Exiit qui seminat

As I was trying to figure out what I was going to write for this week's column, I happened upon a refection on both St. Patrick and St. Joseph by Bishop Robert Barron from 2017 (if you're interested in reading that article you can find it here: https://www.wordonfre.org/artcles/ barron/st-patrick-st-joseph-and-the-conversionthat-makes-all-the-diference/). Bishop Baron writes that the patron saint of Ireland and the protecter of the universal Church and of Italians everywhere have a lot in common. Both the lives of St. Patrick and St. Joseph were flled with adversity: St. Patrick being kidnapped and made a slave and St. Joseph having to wrap his head around the birth of Jesus and everything that went along with it (including escaping to Egypt). Both saints were not bogged down nor became jaded from their circumstances, but instead, used their hardships as fuel and motivation to fulfill God's plans for their lives. St. Patrick became a missionary to the land of his enslavement. St. Joseph, regardless of the drama and circumstances, obeyed the Lord's command and became foster father of the Savior of the world. We, too, are shaped by not only the good experiences of our lives, but the difficult ones too. As ordinary people, we can easily let what happens to us to make us cynical and hardened. But as people of faith, we are called to be and to become something more, something greater. What is the adversity that has defined us? Are we weighed down by the weight of those moments or have we "baptized" them like St. Patrick and St. Joseph and made them moments of conversion for ourselves and those around us! San Giuseppe prega per noi! Naomh Pádraig guí ar ár son!