a certain stillness

1.  Catholic Ash Wednesday comes from Genesis 3:19–that moment when God expelled Adam and Eve from the paradise of Eden as the price of their rebellion and lack of faith: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” God is telling them, “Think about what you did. Repent. Seek Me out. For you have replaced My love with your selfishness; you have replaced My grace with your sin; you have replaced My gift of immortality with death, which means that some day, you must surrender your body to sickness and corruption, and the grave will claim you as you become ashes once again.”

2.   Catholic Ash Wednesday is a preparation of 40 days for renewing our baptismal commitment to Jesus, at Easter. The ashes are a sign of repentance and turning back to the Gospel, because death will come, and after death, we will be judged before the throne of Jesus Christ, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But of course, we will joyously remember at Easter that the precious Blood of Jesus has regained “paradise lost.” The death brought down upon us by the first Adam is reversed by the second Adam. For as St. Paul reminds us in the same verse of 6:23: “But (by) the grace of God, (we have) life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

O Christ Jesus When all is darkness And we feel our weakness and helplessness, Give us the sense of Your Presence, Your Love and Your Strength. Help us to have perfect trust In Your protecting love And strengthening power, So that nothing may frighten or worry us, For, living close to You, We shall see Your Hand, Your Purpose, Your Will through all things.

In addition to beginning our month-long focus on devotion to Mary, May 1 is also the feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker.  While the feast of Saint Joseph is celebrated on March 19, today’s feast focuses on Saint Joseph as a craftsman, laborer and provider.  Though Scripture says relatively little about Saint Joseph, we do know that God entrusted him with the responsibility of serving as guardian to Our Lady and the Child Jesus.  It stands to reason that Saint Joseph was “acceptable to God, [and] a workman who causes no disgrace” (2 Tim 2:15).  

Prayer to St. Joseph For Workers

Joseph, by the work of your hands and the sweat of your brow, you supported Jesus and Mary, and had the Son of God as your fellow worker.

Teach me to work as you did, with patience and perseverance, for God and for those whom God has given me to support. Teach me to see in my fellow workers the Christ who desires to be in them, that I may always be charitable and forbearing towards all.

Grant me to look upon work with the eyes of faith, so that I shall recognize in it my share in God’s own creative activity and in Christ’s work of our redemption, and so take pride in it.

When it is pleasant and productive, remind me to give thanks to God for it. And when it is burdensome, teach me to offer it to God, in reparation for my sins and the sins of the world.