Faith

For the first two decades of my life, the song “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go” meant, among other things, being treated to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of my maternal grandmother.

There’s a fourth-century prayer to St. Joseph that concludes, “St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you with Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press him close in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us.” It’s a tender image, and the ancient sentiment resonates today: Joseph as protector, even to death.

Q) I messed up in some pretty big ways in my life. I made some decisions that have wrecked relationships and have done significant damage to myself. I’ve been to confession, and I know that God in his mercy has forgiven me. But I can’t seem to be able to forgive myself. What do I do?

“It’s the end of the world as we know it; it’s the end of the world as we know it; it’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” Every year at this time of the year, that R.E.M. tune rattles about my head. As we approach the end of the Church calendar, our readings speak to the End Times.

The institution of marriage existed before the time of Jesus, and he raised it to the level of sacrament. He did this through his teaching on the ideals of marriage as well as his endorsement of marriage by his attendance at the Cana wedding feast. Moreover, as a child and a young man, he lived with a married couple, Mary and Joseph, and he was greatly blessed by the goodness of their marriage, and he experienced firsthand the beauty of married love.

Q) Why do Catholics offer Masses for the dead?

Whenever October rolls around, I find myself feeling strangely fearful, apprehensive at some unknown darkness lurking nearby. It’s not the fear of the onset of winter, nor even of the glorified evil that shows its face around Halloween. I discovered some years ago that October reminds me of the fear of losing what I have loved. My mother died in October 46 years ago, as did a close college friend that same October. Ever since, October reminds me of the fearful pain of losing what I once loved.

Q) I find myself consistently becoming more and more aware of the good things in other people's lives — and the lack of good things in my life. The demands of work and family and taking care of my parents is really weighing on me.