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Returning back to the front of the Church, we now look at the windows at the lower level.  The first stained glass window is that of Saint Mary Magdalen.  Saint Mary Magdalene is one of the most appealing characters in the Gospels.  Only a few details about her appear, yet Christians know her as a woman of great love, desire and unwavering loyalty.  She was born at Magdala, near Tiberias, in Galilee.  Saint Clement of Alexandria and others identify her with the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears.  Others regard her as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.                  
Mary Magdalen stood beside Jesus while he was dying on the Cross.  With Mary, his mother, and a few other disciples, she watched helplessly as the one she loved suffered through the dark hours of Good Friday.  Then, with the others, she prepared his dead body for burial in the tomb.

Early Easter morning, she returned anxiously to his tomb to complete the burial anointing, only find his body gone.  She began to weep believing his mortal body had been stolen.  Through her tears, she suddenly saw a man standing beside her whom she thought was a gardener.  When He spoke her name, she knew He was Jesus, risen from the dead!  “Mary” Jesus said to her.  “Rabboni!  Teacher!”  Mary joyfully responded.  Then Jesus spoke these mysterious words, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”

We can see Jesus, not rejecting her at this joyous moment, but readying her, who followed Him so devotedly in life, for following Him now in faith.  Reach out and cling to me now by faith, He seems to say.  Touch me with the hand of your faith, seek me with eyes of faith, run towards me with limbs of faith.  Now I will never be far from you.  I am forever in your heart.

“I have seen the Lord,” Mary proclaimed to the disciples.  Her experience of the Lord, in His ministry, in the desolate hours on Calvary, in the brightening hours of Easter morning, echo through the centuries to strengthen out faith.  She loved much, and through her love she found the God she sought.

The Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene is celebrated on July 22^nd by the Greeks as well as the Roman Rite.    However, in the instructions given with the latest edition of the Roman Calendar, the Latin Church has stipulated that the Feast is solely that of the woman to whom Christ appeared and not that of the sister of Lazarus or the penitent woman.  As you gaze upon Saint Mary Magdalene, join in prayer “God, it was to Saint Mary Magdalene before all others that Your Son committed the message of Easter joy.  Through her intercessions may we one day contemplate Him reigning in glory.  Amen.”

Beloved Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Mother and earthly father of Jesus is in the next stained glass window.  As the pure spouse of Mary, and foster father of our Blessed Lord, Saint Joseph descended from the royal house of David.  He is the “just man” of the New Testament, the lowly village carpenter of Nazareth, who among all men of the world was the one chosen by God to be the husband and protector of the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate.  To his faithful, loving care was entrusted the childhood and youth of the Redeemer of the world.

After the Mother of God, not one of the children of men was ever so gifted and adorned with natural and supernatural virtues as was Saint Joseph, her spouse.  In purity of heart, in chastity of life, in humility, patience, fortitude, gentleness and manliness of character, he reveals to us the perfect type and model of the true Christian.

Poor and obscure in this world’s possessions and honors, he was rich in grace and merit, and eminent before God in the nobility and beauty of holiness.  Because Saint Joseph was the representative of the Eternal Father on earth, the divinely appointed head of the Holy Family, which was the beginning of the great Family of God, the Church of Christ, on December 8, 1870, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, Pope Pius IX, solemnly proclaimed the foster father of Jesus as Patron of the Universal Church, and from that time his Feast has been celebrated on March 19^th as a Feast of High Rank.  In some places, it is observed as a Holy Day of Obligation.

Devotion to Saint Joseph, fervent in the East from the early ages, has in later times spread and increased in such a marvelous way that in our day the Catholics of all nations vie with one another in honoring him.  Besides the feat of March 19^th, there is another Feast, that of Saint Joseph the Worker, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In an address to the Catholic Association of Italian Workers, on May 1, 1955, Pope Pius XII proclaimed “May Day” the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker.  “May Day” is to be a day of rejoicing for the concrete and progressive triumph of the Christian ideals of the great family of labor.”  The humble carpenter of Nazareth, is now honored above all other men as the personification of the dignity of the manual laborer and the provident guarding of the work’s family.  Promulgated in 1955, it replaced the older “Solemnity of Saint Joseph” which had been celebrated since 1847 – first as the “Patronage of Saint Joseph” on the third Sunday after Easter and after 1913 as the “Solemnity of Saint Joseph” on the Wednesday before the third Sunday after Easter.  Pope John XXIII inserted the name of Saint Joseph in the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I.

From his throne of glory in heaven, Saint Joseph watches over and protects the Church militant, and no one who calls on him in need ever calls in vain.  He is the model of a perfect Christian life and the patron of a happy death.  His patronage extends over the Mystical Body of Christ, over the Christian family, the Christian school, and all individuals who in their need appeal to his charity and powerful intercession, especially in the hour of death; for he who, when dying, received the affectionate ministry of his foster Son, Jesus, and his Virgin spouse, Mary, may well be trusted to obtain for us the mercy of God and the grace of a peaceful and holy death.  Prayer: “Almighty God, You entrusted to the faithful care of Joseph the beginnings of the mysteries of man’s salvation.  Through his intercession may Your Church always be faithful in in her service so that Your designs will be fulfilled.  Amen.”

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