Saturday, May 21^st. is the Memorial of St. Eugene de Mazenod, OMI 

Founder of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Bishop of Marseilles, St. Eugene was born at Aix-en-Provence, France on 1 August 1782, the son a noble family who spent years in exile during the French Revolution in Italy. After his return to France, and after experiencing a religious conversion, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained on December 21^st, 1811. After several years of church work, the young priest gathered a group of like-minded missionaries to preach in the vernacular - not then a common practice - and to instruct the rural populations. He commenced, 25 January 1816, and his organization’s work met with immediate success among the people; such that on 17 February 1826, Eugene’s society was approved by Pope Leo XII under the name of Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

During this time, Eugene helped his aging uncle, the Bishop of Marseilles, to direct his diocese. Father Eugene was called to Rome and on  October 14^th, 1832, was consecrated titular Bishop of Icosia, a title later changed to that of Bishop of Marseilles. DeMazenod was a strong advocate for the Holy See and he favored the teachings of Blessed (now Saint) Alphonsus Liguori, whose theological system he was the first to introduce in France. All this time he focused on the education of youth, never deviated from what he considered the path of justice and was a devout advocate of Mary's Immaculate Conception.

He continued as Superior General of the Oblate religious family he had founded. Their fortunes grew in response to the frequent calls for missionary assistance in England, Ireland, France and then Canada, the United States and Mexico. At present the Oblates are established in over 68 countries. He was held is such esteem in Rome that the pope had selected him as one of the cardinals he was to create when death claimed Eugene at the ripe age of almost seventy-nine on May 15^th, 1861.

Shrine 2022 Lenten Appeal

We are most gratefulto those who made a special Lenten contribution to the Shrine of St. Joseph the Worker. Your support ensures that the Shrine continues to bless many souls in need.

Thank you and God bless you! Total to date: $23,170

Archdiocese of Boston Eucharistic Congress
Saturday, June 18, 2022 - Tsongas Center
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Anyone who takes the truth of the Incarnation seriously must accept Mary as the Mother of God, a title which demands some degree of honor to the one bearing it. Thus, the ‘scandal’ of Marian veneration is really the ‘scandal’ of the Incarnation. Such truths are truly scandalous to a world that thinks so little of both God and man. But they shouldn’t be so to anyone who believes in Christ. Many evangelical Protestants, however, subscribe to a form of fundamentalism which holds that if something is not explicitly permitted in the Bible, it must be forbidden. Since we don’t see Christians venerating Mary in the New Testament, the argument goes, we shouldn’t either.

Mary is venerated in the Bible. At least twice

In the Gospel of Luke, the Incarnation is announced with these words: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee (Douay-Rheims). Much of the history of Catholic-Protestant debates is really a tug-of-war over the second Greek word in that salutation, translated in English as ‘full of grace.’ But the first word in that greeting also speaks volumes about who Mary is and what has fundamentally changed in the order of creation with the Incarnation: Hail. But hail  is much more than just a synonym of hello with a bold exclamation point after it. In the ancient Roman world, hail—in the Latin, ave—was used to address Roman emperors. Hail was still used as exclamation in Shakespeare, most often to address a royal person or some other person of superior status. In Hamlet, this is how the tragic prince is greeted by his friend, Horatio: Hail to your lordship! (Act 1, scene 2). In theTempest, when the merchant Prospero summons his servant, the man responds: All hail, great master! (Act 1, scene 2). And of course, we find Hail Caesar  more than once in the play, Julius Caesar.

The Visitation as veneration

A skeptic may still question whether Christians should imitate the angel. The Annunciation was, after all, a unique, one-time event in history. But what happens next in the chapter should dispel any such lingering doubts. When Mary arrives at Elizabeth’s house, her cousin welcomes her with these words: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. “Mary is blessed by Elizabeth with the same words as before by Gabriel, to show that she was to be reverenced both by men and angels,” writes the Venerable Bede. This conclusion is reinforced by some extraordinary textual clues. According to French theologian Rene Laurentin, many of the phrases in the Visitation account mirror language used to describe the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, specifically, in 2 Samuel 6.  Here are four key parallels:

2 Samuel 6 

1) David “arose and went” to Judah to “fetch” the ark
2) David is overcome with “joyful shouting”
3) David is “leaping and dancing”
4) David asks “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?”

Luke 1 

1) Mary “rising up…went” to Judah
2) Elizabeth “cried out with a loud voice”
3) John the Baptist “leaped in the womb”
4) Elizabeth asks “And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

From: catholicexchange.com

O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learnedfrom the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love. 

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.

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