating this word over and over again. Why is that?

What does it mean anyway, and why is it so closely associated with the season of Easter?