March 19 is Father’s Day in Italy. Why March 19? Because it’s universally the feast of St. Joseph, patron of fathers. So, wish your beloved, your pastor ( a spiritual father) and men who are godfathers, mentor or work with youth (spiritual fathers) a happy father’s day, and send them this link to a previous entry on St. Joseph (includes a talk I’ve given).

(Note: It’s a solemnity in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, so you can ease off your Lenten fast a little March 19!)

Other links:

• Catholic Culture on St. Joseph & his feast
• Scripture readings for the feast day
• Saints Online: St. Joseph
• About the swallows that return on St. Joseph’s Day

Remember to pray for fathers (spiritual and biological), people with Joseph as their namesake (Joseph, Josephines, & other Joseph-related names), workers, and especially for the underemployed (my husband and me!) and unemployed, seminarians, and also these, of which St. Joseph is also the patron:

Against doubt; against hesitation; Americas; Austria; Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; California; Belgium; Bohemia; bursars; cabinetmakers; Canada; Carinthia; carpenters; China; confectioners; craftsmen; Croatian people (in 1687 by decree of the Croatian parliament) dying people; emigrants; engineers; expectant mothers; families; Florence, Italy; happy death; holy death; house hunters; immigrants; interior souls; Korea; laborers; Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin; Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky; Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire; Mexico; Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee; New France; New World; Oblates of Saint Joseph; people in doubt; people who fight Communism; Peru; pioneers; protection of the Church; Diocese of San Jose, California; diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; social justice; Styria, Austria; travelers; Turin Italy; Tyrol Austria; unborn children Universal Church; Vatican II; Vietnam; Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston West Virginia; wheelwrights; workers.