Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I will present you the message of St. Joseph, which came to us at the beginning of the novena dedicated to him. During the prayer, we asked him to tell us something about himself since little is known about him. These are the words he addressed to us in order to exhort us to live in a deep and authentic relationship with God, who is the source of all our happiness and fulfilment.
I greet you with great affection and I bless you. The Lord may give you peace. Stefania Caterina

Message of St. Joseph of March 10, 2014

“I bless you, dear brothers and sisters. You have expressed the wish to know more about me; in fact, my figure is rather marginal in the Church, even though I have many sincere devotees. You can get to know me in God because it is in God that we know each other perfectly; in fact, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and it is He who reveals the identity of each individual. Therefore, when you are in God, just spare a thought to a saint, a person or a situation in order to understand through the Holy Spirit that Saint, that person or that situation. (Rom 8: 26-28)

I am one heart with the Blessed Virgin Mary even though our marriage was not like the ones you are used to seeing on Earth: our marriage has not been consummated. Nevertheless, we were so united as to be one in God. In fact, it was God who brought us together, not passion; not even God’s work united us; God united us to accomplish His work. Often people join in order to do something together. Instead, it is always God who unites you, and when you are united in God, then He will entrust you with work.

I’m not in the Holy Trinity like the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the most exceptional and unique human creature in the universe; there will never be another one like Her, not even in the new creation. She is in the Most Holy Trinity, and that place is rightfully hers. Nevertheless, I entered the Heart of Mary; after Jesus, I was the only one to enter perfectly in Her Immaculate Heart, and together we formed a single Heart. Therefore, I can say that I entered the Most Holy Trinity even though indirectly.

This applies to each of you: the more you enter the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the more profound will become your knowledge of the Holy Trinity and the mystery of Her life. Mary’s Heart lives in Jesus’ Heart, and therefore, she is immersed in the Holy Trinity; however, Jesus’ Heart too lives in Mary’s Heart; His Heart was formed in Mary’s womb. (Jn 14: 9-11).

My role was important on Earth: I had to ensure before the people that Jesus had a father according to the law; Mary could certainly not have been a single mother as it would have been a grave scandal. Yet, this was not the only reason why God bound me to my bride: we were called to live together for Jesus in order to be the first nucleus of that people, who is the Church, which one day would be gathered around Jesus. The two of us anticipated all this; we were the first cell of the Church. Therefore, God has entrusted us with a mission that was fruitful in Spirit; he willed that our union would ensure that Jesus grew up peacefully in grace, in spirit and in body. I worked for Christ; I worked in my carpenter’s shop to ensure the daily bread, which was the fruit of honest work. I was the first to work for Christ.

I died young. Thanks to God’s grace I did not have to be present at the crucifixion of Jesus. I would not have had the strength that Mary had; I did not have the same gift of grace as Her. It would have been a terrible blow to me; I would have died at the foot of the cross. Jesus had never hidden what awaited Him neither from His mother nor from me, and we were therefore prepared in spirit. However, the crucifixion of Jesus was not one of the many bloody executions that took place at that time: all the hatred of hell as well as the sins of the entire humanity of the universe fell on Him, and His execution was the most ferocious that has ever taken place on Earth. My fatherly grief would have been such as to destroy me. Therefore, God called me to Him and allowed me to be present in spirit at the foot of the cross. In this way, I was able to support Mary and Jesus with my prayers in that terrible hour, as I had done so many times in life: in the persecutions by Herod, in the flight to Egypt, in poverty and in the large and small problems of everyday life.

My figure has not always been well understood in the Church because of the difficulty of giving a proper definition of sexuality. Therefore, my presence was sometimes considered as disturbing the purity of Mary; this happens because people believe that chastity is the result of constraint, and therefore it is difficult to observe. In reality this is not so; true chastity is a free choice, and it is part of the broader concept of immaculateness. The person who really decides to choose chastity, intends to do it thoroughly. I had no sexual interest in Mary; it never crossed my mind; God had neither planned nor willed it for me, and it would not have made any sense in God’s plan. So I was given the grace to overcome every temptation, because God always gives the necessary grace to accomplish His work. Also, my bride was not like other ones: Her grace was of such purity that nothing dirty could be near Her. The purity she emanated was comparable only to that of Jesus. When I observed Mary and little Jesus together, I could feel infinite purity emanating from them; they were perfect; there was not the slightest shadow of sin in them; they were completely immersed in God. My soul was satiated by so much perfection; therefore, I too reached immaculateness as a result of my pathway to holiness, but also through the extraordinary grace that I absorbed in my particular union with Jesus and Mary.

I had a simple life: there was the work in my shop, the prayer to God the Father for Jesus and Mary and my prayers with them. Even though I was not physically at the foot of the cross, God has entrusted me with His Church; I protect it together with Mary. The Lord called me to exercise paternity towards all His children as I exercised in favour of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is not the fatherhood of God, but fatherhood in God. On Earth my fatherhood and Mary’s motherhood worked together to protect Jesus; now we work together to protect the people of God, and that could not be otherwise (Apostolic Exhortation “Redemptoris Custos” John Paul II, 1989).

At the beginning of this novena that you offer me, I ask you to immerse yourself in the Heart of Mary, where you will find me. It fills me with joy when I see that this people belongs more and more to Mary because my heart rejoices in the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of my Bride. When you find Mary, you find Jesus, and when you find Jesus, you find all.

Communion with Mary in God is the pathway, and communion with God is the goal. It is immaculateness that will lead you to stand before God, whether you are married or not. You cannot stand before God if you are not immaculate. Nothing impure can stand before God. It is true that God forgives your sins; nevertheless, it is equally true that no one would be able to stand before God if it were not for Jesus Christ, the Righteous and Mediator. He is the One who stands before God the Father offering His Body and His Blood, that is, His sacrifice for all of you. Without Him, you would not be able to appear before the Father because none of you is completely pure, and nothing impure can stand in front of the eyes of the Father. Therefore, immaculateness is required because it helps you to enter more and more in communion with God in Christ, who makes every other communion meaningful. Indeed, every authentic communion descends from the Holy Trinity: marriage, consecration, friendship, and every other form of spiritual communion.

All of you have received the grace to live in communion with God; no one would be able to accomplish this without grace. I repeat that communion with God is the goal of the pathway of humanity: in the new creation everyone will live in perfect communion with God. You are still walking along the worldly path, through which you are trying to get closer and closer to communion with God. If you do not manage to achieve it in this life, you will have to do it in purgatory; it is a journey that does not stop even in the moment of death. Unfortunately, on Earth communion with God is not properly understood: people are not adequately guided and consider themselves to be in communion with God only because they participate in some religious rite, go to Mass on Sundays or recite devotional prayers. All these things are important to reach communion with God, but they are not communion with God. There can be no true communion without self-offering and immaculateness. All of you have received in baptism the grace to reach immaculateness, self-offering and communion; however, along the way that grace is gradually lost due to the multiple interpretations people give to spiritual life and personal relationship with God, and because people do not receive proper guidance to a true path of faith.

Therefore, it is difficult nowadays to speak to Christians about self-offering to God, immaculateness and communion. Communion with God is almost considered to be something extra in a religious life, which is often based on activism in the field of charity. Charity is necessary, and there is no question about it; however, if there is no communion with God, where does the charity come from and what nourishes it? Is there not a risk that without communion with God the Eucharistic celebrations become superficial, hasty and cold? Fortunately, in the Church there are many saint persons, who carefully maintain a personal relationship with God; they are often unknown and sometimes misunderstood or derided; however, if there were no such people, the charity of Christians would not be much different from activities carried out by non-Christian humanitarian organizations. Therefore, we need to return to a personal relationship and to communion with God.

Today’s Christians do not feel deeply bound to the Holy Spirit anymore as the first Christians did right after Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has never withdrawn from the Church but has not been able to act with all His power; His action has decreased over the centuries. Within the actual Church the power of the Holy Spirit is not comparable to that of the beginning. There are many reasons for this: e.g., rationalism, activism, theological speculations and human science, which have taken the place of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit has continued and will continue to act with power in the Saints by doing extraordinary things because the Saints come out of themselves and seek communion with God beyond anything else; therefore, the Holy Spirit is free to shape them according to His wishes and to act in them and through them. The Saints have always been the vital lymph of the Church. Unfortunately, nowadays people detach themselves more and more from their inner source, which is God, by searching elsewhere inspirations and models of life; they create idols such as celebrities, scientific experts and even religious authorities: for many Christians the Pope comes before Christ. First of all, you should learn to listen to Jesus within you, and then you will also be able to listen to and understand the Pope.

I bless you and I hope that this novena will help you enter more and more in the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Her communion with both God and humanity; in Her perfect self-offering you will find me too.

I bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.“

Prayer to Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph, just man among the just,
protector of God’s family
all over the universe,
protect the Church of the Earth in
this important and delicate time.

Intercede with God
so that the Church might always
choose the right path,
overcoming with peace,
the difficulties, provocations and
obstacles, which the spirit of the world
places in front of Her.

May the burning fire of your heart
put us aflame with true faith,
sure hope and sublime love,
so that we might walk with you and Mary,
your Virgin Spouse,
the difficult roads of our time.

Guide us as you guided Little Jesus,
holding Him by the hand.
You helped Him grow
and become a man.

Help us as well to become true children of God
for the glory and honour of the Most Blessed Trinity.

AMEN!