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“...at the moment of Joseph's own ‘annunciation’ he said nothing; instead he simply ‘did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’. And this first ‘doing’ became the beginning of ‘Joseph's way’. The Gospels do not record any word ever spoken by Joseph along that way. But the silence of Joseph has its own special eloquence..."
On August 15th, 1889, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the encyclical letter Quamquam Pluries on devotion to St. Joseph. 100 years later, on August 15th, 1989—and only two years after the release of his great Marian encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, "Mother of the Redeemer"—Pope St. John Paul II gave his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos, "Guardian of the Redeemer", on the person and mission of St. Joseph in the life of Christ and of the Church.
This being the Year of St. Joseph, and today being the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, we’re pleased to release our reading of this exhortation in its entirety.
“It is my heartfelt wish,” St. John Paul writes, “that these reflections on the person of St. Joseph will renew in us the prayerful devotion which my Predecessor called for a century ago. Our prayers and the very person of Joseph have renewed significance for the Church in our day.”
St. Joseph the Worker, Guardian of the Redeemer — pray for us!
Links
Redemptoris Custos Full text: http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_15081989_redemptoris-custos.html
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Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Sickness is the acid test of spirituality, because it discloses whether our virtue is real or sham.”
If with the first three chapters, St. Alphonsus makes the case for obedience to God—the excellence of this virtue, and that man’s ultimate happiness derives from it—in these chapters, St. Alphonsus gets practical, turning his attention to those instances where obedience to God can sometimes be especially difficult.
In particular, he focuses on our susceptibility to sickness, and stresses the importance of obedience to God’s will in times of infirmity.
That renders these chapters especially relevant to our own day, when it should be apparent that most of our suffering over the past year has come from our attempt to avoid suffering, and certainly not to accept it in the spirit of trust and docility which St. Alphonsus here describes.
Indeed, in some places, Alphonsus’ words seem almost prophetic:
“It often happens,” St. Alphonsus writes, “that some, on the occasion of a slight illness, or even a slight indisposition, want the whole world to stand still…”
Sound familiar?
Links
Uniformity with God's Will Full text: http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/uniformity_with_Gods_will/un3.php
Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.
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Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Conformity signifies that we join our wills to the will of God. Uniformity means more -- it means that we make one will of God's will and ours, so that we will only what God wills; that God's will alone, is our will.”
A few weeks ago, the Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of the proclamation, by Pope Pius IX, of St. Alphonsus Liguori as a Doctor of the Church.
St. Alphonsus was an Italian bishop who lived from 1696-1787. He is the patron saint of confessors, and is perhaps one of the most widely read Catholic authors in the world (translations of his works exist in over seventy different languages). St. Alphonsus was a prolific writer who wrote over one hundred works on spirituality and theology.
This text, Uniformity with God’s Will, was written in 1755, and represents a topic that was dear to St. Alphonsus’ heart. It is said that, in a similar way to how St. Ignatius stressed “all for the greater glory of God,” St. Alphonsus gave central importance to “the greater good pleasure of God.” After writing this work, St. Alphonsus frequently read it himself, and even had it read to him when his eyesight began to fail.
The extraordinary circumstances within which we find ourselves today require a careful consideration of where our obedience is owed. This classic work by a Doctor of the Church can help.
Links
Uniformity with God's Will Full text: http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/uniformity_with_Gods_will/un3.php
Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.
Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

"... as His atoning passion was undergone in the body, so it was undergone in the soul also."
Today’s episode is a re-release of a reading that we first published on Good Friday last year. Since our back-catalog of audiobook episodes is restricted to those who register for free at CatholicCulture.org, we’ve decided not only to re-release this for the upcoming Sacred Triduum, but to keep it available permanently on the Catholic Culture YouTube channel.
Written by this show’s patron saint, John Henry Newman, this reading is best listened to in silence (perhaps even in prayer, making it the subject of a meditation by listening in one sitting).
However you listen, make this a part of your Good Friday observance.
Links
Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion full text: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse16.html
Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.
Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“How, and when, did Mary take part—and the initial part—in the world's restoration? It was when the Angel Gabriel came to her to announce to her the great dignity which was to be her portion.”
Happy Feast of the Annunciation! The reading featured in today’s episode is a selection from a larger work by Newman, published posthumously as Meditations and Devotions. In the first part of the work, Newman meditates on the Litany of Loreto. He divides those meditations into four categories: On the Immaculate Conception, On the Annunciation, On Our Lady’s Dolors, and On the Assumption.
What we’ll be hearing today are Newman’s meditations on those titles of Mary which he most closely associates with the Annunciation: Queen of Angels, Mirror of Justice, Seat of Wisdom, Gate of Heaven, Mother of the Creator, Mother of Christ, and Mother of our Savior.
With Holy Week just around the corner, these meditations are a reminder that the joyful mysteries, beginning with the Annunciation, anticipate and initiate the sorrowful mysteries ending with the Crucifixion.
Links
On the Annunciation Full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations2.html
Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.
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Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Joseph merited the greatest honors because he was never touched by honor. The Church has nothing more illustrious, because it has nothing more hidden.”
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a seventeenth-century French theologian and bishop. During his life, he was highly regarded for that for which today he is still most remembered: his preaching. His style and accomplishment as an orator has seen him numbered among the likes of Augustine and Chrysostom—two of the Church’s greatest preachers—and the most celebrated of his written works, Discourse on Universal History, has been favorably compared to Augustine’s own City of God. St. Junipero Serra and Pope Pius XII are included among those who cherished Bossuet’s writings, the latter of whom kept a copy of Bossuet by his bedside table. 
For all his fame as an orator and French stylist, however, Bossuet was also a man of great love for the study of Sacred Scripture, and for devotion to retirement and the interior life. It was only at the urging of St. Vincent de Paul (under whose spiritual direction Bossuet had prepared for the priesthood) that he moved to Paris and devoted himself entirely to preaching in the first place.
Though he would eventually go on to become the court preacher of Louis XIV, Bossuet continued to esteem hiddenness. In today’s reading, Bossuet observes: “The Christian life should be a hidden life, and the true Christian should ardently desire to remain hidden under God’s wing.”
Indeed, it is Joseph’s hiddenness that Bossuet recognizes is most essential to his greatness. Bossuet’s reflections here have fresh significance today, in our modern prestige economy played out on the Internet and in social media.
May Bossuet—among the best of preachers—convict us with his words; and may St. Joseph—the best of Teachers—teach us to be hidden.
St. Joseph, pray for us!
Links
St. Joseph: A Man after God's Own Heart full text: https://catholicexchange.com/saint-joseph-man-gods-heart
Meditations for Lent, Sophia Institute Press: https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/meditations-for-lent
Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.
Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.