Page 137 - Reflections on St. Joseph

- Draft for a Company of St. Joseph which promotes the interests of Jesus...
- This has a kind of natural right to reside in the house and officiate in the church of Jesus...
- Everyone is to take their inspiration from their Model St. Joseph who was the first upon the earth
to care for the interests of Jesus...
- Everyone can take part in the Company; it is enough to aggregate oneself by secret resolution to
have with it a communion of interests...
- Who thinks to participate in the Company must, however, make before the Lord a sincere promise
to work, within the limits of his abilities, to promote the dear interests of Jesus...
- There is no time or place in which you cannot do something. Every word, every step, every desire,
can be the raw material of the interests of Jesus...

The phrase interests of Jesus has its biblical basis in the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, with
its strong affirmation: “Everyone, in reality, seeks their own interests, not those of Jesus
Christ.”(2,21) Fr. Marello gave capital importance to this phrase, without however, stopping to
go into detail about the sense and latitude that he intended. He spoke always by means of
allusion, as if it were something known, obvious, immediately intuited. He was convinced
that: “in a frightening variety of ways the Kingdom of God is demolished” for which it became
necessary to “do everywhere our work of restoration, with the help of Heaven.” St. Joseph,
without question, is the model in this: “everyone take their inspiration from their model St.
Joseph, who was the first upon earth to care for the interests of Jesus.”(Letter 83).

C. St. Joseph is our guide in the attitude of trust that directs our steps (Letter 185)

The letter written to Fr. Cortona on September 23, 1889 is full of material concerns,
especially for the difficult financial conditions. The Founder has his feet on the ground, and
thus seeks to deal with the problem very concretely, offering even suggestions for obtaining
the funds necessary for the complex reality of Santa Chiara to keep going. However, at a
certain point he shows all of his spirituality and greatness of heart which leads him to

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Reflections on st. joseph