Category Archives: Patris Corde

Let’s wrap up Patris Corde starting with some Scripture: “Get up, take the child and his mother” (Matthew 2:13), God told Saint Joseph. The aim of this Apostolic Letter is to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us … Continue reading →

More thoughts on a father in the shadows: When fathers refuse to live the lives of their children for them, new and unexpected vistas open up. Every child is the bearer of a unique mystery that can only be brought to … Continue reading →

More thoughts on a father in the shadows. Specifically, an expansion of what people consider as chastity. Would you agree? Let’s read: Being a father entails introducing children to life and reality. Not holding them back, being overprotective or possessive, but … Continue reading →

Section 7, the last major headed one in this document is titled, A father in the shadows. What does the Holy Father mean by this? The word has different meanings and connotations in the English language, influenced as always by … Continue reading →

We continue as Pope Francis looks at the working father. Perhaps any laborer, father or otherwise might find this reflection on the importance of work a helpful thing: Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity … Continue reading →

Pope Francis looks at the working father: An aspect of Saint Joseph that has been emphasized from the time of the first social Encyclical, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, is his relation to work. Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an … Continue reading →

There is a link between the listening, obedient Joseph of the first chapters of Matthew’s Gospel and Jesus’ teaching in the chapter before the Passion. That child would go on to say: “As you did it to one of the … Continue reading →

Continuing our discussion in section 5 on a creatively courageous father … At the end of every account in which Joseph plays a role, the Gospel tells us that he gets up, takes the child and his mother, and does what … Continue reading →

If at times God seems not to help us, surely this does not mean that we have been abandoned, but instead are being trusted to plan, to be creative, and to find solutions ourselves. As always, it takes discernment. Are … Continue reading →

Pope Francis devotes about a thousand words to a reflection on Saint Joseph as a creatively courageous father. What does this mean? It is, according to the Holy Father, how we deal with obstacles in our life. We have to … Continue reading →

Joseph’s attitude encourages us to accept and welcome others as they are, without exception, and to show special concern for the weak, for God chooses what is weak (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:27). He is the “Father of orphans and protector of widows” … Continue reading →

Jesus’ appearance in our midst is a gift from the Father, which makes it possible for each of us to be reconciled to the flesh of our own history, even when we fail to understand it completely. Failing to understand? … Continue reading →

Often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, … Continue reading →

Pope Francis reflects on (a)n accepting father: Joseph accepted Mary unconditionally. He trusted in the angel’s words.  “The nobility of Joseph’s heart is such that what he learned from the law he made dependent on charity. Today, in our world … Continue reading →

Saint Luke weighs in, first with Saint Joseph’s observance of civil authority–the census: The evangelist Luke, for his part, tells us that Joseph undertook the long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered in his family’s town … Continue reading →