March-April 2024

(48 pages)

Glorious Saint Joseph, Our Model, by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God              Page 71

Representative of God the Father – Preparation through fidelity – Trial of Saint Joseph – The joys and sorrows of Saint Joseph – Decline and renewal – Go to Joseph! – In Honor of Saint Joseph (Hymn by Saint Louis Mary de Montfort)

Saint Joseph, Patron of Canada – 4^th centennial  …82

I. Saint Joseph in New France (1624-1760)        83

The pioneers – Impasse – The Consecration – Immediate effects – Patriarch of the Hurons – Vow of 1635 and feast of March 19 – What devotion to Saint Joseph did in one soul – Saint Joseph and the Ursulines – Saint Joseph and the Hospitaller Sisters – Saint Joseph in Ville-Marie – Keeping the flame alive

II. From the Conquest to the Present Day            99

Saint Joseph and Bishop Bourget – Saint Joseph in the Canadian West – Saint Joseph, Protector of Christianity – The story of a poor Brother – In the spotlight – Devotion and spirit of faith – St. Joseph’s Oratory – The ultimate sacrifice – Epilogue

Renewal of the Consecration of Canada and of the Church to Saint Joseph, by Gregory XVIII – March 19, 2024 115

Our cover:  Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church

It is clear that God’s intention is to pour His grace abundantly into the hearts of His children through the mediation of the holy Patriarch Joseph.  While He is ready to heal bodies of the illnesses and infirmities that torture them, He wants the renewal of souls even more, through the imitation of the virtues so dear to the heart of Joseph, as well as to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary:  humility and meekness, purity, justice and charity, obedience to the Sovereign Master and to His representatives on earth.  This must be the essential character of our devotion to the first Patron of Canada.

Fr. Édouard Lecompte, s.j., Saint Joseph, premier Patron du Canada (Saint Joseph, First Patron of Canada)