Page 133 - Reflections on St. Joseph

Presenting his plan, after a preamble, already well known to us (“To whom, for
whatever reason...”), the Founder makes use of a few words, to which perhaps, a
proper importance has not been given. He wrote: “the Brother of St. Joseph is not a
professed religious, but simply an Oblate, who offers himself continuously to
God...”. While Marello foresaw a life of acute poverty and humility for the Oblates,
nevertheless, the adverb “simply” is not meant to be just about that. Instead, he
wanted to indicate the essence of being an Oblate, above and beyond, the sum of all
the contingent situations that might arise from roles assumed, from apostolic
situations, from states of mind or exterior conditions. . .

Whoever enters in the Congregation and chooses St. Joseph as their model and
spiritual master, is to think solely of the complete giving of themselves to the Father,
like the Carpenter of Nazareth gave himself concretely to God to serve Jesus and
Mary. The life of the Oblate of St. Joseph has no sense if it is not based exclusively on
his “oblation”, his total self-offering, just like it was for Jesus Christ, for Mary and for
Joseph. In essence, you are “bringing before” God all that we are: dreams, ideals,
plans, successes, failures, delusions, frailties, sins... Our consecration as “oblates”
has taken all of this and made of it a holocaust pleasing to the Lord.

Further, the offering of self is made “continuously”, for one’s entire life. This is not a
transitory act or something situated in a determined phase of our lives, perhaps limited to
the day of our religious profession. Instead, it must be a constant disposition of the heart,
lived in the present moment, well understanding that one moment is different from the
next. Thus, I must be able to offer myself to God with the enthusiasm of my youth and the
weariness of old age, in the satisfactions of goals achieved and in the disappointments of
failures that happened, in the joy of my feeling “all” for God and in the suffering of not
being able to give to the Lord naught but the worst of myself.... The situations and
circumstances may change, and thus the manner of our oblation may change, but the
desire of offering all to God, and doing it for our entire life must never diminish. As our
Father Founder taught us, that in every moment our salvation is decided...every moment
is a link in the chain which leads to God...”every moment which passes is a new occasion
which we must make use of and for which one day we will answer before the presence of
God.”(Letter 54)

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Reflections on st. joseph