Today is St. Joseph the Worker’s Optional Memorial Day. Anne sent me a beautiful e-mail about this miraculous staircase that is believed to have been St. Joseph’s work. What a shame we didn’t get to see it as we were passing through New Mexico, as our route took us two hours south of Santa Fe, and it was on a particularly long day of driving. We’ll have to drive there again one day just to see it!

Today from the CCC:

Responsibility and Participation

“Participation” is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange. It is necessary that all participate, each according to to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.

Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society.”

– Catechism of the Catholic Church 1913, 1914

Prayer to Saint Joseph

O glorious Saint Joseph, remind all who work that they are not alone in their labor, their joy or their sufferings, because Jesus is by our side, with Mary, His Mother and ours, supporting them, wiping sweat from their brow, and setting a value on their toil. Teach them to use their labor, as you did, as a supreme means of attaining holiness. – Pope John XXIII

St. Joseph Coloring Image (small)

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I am also including here something I wrote back in March, on St. Joseph’s Feast Day no less — which I didn’t finish as I was giving up blogging for Lent… but today’s the perfect day:

I’m copying Amy who tagged herself for the marriage meme. Last night I was reading Joseph of Nazareth, and kept thinking to myself — this is him! (my hubby), this is soooo him! — a few quotes:

He is a man who, alone with God and his own conscience, examines a situation with serenity. Without grumbling, without seeking the support of others on whom he can unburden some of his responsibility, he faces circumstances and carries the consequences of his own decision with calm lucidity.

We first notice that Joseph’s silence is not empty. It is a fully occupied silence. It has content. The first thing we can learn is that there is a silence which is beneficial, a silence which does not come from distraction or from the mind’s being ‘elsewhere’, in ‘another world’, but from contemplation, which at the same time is a condition that makes interior growth possible. One cannot accommodate reflection, and even less contemplation, with verbosity.

A man who keeps quiet can listen, and a man who listens is able to learn much.

And there is also a silence implying fortitude in the silent one. Those who grumble about the contradictions that overtake them, about their ill luck; those who air their problems to the four winds; those who are always excusing themselves; those who are constantly explaining what they have done, why they have done it, what they have stopped doing, why they did not do it; those who, in the final analysis, need outside approval to feel moderately calm: these are men who have not learnt to shoulder responsibility. For to carry burdens without complaint and without letting the whole world know about them, to face personal problems without casting them on to other backs: this is to be responsible for one’s own actions and decisions without sliding out of one’s obligations with excuses and self-justification. If these point to anything, they indicate a lack of real character. This is what shows that a person has truly become a man. And there is great strength in the one who knows how to keep silent, in the one who directs the drive of his will and his attention to the situation in hand, to “the one thing necessary”, instead of allowing his energies to be dissipated in a sterile and a more or less futile way over a thousand matters which are not his concern. The words of Isaiah (30:15) could well be applied to Joseph: “in silentio et in spe erit fortitudo vestra“, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. For this silent man who hoped in God showed, in effect, his fortitude in difficult and compromising situations, bearing himself in a manner worthy of the confidence placed in him.

DH is one of those “silent types”. He doesn’t complain much, even when he’s suffering or in pain. He quietly does his work, no grumbling, no lamenting about how stressful it is or how difficult it is these days to be a family man when work demands so much of his time. He inspires me so.

1. Where/How did you meet?
Through a Filipina dentist — I was working as a secretary at the dental school, waiting for my transcript to come so I can enroll. He was a graduate student getting freebie treatment. We went to the same university in the Philippines and never met there, but Becky thought it was a great idea to have us meet since we had something in common. Oddly enough, I was supposed to have met him months before because he and his friends knew my uncle and his friends — but it just never happened!

2. How long have you known each other? Twenty years on October 17.

3. How long after you met did you start dating? Almost immediately, but since we’re Filipinos he still did the traditional courtship thing of bringing flowers and chocolates to the house. Dates were mostly group dates. But we saw each other almost every day because he insisted on bringing me and my mom home from work, so that Papa could go straight home and wouldn’t have to wait for us at the bus stop.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? Two years.

5. How long was your engagement? Oh my. A month?

6. How long have you been married? 17 years, 3 months and 4 days

7. What is your anniversary? December 15.

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? Fifty. We couldn’t afford much.

9. What kind of cake did you serve? Don’t remember really. Something with white icing, obviously. We did keep the top of the cake in the freezer for a year, and tried to eat it a year later (I don’t remember now if we finished it or not).

10. Where was your wedding? We had our first at a non-sectarian church (we wanted to get married on our “yes” anniversary (this is a Filipino thing) and that date wasn’t available for a Catholic wedding at the church. The real one at St. Anthony of Padua Church 5 weeks later. — We ended up going to the real wedding in jeans, because my grandfather died at 4 am that morning and we were all still in a state of shock. Since the guests were the same people that came to the first wedding, we figured no one would mind not dressing up.

11. What did you serve for your meal? Now this I remember! Beef wellington.

12. How many people were in your wedding party? Best man and maid of honor, that’s it. We didn’t know any little girls back then!

13. Are you still friends with them all? Yup! Best man is dh’s best friend, though they keep in touch less and less because of work and distance, and maid of honor is my cousin.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? No. That would have been weird.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? Coming home to our new apartment, where dh prepared with two stuffed bears (bride and groom, which he won at a fair for me) sitting side by side on the floor in our empty living room (we didn’t have any furniture).

16. Any funny moments? Not really.

17. Any big disasters? That day we got the heaviest snowfall that year — 2 feet of snow. So everything was pushed back two hours later. The groom had to shovel snow off the driveway so the minister could get through.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Our honeymoon was six months later, as I was still in school and it was winter and we had no money. We went to the Lake of the Ozarks and stayed at a beautiful B&B. We were actually expecting our first then and didn’t even know it!

19. How long were you gone? A week.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? Nothing really. Sometimes I think we should have saved and prepared more; but we had everything that mattered — the love, the family and friends who loved us, Christ’s Sacrament.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? We keep on switching because of all the moves — just depends on where the “light” is. I sometimes stay up at night (trying to change that now) so he’ll be in the “darker” part of the room.

22. What size is your bed? Queen up to the time we had two kids. On our 10th anniversary we got a King. We’ll get a new one on our 20th.

23. Greatest strength as a couple? We just absolutely love each other and cannot stand to be away from each other for long. We’re like dovetail joints — the other’s strengths is the other’s weaknesses and vice-versa. God really made us for each other, and we both believe that, no question.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? Time. DH’s job demands a lot. Wasn’t always that way, but this company he’s worked for for 10 years…. I’d ask him to get another job, but he’s really happiest here; he’s had other jobs before, worked for other companies, and this company knows how to treat him right and get the best out of him, so we can’t really complain.

25. Who literally pays the bills? Dh, of course. But I take care of the Quicken and online banking stuff. Actually, we just switched again. We switch every few years, when whoever’s doing it starts stressing out.

26. What is your song? Oh my. A lot. I guess the first one was “Don’t Make Me Wait for Love” by Kenny G. Other songs with significance are “All About Soul” by Kenny G which he said was his song to me, another is “Just the Way You Are”. Jim Brickman’s “The Gift” is my song to him. And we loved “Take This Love” by Sergio Mendes back when we were dating. And when we first met, the song we first discovered we both loved was “Auld Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg, even though the story wasn’t applicable to us.

27. What did you dance your first dance to? You mean at the wedding? We didn’t have dancing. There was no room, it was a small basement area of the restaurant — though the food was first rate. But dh and I love to dance, used to and still do — but now we have the living room:D. And dh has been bugging me for YEARS about going to this dance place in St. Louis everytime we’re there, but I’ve always said no (I imagine it’s a loud place with lots of drunk singles LOL), so now it’s become a joke.

28. Describe your wedding dress: A two-piece damask, very simple. One of these days I’ll post a pic.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? Red roses. He’s always given me red roses and still does.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? No.

31. How old were you when you got married? I was 21 (22 in three weeks), he was 27.