Our Lady of America

St. Joseph

On March 11, 1958, Our Lady of America spoke to Sister Mildred about St. Joseph. She said, “My holy spouse has an important part to play in bringing peace to the world.”

Husband of Mary

The Feast of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is celebrated on March 19th. From Scripture we know that the great virtue of St. Joseph was his obedient faith. “He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.” (Mt. 1:24). He did this in spite of the fact that Mary’s pregnancy was apparently visible to everyone. He took her in the mystery of her motherhood and acted in obedient faith, as did Mary when she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk. 1:38). “Blessed are they who have not seen, yet have believed.” (Jn. 20:29).

As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “The obedience of faith must be given to God as He reveals Himself. By this obedience of faith man freely commits himself entirely to God, making the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals and willingly assenting to the revelation given by Him.” St. Joseph is the model of this obedient faith.

He obeyed the command of the angel and took Mary as his wife in marriage and virginity in a communion of love with God and each other.

As the foster father of Jesus, St. Joseph showed Him all the natural love and affection of a father’s heart. He placed his life at the service of God in total self-giving for our Savior who grew up in his house. And Jesus grew “in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Lk. 2:52.)

Worker

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker is celebrated on May 1st. The Feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII in order to impress on our minds the dignity of human work and the principles according to which it should be carried on. He chose St. Joseph as the model and helper of all workers.

From the example of St. Joseph, we should learn that we work in obedience to God’s command for our earthly needs while at the same time hoping to attain our heavenly reward. He who was obedient to God’s commands and took care of the Holy Family by his skill and labor, will not fail to extend his help and protection to God’s co-workers.

On His part, Jesus “was obedient to them” (Lk. 2:51) and thereby sanctified His daily work with St. Joseph. Work was the daily expression of love in the Holy Family. Work, which was a consequence of Original Sin (see Gen. 3:17-20), was now redeemed by Jesus who labored at the workbench with St. Joseph. Work is a human good which transforms nature and makes man in a sense, more human.

Pope Pius XII decreed that the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker should be celebrated on May 1st, the traditional Workers’ Day. He hoped that St. Joseph’s patronage would promote peace between workers and their employers and end the strife that too often marred their relationship.

Pope Paul VI said, “St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies; he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things – it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic.”

Pope Pius IX declared St. Joseph to be the “Patron of the Catholic Church”. We place our confidence in his protection because he will protect the Church family just as he protected the Holy Family.

Pope John Paul II prayed, “May St. Joseph become for all of us an exceptional teacher in the service of Christ’s saving mission, a mission which is the responsibility of each and every member of the Church: husbands and wives, parents, those who live by the work of their hands or by any other kind of work, those called to the contemplative life and those called to the apostolate. . . .”

Father

The fatherhood of God is the source of human fatherhood. St. Joseph acted as the father of Jesus. Fathers are called to love and lead their families as a model of God the Father’s love for them. St. Joseph is the model father. He came to Sister Mildred and said that fathers must come to him to learn obedience to authority, the Church and the laws of their country. Fathers also must imitate his great purity of life and the deep respect that he held for his Immaculate Spouse.

On the eve of his feast, March 18, 1958, he came to Sister and said:

All Fatherhood is blest in me whom the Eternal Father chose as His representative on earth, the Virgin-Father of His own Divine Son. Through me the Heavenly Father has blessed all fatherhood, and through me He continues and will continue to do so till the end of time.

My spiritual fatherhood extends to all God’s children, and together with my Virgin Spouse I watch over them with great love and solicitude.

Fathers must come to me, small one, to learn obedience to authority: to the Church always, as the mouthpiece of God, to the laws of the country in which they live, insofar as these do no go against God and their neighbor.

Mine was perfect obedience to the Divine Will, as it was shown and made known to me by the Jewish law and religion. To be careless in this is most displeasing to God and will be severely punished in the next world.

Let fathers also imitate my great purity of life and the deep respect I held for my Immaculate Spouse. Let them be an example to their children and fellowmen, never willfully doing anything that would cause scandal among God’s people.

Fatherhood is from God, and it must take once again its rightful place among men.

Peacemaker

In confirmation of Our Lady’s statement that St. Joseph “has an important part to play in bringing peace to the world”, he told Sister Mildred on his feast day, March 19, 1958:

Dear child, I was king in the little home of Nazareth, for I sheltered within it the Prince of Peace and the Queen of Heaven. To me they looked for protection and sustenance, and I did not fail them.

I received from them the deepest love and reverence, for in me they saw Him Whose place I took over them.

So the head of the family must be loved, obeyed, and respected, and in return be a true father and protector to those under his care.

In honoring in a special way my fatherhood, you also honor Jesus and Mary. The Divine Trinity has placed into our keeping the peace of the world.

The imitation of the Holy Family, my child, of the virtues we practiced in our little home at Nazareth is the way for all souls to that peace which comes from God alone and which none other can give.

One way of honoring St. Joseph’s request to model our family life on that of the Holy Family is to pray as a family. Our Lady told Sister that “Making the Rosary a family prayer is very pleasing to me. I ask that all families strive to do so.” (Diary 21). She also promised her protection to the family that honors her. Sister said that “. . . Our Lady also requested a picture or statue of herself as she appeared [as Our Lady of America] . . . to be honored and venerated in every Christian home.” (Diary 26).

His Pure Heart

Sister Mildred saw the pure heart of St. Joseph. She said, “It seemed to be lying on a cross which was of brown color. It appeared to me that at the top of the heart, in the midst of the flames pouring out, was a pure white lily. Then I heard these words: ‘Behold this pure heart so pleasing to Him who made it.’ ”

In early October, 1956, St. Joseph told Sister Mildred that from the moment of his conception, his pure heart was inflamed with love of God and that he was freed from original sin immediately after his conception. He said:

It is true my daughter, that immediately after my conception, I was, through the future merits of Jesus and because of my exceptional role of future Virgin-Father, cleansed from the stain of original sin.

I was from that moment confirmed in grace and never had the slightest stain on my soul. This is my unique privilege among men.

My pure heart also was from the first moment of existence inflamed with love for God. Immediately, at the moment when my soul was cleansed from original sin, grace was infused in to it in such abundance that, excluding my holy spouse, I surpassed the holiness of the highest angel in the angelic choir.

Jesus and Mary desire that the pure heart of St. Joseph be honored by a special devotion to him on the First Wednesday of the month. On March 30, 1958, he appeared to Sister Mildred and said:

I am the protector of the Church and the home, as I was the protector of Christ and His Mother while I lived upon earth. Jesus and Mary desire that my pure heart, so long hidden and unknown, be now honored in a special way. Let my children honor my most pure heart in a special manner on the First Wednesday of the month by reciting the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in memory of my life with Jesus and Mary and the love I bore them, the sorrow I suffered with them. Let them receive Holy Communion in union with the love with which I received the Savior for the first time and each time I held Him in my arms.

Those who honor me in this way will be consoled by my presence at their death, and I myself will conduct them safely into the presence of Jesus and Mary.

His Co-Redemption

Our redemption was merited solely by the passion and death of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (See Heb. 9:15; Tim 2:5). By His redemption, He paid the full price to satisfy God’s justice and to buy us back from the consequences of sin, death and the loss of heaven caused by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. By His redemption, He merited for all humanity the supernatural life of grace and our salvation and the glory of heaven. This is the objective redemption.

However, these graces must be applied to us through our following in Christ’s footsteps on our earthly pilgrimage. Jesus said that “if a man wished to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps”. (Mt. 16:24). As the Cyrenean helped Jesus to carry His Cross, so we must join our efforts to His and participate in His redemptive work.

This is the subjective redemption by which, according to Christ’s will, all of the members of the Church, His Mystical Body, follow His footsteps in cooperation with His redemptive works so that the graces merited by Him may be applied to His greater glory. This is what Saint Paul meant when he said, “In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body, the Church.” (Col. 1:24).

Jesus is the only Redeemer because He alone is the mediator between God and men. However, He has willed to take into partnership in His redemptive work all of those whom He redeemed in order that the merciful work of His love may shine forth through us.

This merciful work of love is shared by all of us who united our sufferings with Christ and thereby “fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ…” (Col. 1:24).

Our Lady followed in her Son’s footsteps and cooperated in the objective redemption and still cooperates in the subjective redemption. Therefore she can be called our Co-Redemptrix. Her role is as perfect Leader and Mediatrix in the subjective redemption of humanity applying the graces merited by her Son, with her cooperation, in the accomplished objective redemption.

Pope Benedict XV wrote in Inter Sodalica (1918):

With her suffering and dying Son, Mary endured suffering and almost death. She gave up her Mother’s rights over her Son to procure the salvation of mankind, and to appease the divine justice, she, as much as she could, immolated her Son, so that one can truly affirm that together with Christ she has redeemed the human race.

As the Fall of man came about through the cooperation of Adam and Eve in the Original Sin, so did the restoration of man come about through the cooperation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the Redemption.

On February 11, 1958, Our Lady told Sister Mildred, “I am the Mother of the sacred humanity, and it is my special work as Co-Redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach the sanctity of the Father in eternal union by showing them how to put on Christ, to imbibe His Spirit, and thus become one with Him.”

In early October, 1956, St. Joseph told Sister Mildred:

My heart suffered with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Mine was a silent suffering, for it was my special vocation to hide and shield as long as God willed, the Virgin Mother and Son from the malice and hatred of men.

The most painful of my sorrows was that I knew beforehand of their passion, yet would not be there to console them.

Their future suffering was ever present to me and became my daily cross. I became, in union with my holy spouse, Co-Redemptor of the human race. Through compassion for the sufferings of Jesus and Mary I co-operated, as no other, in the salvation of the world.