“Go to Joseph; I have never known anyone who turned to him and was not helped.”
— St. Teresa of Avila
📅 June 17: Feast of the Most Chaste Heart of Joseph
St. Teresa of Avila wasn't making an empty promise when she said, "Go to Joseph; I have never known anyone who turned to him and was not helped." She spent years encouraging people to trust St. Joseph because she had seen his fatherly care firsthand.
Joseph doesn't replace Jesus. He always leads us to Him. The man chosen by God to protect Mary and raise the Son of God is still a powerful intercessor for the Church today. Scripture doesn't record a single word spoken by St. Joseph, yet his actions preached faith, obedience, humility, and courage. When God asked him to do something difficult, he said yes.
Many of us carry burdens we don't know how to fix: financial stress, family struggles, fear about the future, loneliness, or loved ones who have drifted from God. St. Joseph reminds us that holiness is often lived quietly through faithfulness in ordinary life. You don't have to have all the answers. You simply have to trust God one step at a time.
💬 Have you ever asked for St. Joseph's intercession, and if so, what happened?
Someone in your life may need the hope of a spiritual father who never stops pointing hearts back to Christ.
Imagine the skill it took to make marble look wet. In The Nymph (1858), Italian sculptor Giovanni Lombardi carved solid stone to resemble water rippling around her bare feet.
Completed in 1858 for a private palazzo in Brescia, La Ninfa showcases the astonishing skill of Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Lombardi, a master of 19th-century realism who pushed marble to its limits. At a time when sculptors competed to make stone resemble fabric, flesh, and flowing water, Lombardi created a figure so lifelike it seems to react to the cold stream beneath her feet.
Though influenced by Neoclassicism, Lombardi favored sensual realism over idealized gods, focusing instead on subtle human details like shifting weight and toes pressing into a streambed. The sculpture required extreme undercutting and polishing, where a single mistake could ruin weeks of work. Commissioned for an elite patron, it also reflected a broader fascination with artistic mastery. Lombardi was part of a small group of Italian sculptors sometimes called “the illusionists,” artists who challenged marble’s hardness by making it appear soft, fluid, and alive.