The book, The Month of St. Joseph, presents daily considerations for the month of March in the form of meditations and practical examples. The example for today is as follows.

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EXAMPLE

Father Lallemand, who was for some years Rector of the Jesuit College at Bourges, called two of the young professors on the occasion of the Feast of St. Joseph which the students were preparing to celebrate, and promised each of them to obtain some grace that they wished for, on the condition that they would exhort their pupils to be very devout to St. Joseph. The two professors willingly agreed to the proposal, and their exhortations were so effectual, that on the Feast of St. Joseph every student in the two classes received Holy Communion.

In the course of the day the two professors went to the Rector’s room and told him in private what the grace was that they wished to obtain. The first who spoke was no other than the celebrated Father Nouet, and the grace he asked for was that he might be able to write and speak of our Lord in a manner that would be worthy of Him. The grace which the second professor asked is not known, but he declared that his request had been granted. The day after the Feast, Father Nouet returned to the Rector and told him he had changed his mind, and thought that he ought to ask for a grace that would be of more use in helping him in the path of perfection. The Rector replied that it was too late, for St. Joseph had already obtained the grace he had first asked for.

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This anecdote comes from the Month of St. Joseph by Abbé Berlioux, originally published in English in the year 1887. This book contains meditations and an example story for each day of the month. In an effort to preserve short inspiring stories from our Catholic past, every day for the month of March you can find the example story for the day published on the website under people/stories.

The same author also published similar books for the months of, May (Our Lady), June (Sacred Heart), and November (Holy Souls). We are planning to post the stories for these months in the future and are working with Mediatrix Press to re-publish these as a four book collection, so be sure to check back. The Month of St. Joseph is available now.