With a Father’s Heart Full of Love

Hi ,

Kumusta na?

Every day is an opportunity to give thanks - for the good and the bad 😊

Some days back, I was reflecting on Patris Corde, the letter Pope Francis wrote on the Year of Saint Joseph.

In English, the letter is called “With A Father’s Heart." I told myself, “That phrase alone is so rich and full of meaning!”

At the same time, I called on Saint Joseph silently asking - “What is your heart like?”

Along with this, some friends I gained from Beyond Kilig’s Love Rediscovered Course convinced me to start a Consecration to Saint Joseph group with them last week which - thanks be to God - is almost halfway!

One of the things that struck us was what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote:

“Saint Joseph is the first Christian gentleman; next to Jesus, he is the greatest example of masculine chastity.”

For some reason, a Les Miserables song entitled “A Heart Full Of Love” came to mind.

It connects with the question I asked our spiritual father.... that Saint Joseph has a heart full of love!

Our Lord is gifted to have a father who is full of love, that is in Love, and that is pure of heart. Beautiful isn’t it?

Benedict XVI continued:

“If men today were more like St. Joseph — protectors and defenders of beauty, instead of users and abusers of the feminine mystery — what a different world this would be.”

You and I are all called to this - from “Sana all may Joseph” to “Sana all MAGING Joseph.”

This is what Pope Francis meant when he wrote the first few words of Patris Corde: “With a Father’s Heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus…”

Thanks to Saint John Paul II’s TOB reflections on the historical man, we can find the heart of Saint Joseph in his writings:

“Jesus is obsessed with the heart because whoever wins the heart wins the mind, the eyes, the body, and the soul… for eternity.”

Surely Our Lord owes this “obsession” to Saint Joseph who taught him human love even if Jesus was perfect God and perfect Man himself, because as Fr. Calloway wrote in the Consecration to Saint Joseph,

“Poets have often stated that the eyes are the window to the soul. If this is true, St. Joseph must have had the most chaste and pure eyes of any husband who ever lived. His eyes and heart were pure-intentioned, chaste, and afire with love for Jesus and Mary.”

And so, if every saint loves Saint Joseph and if it is impossible to find a single saint who did not love him, then why shouldn’t we acquire the TOB lens of Saint Joseph that is beyond kilig?

May we all learn to love with the heart of our father Saint Joseph that is full of His Love! Sana all may Joseph as much as Sana all maging Joseph! 

Sincerely,

Francis

Love Rediscovered Participant