Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and the earthly spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Joseph does not say a single word in all the Gospels. In the nativity story we hear about Joseph and how he was in tune with listening to God and the messengers of God, in order to protect the Christ child and His mother.
First, he is visited by an angel in his dream to give him the assurance of God's will in entering into marriage with Mary, the Virgin mother of God.
Second, Herod had learned of the birth of the Messiah who would grow up to become the King of the Jews and sought to kill Jesus. However, Joseph is warned by an angel again in a dream to flee to Egypt with the infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary to escape the massacre that Herod had ordered of all male children under the age of two.
Third, an angel appeared to Joseph again in a dream when Herod had died and informs him that it was safe for them to return to Israel from Egypt.
In order to be able to receive these dreams and messages from heaven, Saint Joseph must have been a man of deep prayer and recollection. God can only communicate with souls that are restful and recollected. A certain silent disposition of heart is needed to hear the voice of God, this means quietly gazing on the Lord, expectantly waiting for Him to speak for both for our spiritual benefit and also for our day to day life activities and decisions.
As did Mary and Jesus, may we also experience the protection of Saint Joseph as we journey as pilgrims on this earth.
Saint Joseph, pray for us!

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. On this day the Church honors the Office of the Pope and commemorates the selection of the first Pope Saint Peter as the leader of the Twelve Apostles and the Rock on which Christ established the Kingdom of God on earth and founded His Church. 
In the Gospel of Matthew 16:17-19 we read that Jesus and His disciples were discussing the identity of Jesus and it was Simon Peter who proclaims Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. In reply Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
In order to understand the significance of what Jesus said we refer to the structure of authority in the Davidic Kingdom given to the Prime Minister who is regarded next to only the king himself, as described in Isaiah 22:21-22 "I will clothe him with your robe, gird him with your sash, confer on him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one will shut, what he shuts, no one will open." From this Old Testament text we see that in the Kingdom of Israel, the office of the Prime Minister is next in rank only to the king. The Prime Minister is given authority over the entire kingdom.
From this we infer that Jesus appointed Peter as the head of God’s Kingdom on earth and leader of the twelve Apostles who were given the authority to teach, preach and safe guard the moral teachings as fully revealed by Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament promises in detail through His life, words and actions. 
​Today in our present day Pope Francis and his Bishops carry out this mandate which was transmitted to them over the centuries and are the successors of Peter and the Apostles.
On this day we not only seek the blessings of Pope Francis and the Bishops but we also pray for their ministry to bear abundant fruit!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. On Feb 11th 1858 the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette a fourteen year old who was from a very poor family, while she was playing in the woods with her friends near a stream. Her friends had crossed the stream but due to her poor health she remained back. Suddenly there was a gush of wind which made her glance towards the cave near the stream. There in the grotto she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in white with a blue belt around her waist. She had a yellow rose on each of her feet. She experienced several  visions between February 11th and March 25th of 1858. Each time she felt an interior impulse to go to the cave near the stream to see the Blessed Mother who identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. Only in 1854 Pope, Pius IX had officially declared as doctrine of the Church the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother which was not well known in other parts of the world, especially by a poor fourteen year old in Lourdes, France. On one occasion Our Lady asked for "Penance" for the sins of the world by praying often the rosary and to kiss the ground as sign of penance. In another appearance Our Lady asked her to dig the ground and drink the muddy water from the ground as penance to the disgust of the onlookers. After a few hours the water became a clear spring with pure water and many healing miracles occur even today to those who drink or bathe in the water from this spring. These miracles are scientifically examined and several were approved including a man from Italy who had part of his pelvic and femur bones destroyed from cancer  and on bathing in the water the bones grew back. The x-rays of the before and after are now available as evidence of the authenticity of this miracles and similar miracles in Lourdes, France. Several thousands of pilgrim visit Lourdes each year seeking the healing touch of God through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. 
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Today we celebrate the memorial of the martyrdom of Paul Miki and twenty-five of his companions who were of various religious congregations and lay people. Paul Miki himself was a Japanese Jesuit brother who had preached very successfully in Japan in the fifteen hundreds. He was arrested by the order of the Emperor in 1597 and was martyred in Nagasaki along with twenty-five others who were pierced with spears while hanging on crosses. How their martyrdom resembled so closely that of their savior Jesus Christ! We believe that as with their death they will also resemble their savior Jesus Christ in their resurrection on the last day. During their last moments they were full of joy even though they suffered gruesomely. It is said that they sang hymns, prayed the Psalms, invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus and Paul Miki even preached to those who had gathered to witness the executions. It is said that all of them were joyful during their final moments which is a testimony to their faith and showed forth the grace that God had bestowed on them. They had in a sense already started to experience glimpses of heaven and the beatific vision of God while on earth which is why they were joyful even in their suffering. Nagasaki is also where there were the most number of Japanese Christians until 1948 when they were mostly wiped out after the atomic bombing during World War II. 
Saint Paul Miki and companions, pray for us and especially for the people of Japan and Asia where Christians are a minority and suffer from religious discrimination and persecutions everyday!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Blaise who was the fourth century Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia where he was also martyred for his Christian faith. On this day throats are blessed in the Roman Catholic Church by placing two crisscrossed candles at the throat. This is because tradition says that a boy who was choking on a fish bone was miraculously saved when Saint Blaise prayed over him and he coughed out the fish bone. Also the candles symbolize Christ the light of the world. We pray for all those who are suffering from illness of the throat.
Saint Blaise pray for us!

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint John Bosco who was born in 1815 near Turin, Italy. As a young boy he and his family suffered many hardships as they were poor farmers. John Bosco was very eager to study and with the support of his mother he was able to leave home to go to a different town to pursue studies. He was ordained a priest in 1841. John Bosco is most well known for his many visions and dreams which were of supernatural nature.
At the age of nine John Bosco had a dream where he saw children playing in the field and behaving very poorly. He ran among them and began to hit them to get them to stop cursing and fighting. Jesus appeared and told him that he would give him a teacher who will show him how to correct these boys in a gentle way. Immediately he saw the Blessed Virgin Mary and by now the children had turned into goats, dogs, cats and other animals. She told him that this was to be his mission in life which is to work among these children. The children turned into lambs. Later Saint John Bosco as a priest started an oratory for boys who were on the streets and involved in crime. He also founded the Salesian order of priests, named after Saint Francis de Sales. One of the boys of his oratory was the young Saint Dominic Savio.
Among many supernatural  events experienced by Saint John Bosco, the most noteworthy is the vision of May 14, 1862 where he saw the Catholic Church in the form of a big ship which was being attacked by several smaller enemy ships on very turbulent seas. There were also some of smaller ships that were being attacked by these enemy ships. As the captain of the big ship who was the Holy Father tried to save the ship  from destruction, there were two pillars that rose from the sea. One had the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the words "Help of Christians" and the second pillar which was higher with a very large Eucharistic Host on top and the words "Salvation of the faithful". The captain of the big ship is shot and falls dead but a new captain takes over and guides the ship towards the two pillars. The storms cease when the ship is anchored between these two pillars and there is a great calm and all the enemy ships are destroyed. Saint John Bosco explained that the small enemy ships are the persecutions that the Church and the Holy Father would suffer and that devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and frequent Holy Communions will save the Church from its persecutors.
Saint John Bosco also fondly called as Don Bosco is the patron saint of children especially foster children and boys who are delinquent or have a rough childhood due to poverty and violence.
Saint John Bosco, pray for us!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a priest and doctor born in the 1225 in Italy. He studied in Paris and Cologne under Saint Albert the Great. Of all the brilliant philosophers and theologians of the Catholic Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas is considered as the greatest of them. His Summa Theologica is by far the most referenced document by many Catholic and other Christian theologians, philosophers, writers and speakers only after the Holy Bible. He is my personal favorite because of "Five proofs for the existence of God" , which is his arguments for the existence of God and for coming to know this through the exercise of reason alone. He uses his knowledge of science, metaphysics to help atheists and agnostics who are seeking the truth to come to believe in God. 
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!!! 

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Paul was formerly called Saul and he was not one of Jesus’ disciples or followers. However he was a devout Jew, very well read with a high degree of scriptural knowledge and was influential among the people of Jerusalem. In being faithful to his faith he worked zealously to arrest and imprison those who had become followers of Jesus because he saw them as betrayers of the Jewish faith. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that he was present at the stoning and death of the first recorded Christian martyr Saint Stephen . While on his way to Damascus from Jerusalem a supernatural light surrounded him from heaven, it struck him blind and he was thrown off his horse. In that moment he heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. Thereby Jesus identifies himself with all Christians who are incorporated into the Body of Christ in baptism.
Immediately after his conversion Paul travels to preach the Gospel to the gentiles starting with Arabia and its only after three years that he meets with Peter and later on with the other apostles.
Paul and his letters in New Testament provide Christians of our time an insight into the life of the early Christians and much more.
Saint Paul pray for all missionaries and keep them safe!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales who was a Bishop and Doctor of the Church. He was born in 1567 in the County of Savoy in Europe. He dedicated his life to restoring Catholicism which was going through a rough phase in Europe. He was appointed as the Bishop of Geneva. Saint Francis de Sales is the patron saint of journalism because he used his gift of writing to restore the faith of the Catholics in his country. He died in the year 1622 in Lyons, France.
Today we pray for all those journalists who have sacrificed and even put their careers on the line to use their gift of journalism to work for the Kingdom of God.
Saint Francis de Sales pray for us!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Sebastian an early Christian martyr. When my mother was expecting me she and all of my family members were ill with smallpox which was taking many lives in India during the 70's. My mother sought the intercession of Saint Sebastian and when I was born I was healthy, also a few days before my birth my father's aunt Sebasti died and so in her remembrance and  in honor of Saint Sebastian, I was baptized as "Sebasti Suveda". 
Saint Sebastian was a native of Milan but he traveled to Rome because he wanted to suffer persecutions similar to his fellow Christians who were in Rome. At that time there was intense persecution by the Roman emperor Diocletian and Christians were killed in great numbers. 
The first attempt to kill Saint Sebastian was unsuccessful. The Roman soldiers shot several arrows at Saint Sebastian and presumed that he was dead and left his body. However he was found by a kind lady in Rome and was nursed back to health. The second time he was beheaded. Saint Sebastian sought Christian martyrdom as a priced treasure thereby giving testimony by his life and death to Jesus Christ. 
Even today we are called to be a witness to our faith in a world that has made a mockery of religion and persecute those who are faithful to their beliefs. It is an honor to suffer persecution for one's faith because then we resemble Jesus who is our Lord and Savior.
Saint Sebastian, pray for us!