Free Republic

....In a shift whose ideological breadth is unusual in the fragmented Protestant world, a long-standing wall around Mary appears to be eroding. It is not that Protestants are converting to Catholicism's dramatic exaltation: the singing of Salve Regina, the Rosary's Marian Mysteries, the entreaty to her in the Hail Mary to "pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Rather, a growing number of Christian thinkers who are neither Catholic nor Eastern Orthodox (another branch of faith to which Mary is central) have concluded that their various traditions have shortchanged her in the very arena in...

St. Joseph, mirror of patience, pray for us!   ST. JOSEPH Charles L. Souvay Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are the first chapters of our first and third Gospels; they are practically also the only reliable sources, for, whilst, on the holy patriarch's life, as on many other points connected with the Saviour's history which are left untouched by the canonical writings, the apocryphal literature is full of details, the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred...

Humility and Virginity Just as St. Joseph took care to guard his virtues under cover of very holy humility, he was also diligent in hiding the precious pearl of his virginity. If he agreed to be married, it was so that, without anyone knowing it, he could hide his virtue under the veil of a holy marriage. On this subject, virgins and those who wish to live in chastity, are taught that it is not sufficient to be celibate. If they are not humble and do not guard their purity in the precious vase of humility, they will be like...