Fr. Joel

I am grateful to serve as a priest for the Diocese of Brownsville, ministering at Immaculate Conception Cathedral and its missions.

[Green Pepper @r2d2c3poacco]

「ロミオとジュリエット」のラストシーンに突如現れ、完全に看板を奪ったネコちゃん。

https://t.co/mXFgqv89uN

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Why does Mary look younger than Jesus in Michelangelo's Pietà?

The answer is one of the most beautiful in art history...

Mary is holding the body of her 33 year old son, but she looks 20. Critics noticed it the moment the sculpture was unveiled in 1499. The mother of a man who has just been crucified would have been in her late forties or early fifties. Michelangelo had carved her as a girl.

His own biographer, Ascanio Condivi, was the one who finally asked him why. The answer Michelangelo gave is preserved in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo and has been repeated for centuries: "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?"

Most modern critics treat this answer as a half-serious deflection. Michelangelo was famous for his sharp tongue and refused to explain himself to people he considered beneath his intellect.

The deeper answer is older, and it lies inside one of the greatest poems ever written. In the final canto of Dante's Paradiso, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux begins his prayer to the Virgin with one of the most extraordinary lines in Italian literature:

"Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio."
"Virgin mother, daughter of your own son."

Michelangelo, who knew Dante by heart, was carving that line into stone. Mary is younger than Jesus because Jesus is older than the universe... because she gave birth to her own creator.

But there is another reading, simpler than either of those, and it is the one I find myself thinking of today. Every mother who has held her child has held them at every age at once. The infant is still inside the toddler. The toddler is still inside the teenager. The young man on her lap, even dead, is also the boy she nursed and the baby she first carried home.

And maybe that's why Michelangelo did not carve Mary as the years had aged her. He carved her as love had kept her: outside of time, outside of grief, holding her son the way she had always held him...

Happy Mother's Day.

-- -- --

If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here:

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[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

I think driving in an old school bus through El Paso is a great way for bishops to get around; en este caso rumbo a celebrar Misa con laicos comprometidos y religiosas ayudando a la obra de Casa Anunciación.

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

In the book “The Faith of the Future," a homily by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger presents Saint Monica and her attitude toward her son Saint Augustine as the personification of the ecclesial community: a space of life, where each person’s freedom is respected and faith is never imposed.

https://t.co/k7WhpMrrMU

[Fr. Joel @eachofusisloved]

Something we began today to highlight the beauty of the Cathedral here at the Diocese of Brownsville. I am very pleased with this preview the Filmographer kindly shared today! 😌

[Matthieu Pageau @PageauMatthieu]

Here is a conversation i had (on October 6, 2025) with 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐒𝐇𝐊𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓 and 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗘 about dreams, exile, and technology, and the possibility that specialized technical knowledge may lead us into permanent foreign servitude.

https://t.co/CROoNmYmbm

[Brownsville Diocese @CatholicRGV]

¡𝙁𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝘽𝙥 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨! Let's congratulate Bp Flores on his 38th anniversary of priestly ordination. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us a priest & shepherd whom You've created in Your image. In thanksgiving, let's pray an Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be.

[Martín Dandach @MartinDandach]

Se cumple un año del último video inédito que grabó el Papa Francisco hablándole a la juventud, donde decía:

“Una de las cosas mas importantes en la vida es escuchar. Escuchen a sus abuelos, ellos nos enseñan mucho”.

A Francisco se lo va a extrañar toda la vida.

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Deacon Romeo Garcia, priestly ordination, Immaculate Conception Parish, Río Grande City.
No somos dueños de la gracia, sino ministros que nos encontramos en el centro del misterio; we are servants who find ourselves at the center of the mystery.
https://t.co/83LG0VIe2k

[Fr. Joel @eachofusisloved]

Gospel and Thought for the Day - Vatican News https://t.co/QX0MobF99R

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

One doesn't think about what one doesn't need, or what one doesn't realize one needs, which amounts to the same thing.
That's why God has to intervene.
Ordinarily, God begins with mercy.

[Razón + Fe ن @razonmasfe]

🙏 El Vaticano estudia un posible milagro atribuido a Benedicto XVI. En mayo de 2012, Peter Srsich, un joven de 19 años proveniente de Colorado, viajó a Roma con un diagnóstico devastador: un linfoma de Hodgkin avanzado que presionaba su corazón. El tumor era tan extenso que los médicos consideraban riesgoso incluso administrarle anestesia para una biopsia. A pesar de múltiples quimioterapias y un intenso sufrimiento, Peter mantenía una convicción inquebrantable: creía que podría ser sanado si lograba llegar al Vaticano.
✨ Durante la audiencia en la Plaza de San Pedro, ocurrió un momento decisivo. Sin llevar ningún obsequio preparado, el padre de Peter entregó al Papa un brazalete verde con la inscripción "Oren por Peter" y un versículo de Romanos 8,28. Cuando el joven se encontró con Benedicto XVI y pidió su bendición, el Pontífice colocó su mano derecha exactamente sobre el pecho de Peter, justo donde se encontraba el tumor, sin que nadie le hubiera indicado la ubicación precisa de la enfermedad.
⚕️ La recuperación fue completa y médicamente inexplicable. Desde ese encuentro, Peter comenzó una mejoría constante que desafió todos los pronósticos médicos. Su salud se restableció por completo, permitiéndole continuar con su vida y sus estudios. El 15 de mayo de 2021, nueve años después de aquel momento en el Vaticano, Peter Srsich fue ordenado sacerdote, cerrando un círculo de fe y sanación que ahora la Iglesia examina con el rigor y la prudencia que requieren estos casos extraordinarios.

[Vatican News @vaticannews_es]

Al inicio de la celebración, el Pontífice realizó el rito del cierre de la #PuertaSanta de la Basílica Vaticana y con ello clausuró el #Jubileo Ordinario de 2025.

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

To the priests out there, doing their best to prepare the way for the mysteries of the coming days:

Let us be free from idle distractions.
The Word of hope we desire to speak to Christ’s people is a Word He gives, and also a Word He desires us to hear.

[Peter's Barque @petersbarque]

🌹✨ NEW SONG OUT DEC 12 ✨🌹
💫 OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE 💫
Releasing on the exact day it happened.
December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe — the day the roses fell, the tilma opened, and a continent saw the Mother of God standing in the dawn.

This song tells that story.
A humble man on his way to Mass.
A Mother who calls him by name.
Roses blooming in winter.
And an image that has refused to fade for nearly five centuries.
The visuals follow the texture of the tilma itself, with a stylized Guadalupe and a consistent Juan Diego in warm, iconic, minimalist frames.
Ancient story. Modern telling. Same miracle.

Streaming everywhere Dec 12 — including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Follow and share the mission:
IG: https://t.co/ZYoE5fL0jX
X: https://t.co/inh9EFXylP
FB: https://t.co/cmEIdtRMo5
TikTok: https://t.co/CceRbO7MWn
More at https://t.co/5fDcwLWfZe
#PetersBarque #OurLadyOfGuadalupe #CatholicMusic #CatholicCreators #CatholicTok #CatholicArt #JuanDiego #Tilma #MarianDevotion #Guadalupe #FeastDay #CatholicReels #ChristianMusic #StorytellingMusic #NewRelease #Dec12 #MarianApparitions #CatholicLife #CatholicChurch

[Fr. Joel @eachofusisloved]

Gospel and Thought for the Day - Vatican News https://t.co/QX0MobFGZp

[Fr. Joel @eachofusisloved]

Gospel and Word of the Day - 02 October 2025 - Vatican News https://t.co/ff0ffh0N4P

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

Gospel of the Day (Luke 9,51-56)

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

https://t.co/Ndu6KSYPOR

[Fr. Joel @eachofusisloved]

Gospel and Word of the Day - 29 September 2025 - Vatican News https://t.co/8WlvHUXgRc