CAPG's Blog 

Saint Joseph, God has appointed you patron of the Catholic Church because you were the head of the Holy Family, the starting-point of the Church. You were the father, protector, guide and support of the Holy Family. For that reason you belong in a particular way to the Church, which was the purpose of the Holy Familyʼs existence.

I believe that the Church is the family of God on earth. Its government is represented in priestly authority which consists above all in its power over the true Body of Christ, really present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, thus continuing Christʼs life in the Church. From this power, too, comes authority over the Mystical Body of Christ, the members of the Church -- the power to teach and govern souls, to reconcile them with God, to bless them, and to pray for them.

You have a special relationship to the priesthood because you possessed a wonderful power over our Savior Himself. Your life and office were of a priestly function and are especially connected with the Blessed Sacrament. To some extent you were the means of bringing the Redeemer to us -- as it is the priestʼs function to bring Him to us in the Mass -- for you reared Jesus, supported, nourished, protected and sheltered Him.

You were prefigured by the patriarch Joseph, who kept supplies of wheat for his people. But how much greater than he were you! Joseph of old gave the Egyptians mere bread for their bodies. You nourished, and with the most tender care, preserved for the Church Him who is the Bread of Heaven and who gives eternal life in Holy Communion.

God has appointed you patron of the Church because the glorious title of patriarch also falls by special right to you. The patriarchs were the heads of families of the Chosen People, and theirs was the honor to prepare for the Saviorʼs incarnation. You belonged to this line of patriarchs, for you were one of the last descendants of the family of David and one of the nearest forebears of Christ according to the flesh. As husband of Mary, the Mother of God, and as the foster-father of the Savior, you were directly connected with Christ. Your vocation was especially concerned with the Person of Jesus; your entire activity centered about Him. You are, therefore, the closing of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, which took its rise with the Holy Family of Nazareth. Because the New Testament surpasses the Old in every respect, you are the patriarch of patriarchs, the most venerable, exalted, and amiable of all the patriarchs.

Through Mary, the Church received Christ, and therefore the Church is indebted to her. But the Church owes her debt of gratitude and veneration to you also, for you were the chosen one who enabled Christ to enter into the world according to the laws of order and fitness. It was by you that the patriarchs and the prophets and the faithful reaped the fruit of Godʼs promise. Alone among them all, you saw with your own eyes and possessed the Redeemer promised to the rest of men.

Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being the Patron of the Church. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to live always as a worthy member of this Church, so that through it I may save my soul. Bless the priests, the religious, and the laity of the Catholic Church, that they may ever grow in Godʼs love and faithfulness in His service. Protect the Church from the evils of our day and from the persecution of her enemies. Through your powerful intercession may the church successfully accomplish its mission in this world -- the glory of God and the salvation of souls! Amen.

 Source:Curé d'Ars Prayer Group

New prayers on the CAPG:

A Rosary for Priests

Way of the Cross for Priests ( Especially for those who are suffering persecution)

According to the writings of Mother Catherine Mectilde de Bar, the Day of Great Reparation takes place on the Thursday 
of Sexagesima week, this year today on February 28. Mère Catherine was a French Benedictine who lived in 17th century 
and was the foundress of the institute of the Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration.

Holy Hour of Adoration and Reparation for the sins of Priests

From Fr. Kirby's page: 
(http://vultuschristi.org/index.php/2019/02/reparation-3/#respond):

"In her meditations for the Feast of Reparation, solemnized on the Thursday of Sexagesima week, 
Mother Mectilde de Bar  reflects on the sins of those who serve in the sanctuaries of the Lord. 
The Church, in her desolation, cries, O you who have some love for me, you who know all the glory
 that my Bridegroom deserves, see and consider if there be any sorrow like unto mine. O you, 
ministers of the Lord and friends of the Bridegroom, the Bride address these laments to you.
Hasten to relieve her pain by making reparation for the affronts to Jesus Christ; give Him the glory 
that others would strip from Him.
    Having once shown the disorders of the children of Israel to the prophet Jeremias, the Lord led
 him to the entrance of the temple; He ordered him to pierce an opening in its wall, and to look upon
 what was going on inside. The prophet obeyed, and says that therein he saw even greater abominations.

    Who, alas, does not grasp that this is but a figure? Who does not know that the sanctuary is the theater 
par excellence of the Lord’s ignominies? Who does not know that, alongside of priests who are fervent 
and truly divine, there are priests who are lukewarm and indifferent, priests who are wicked […]? 
And so, the Church, in calling [us] to reparation, begs us not to forget the outrages made against the
 glory of her Divine Spouse by His own ministers. Yours it is, she says, to expiate the sins of the Sanctuary;
 yours it is to bear the weight of the sins of the priesthood.

    Let us enter into these intentions of the Church, and united in spirit with what remains on earth of fervent
 Christians, and of priests pressed by the charity of Jesus Christ, let us strive to repair the outrages of
 indifference and impiety; let us lift up the throne of the Lord, and offer Him the tribute of homage that, by
 so many titles, He deserves."

The great roots of all the evils that press upon society, and make man unhappy, are "the ignorance of the mind, and the depravity of the will. "

Hence he who wished to civilize the world, and thus assist in executing the plans of God's providence, must remove these two great root of evil by imparting to the mind infallibly the light of truth, and by laying down for the will authoritatively the unchangeable principles of morality.

If the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has accomplished in society this twofold task, then has it rendered itself worthy of the praises of all men, and deserves to be called the greatest, the most astonishing, the most divine fact in the history of the world - then the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is truly " the light of the world, and the salt of the earth."

Source: The Catholic Priest, Rev. Michael Muller C.S.S.R