Your father and I had already bought the two turtle doves for the sacrifice when, suddenly, an old holy man came forward and took you from my arms. He held you very gently and his face lit up as he proclaimed that he was ready to die because now he had seen God's salvation for all and the glory of God's people.

As I reflected on the image, I was very conscious that we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord today. Christ is immersed into the waters of His baptism to reveal to each one of us His great loves for us. As He does so, the voice of the Father break forth, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.’ (Mark 1:11) Christ then sets forth on His mission

They called him the good thief; and someone, somewhere at some time gave him the name Dismas. It is a dismal sounding name. Perhaps, I thought, it is so because of the sadness of his life? I only recently learned Dismas is a name given to him in the gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal writing, and the name means sunset or death. We do not know his age or his village. We do not know his crime, although over the centuries he has been called the good thief.

My father always said that I did more and better work than two grown men could do. It wasn't difficult for me because I suppose that I was a bit of a perfectionist. I liked things done quickly, efficiently, and tidily and, as we weren't well off, I was very useful about our little holding. But I found later that, riches don't make a person good or happy, and on the whole my family was both. We were faithful to the law and we all cared about each other and that was enough.

Monday, March 19, is the feast of St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary. It is a feast of great importance in the Church. Without Joseph’s loving trust as husband of Mary our faith story would be very different. Let us take a few moments with St. Joseph today in prayer. As we say our daily prayer with St. Joseph for Vocations perhaps we might do so in a more intense way today