Do This in Memory of Me: Die in My Love

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

“Saint Joseph is the patron and protector of a happy death. Those who pray to him are certain to die in good dispositions. He is the model of those who wish to die in the Lord. He never preached, but he gave his entire life to the service of Jesus and died in his arms. He had spent long years in the service of Jesus. With him, the family was complete.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard  (Eymard Library, Volume 8 page 101)
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Dearest Eucharistic Family,
 
How do we live out of this world and in the life of Jesus Christ? It is by the Holy Eucharist. With Mary and Saint Joseph, we have the model of the Eucharistic life.

I recall an encounter with a very holy woman of faith I knew years ago. I was pregnant with my second daughter, and this woman gently said to me, “so you are dying a second death.” It was an unusual congratulations for the news of pregnancy. However, I was already attending daily Mass and appreciated the blessing so much! Die a second death.

“For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lords.” (Romans 8:8)
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As we celebrate Father’s Day to reflect upon the greatest models of dying to self, we look to Saint Joseph and Mary. The Holy Family lived for the service of Jesus.

We read in the above excerpt Saint Joseph died in Jesus’s arms. This should be our center to live a happy death by way of Saint Joseph, now through the Eucharist. Saint Joseph will show us how to live in the seclusion of our contemplation while busy at work. The interior can be secured in God Our Father’s will, going about our daily duties in the peace of Christ while busy on earth. Here we find the way to live out of this world and in Heaven now through the Eucharist.

Yes, the privilege of bringing forth life is a call to die to self, a new death with each child, to live for another.

Our parenting comes with responsibilities that are only equipped through Christ. In our imperfections, love can still shine through, charity can find its way to a child, and they will know they are loved.

There are so many young people that are not practicing the faith, even though they came from sacrificial parents. If this is your heartbreak, please trust that all you have given your child will be made known to them by your prayer.  With hope, they will return to the faith, and the experience they have had will strengthen them evermore to discern the spirits.

Father Angelus Shaughnessy OFM Cap. has passed on. He was a favorite priest of my heart. I loved to listen to his homilies on EWTN and learned so much from him. He often shared stories of his upbringing. He was born into a large Catholic family; some of his siblings also entered religious life. He said one of his greatest memories was of his father calling his mother “Sweet love.” This is something that echoes in my mind. He said the greatest gift parents can give their children is to genuinely love each other.

​With all the challenges life may bring, financial stress, family disagreements, and sickness, Christ will get us through. Making daily Mass the center of our lives is essential to find this pathway to death, now through the Eucharist.

Saint Joseph, father and guardian of a happy death, help us now, while on earth, to die to ourselves so we may live for others and leave a mark of faith in this world by the witness of our love for the Blessed Sacrament.
Remember to wish your pastors and all the special priests in your life a Happy Father’s Day. Remember all who have served as father figures and our own fathers for doing the best they could do in raising us. We remember and pray for all who have lost their fathers to death from this life. May their presence be alive and well and with us in the Eucharist. Speak to them there in the quiet of the beating heart of Jesus Christ, where we find the relationship not gone but changed into the resurrection!

“DIE IN MY LOVE”
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Praise God Our Almighty Father 

Laura Catherine Worhacz

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament.. She is also the Director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.

Image by skalekar1992 from Pixabay