Paradise on Earth. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at Nazareth

     SEVENTH MEDITATION 

Invocation of the Holy Ghost

Come, O Holy Ghost, replenish the hearts of thy servants, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy divine love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit, and our hearts shall be regenerated.

R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us Pray

O God, who by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, didst instruct the hearts of the faithful; grant that by the same Divine Spirit we may have a right understanding in all things, and evermore rejoice in His holy consolations, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

     Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.  St. Joseph, pray for us.

Paradise on Earth. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at Nazareth

And his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became as white as snow. . . . Lord it is good for us to be here."

     Consider that if one ray of the glory of Jesus on Mount Thabor inundated, as it did, the soul of St. Peter with heavenly delights, what must be the celestial joys of Joseph and Mary for so many years at Nazareth? If our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ consoled His disciples by the dazzling glory of His Trans figuration, how often did not the same loving Saviour manifest to Mary and Joseph all the splendour, glory, and majesty of His divinity at Nazareth ? How often did not Jesus open the heavens and show to Mary and Joseph His kingdom and court, and all the joys and glories of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the very thrones and diadems prepared for themselves by God's own hands? No wonder that St. Joseph, seeing the glories of Paradise, should cry out, How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts, my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.

     Where God is, there is His court; Jesus is God. His court is Nazareth, and hence countless millions of Angels, with outspread wings, kept watch and ward over the Infant Saviour, now reposing on the chaste bosom of His Immaculate Mother, another time pillowed asleep in the arms of St. Joseph. Every now and again Jesus uplifted the veil, and all the glory and canticles of the heavenly Spirits broke upon the eyes and ears of Mary and Joseph, and transported their souls with celestial delights.

     The unknown presence and conversation of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus set their hearts on fire with divine love. And they said one to another: was not our heart burning within us whilst He spoke on the way? If the presence and the brief conversation of the unknown Jesus lighted up as it did with divine love the hearts of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, conceive, if you can, the love divine, the joys supreme, the delights so heavenly, that inebriated the hearts and souls of Mary and Joseph, who knew Jesus to be the Son of God; lived in His divine presence; saw divine intelligence beaming in His countenance; and enjoyed the sweets of His conversation, not for one" hour or day, but for the long space of thirty years. The “Holy House” at Nazareth was a chapel; Jesus was God and man; Mary and Joseph were the holy worshippers.

Practical Resolution

When as a priest I go to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and on the altar to take in my unworthy hands Jesus Himself, as St. Joseph did; when I go to give the holy Viaticum to the sick, and go to my stations in the country and carry over my poor sinful heart Jesus in the Sacred Host, as St. Joseph carried the Infant Jesus in his arms; when I kneel to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, as St. Joseph knelt before and paid homage to Jesus in Mary's arms; when as a lay person I go to Holy Communion and receive on my unworthy tongue and into my poor breast the same Jesus that St. Joseph so often pressed to his bosom; when I kneel to adore, praise, bless, thank, and love Jesus in the Sacrament of His love, the Blessed Eucharist, I resolve, by the help of the grace of God, to call to mind, and to try to imitate, the faith, humility, reverence, adoration, and love of St. Joseph to the Infant Jesus. O Infant Jesus! O Jesus in the Sacred Host, help me to keep my resolution. St. Joseph, pray for me.

Prayer

O merciful Jesus! deign to give me in some degree the simple faith of St. Joseph, that I may believe in Thee, as St. Joseph did. O tenderest Jesus! give me in some degree the reverence of St. Joseph, that I may treat Thee in the Blessed Sacrament as St. Joseph treated Thy Divine Infancy. O most humble Jesus! give me in some degree the humility of St. Joseph, that I may kneel or stand in Thy divine presence, with the same sense of my nothingness and unworthiness as St. Joseph did.

Prayer to St. Joseph

O great St. Joseph! obtain for me simple faith to believe in Jesus as thou didst believe in Him; obtain for me the same love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with which thou didst love the Divine Babe; obtain for me grace to treat Jesus on our altars with the same adoration, profound humility, and reverence with which thou didst treat the Infant Saviour. O most holy Patriarch, Patron of a happy death! obtain for me the grace to receive in my last illness the holy Viaticum — Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, — with the same faith, love, hope, humility, and resignation with which thou, on thy death-bed, didst kiss the divine hand of the Saviour of the world. Amen.