The successful marriage:

In pondering, or, thinking deeply about St. Josephs role in the lives of Mary & Jesus, I couldn’t help but write today about The Surrogate Spouse.

St Joseph provided for Mary & Jesus, the earthly needs along with the spiritual needs, to his ability, and was head of the household in the world. He was a carpenter, who in his day, earned a living and provided a home for Mama Mary and the Child Jesus. Although the Holy Spirit is the true spouse of Mary, through the union of providing her with THE Son, The Surrogate Spouse was needed to provide for the needs in other ways. Companionship comes to mind. The need for him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt. The need to provide for food and shelter and someone to be there as a protector from the world. But a companion who also shared the faith in God. I couldn’t see Mary being a working mother in the sense of having to ditch her motherly duty’s to provide for herself and the Son. Placing oneself in the working world, places more temptations on the soul, that I don’t believe God wanted her exposed to.

Although the Holy Family shared a household, the true bond that was the center of their lives, was God. Mary, spouse of the Holy Spirit in all her humility, did everything for God and St. Joseph because of his faith, tasted the harvest along with the rest of us. Meaning, her deep love for God drew her into a deeper humility with every action she performed. Every work of her hand, changing diapers, cleaning, holding the Child, feeding, teaching, came from being obedient to God, and was contributing to the relationship of Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

How do we make our marriage with our spouse in this world successful?

Know that our Lord is the Spouse of your soul. If everything is done for Him, and you are in love with Him, every relationship you have in life, will be born in humility and love for Him. If the union of two, is not tied to the Third (God) and the Third placed above the two, the union becomes tiresome. The union of the two becomes easily led astray. Nit picking about everything become yelling and screaming with that comes deaf ears and selfishness. Followed by divorce of self from the relationship.

When God is the focus, love is unending as God is the powerhouse where love is generated from to share with each other. Therefore forgiveness comes from the Creator and it is much easier then for the two, to offer it to each other. Life becomes much more easy and less burdensome when everything you do, you do for God.

Your relationship with others stems from your relationship with God who seeks a personal relationship with you first. He is your first love. He gave you life. When He is made The Spouse in your marriage, and your spouse becomes the Surrogate and I do NOT in any way mean by the flesh, you come to understand He is the only one who knows whats in your heart and where your efforts to love more are coming from and going to. Even when they are overlooked by your spouse, you know He knows and you are satisfied. Love is never wasted when placed back in the hands of God. “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”