Page 162 - Reflections on St. Joseph

3) Our Spirituality
 “Open to the voice of the Spirit, Saint Joseph Marello founded the Congregation. …” (Const.
2), giving to the Church a new Religious family in its spirituality and charism and
placing it at the service of the Gospel.
 The first motivation for our foundation was not pastoral (the laci of clergy in the
Diocese of Asti), but theological and Christological.
 “How many true disciples of Jesus Christ do we still have today in this country of ours which
for many centuries was the classical land of monasticism. Hardly anyone gives any thought
to the practice of the evangelical counsels.… I the novitiates of monasteries remain deserted
… , the evangelical counsels must be practiced by a certain number of Christian at all times,
otherwise Jesus Christ has spoken in vain … Therefore, let us strive to open up… the more
perfect state of life” (Letter 107, formerly 94)
 “Whoever...desires to follow closely the Divine Master by the observance of the Evangelical
Counsels, is welcome to the House of St. Joseph. Withdrawing therein with the resolve to
remain hidden and silently active in imitation of that great Model of a poor and obscure
life, he will have an opportunity to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ” (Letter 108,
formerly 95)
 Biblical foundations for our spirituality:
 “Life hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-3).
St. Paul, with this expression, places us in the heart of the Paschal Mystery of Christ,
which is the mystery of his death and resurrection, he fundamental mystery of the
entire Christian life. We need to be able to read the Easter thought of the life hidden
with Christ in God in the Spirituality of St. Joseph. We must not see the hidden life
as only a disposition to being hidden exteriorly, as something obscure and
negative, but as a Biblical spirituality of very high value for our religious life, if we
know how to read it in light of the life of St. Joseph.
 Have in our hearts the interests of Jesus (cf. Phil. 2:19-22)… as St. Joseph did.
 “In this way he will imitate St. Joseph, the first exemplar of the religious life, who had
continually under his gaze the Divine Exemplar, sent in His mercy by the Eternal Father
to the world to teach the way to Heaven.” (Rules of 1892)

4) St. Joseph
 St. Joseph Marello wanted his followers to live the experience of God, the love of God,
consecrating themselves to Him, abandoning themselves into his hands, in a life of
total consecration, in imitation of St. Joseph.
 We Oblates of St. Joseph are to contemplate the face of Jesus through the eyes of St.
Joseph, who in this way becomes our charismatic model for carrying out the “Sequela
Christi”. In St. Joseph we see:
 his availability to carry out the will of God and in this way become a model for
“doing that which Divine Providence points out from time to time”
 his hardworking silence in the house of Nazareth and we learn from him to be
hardworking and not waste time pursing useless and hurtful things
 in his intimacy with Jesus and Mary an example for our life of prayer and of unione
with the Lord
 his abandonment to the will of God which moved him to always do that which the
Angel of the Lord directed him to do
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Reflections on st. joseph