Episode Details

It's the Feast of XII Sun of Pentecost, 2nd Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: "From Jerusalem to Jericho", today's news from the Church: "Heaven Is a Gift, Never a Right", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org

Sources Used Today:

• "From Jerusalem to Jericho" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
  • https://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption
  
  
• "Heaven Is a Gift, Never a Right" (FSSPX.news)
  • https://fsspx.news/en/news/heaven-gift-never-right-60519
  
  
• The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
  • https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop
  
  

Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:

• Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
• Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook

Saint Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandfather of Our Lord, occupies a quiet but important place in the history of salvation. Much of the tradition surrounding him comes from early Christian writings, which describe Joachim as a devout and generous man who gave abundantly to God and to the poor. After years of childlessness, he and Saint Anne prayed and fasted for a child. Their prayers were answered with the birth of Mary, whom they later presented to God for service in the Temple.

The Church’s liturgy has honored Saint Joachim for centuries, although his feast has appeared on several different dates. In the traditional Roman calendar, it is celebrated on August 16, immediately following the Assumption. That placement is significant. Throughout much of the Church’s liturgical tradition, Joachim’s feast has been deliberately placed near a feast of his daughter, emphasizing that his greatness as a saint is intimately connected with his fatherhood.

The traditional Mass for Saint Joachim develops this theme beautifully. He is praised as the blessed man who fears the Lord, gives generously to the poor, and whose descendants will be blessed. The Gospel recounts the genealogy of Christ, reminding us that Joachim’s ordinary, natural fatherhood became part of God’s extraordinary plan for the Redemption.

Perhaps the most beautiful image comes in the Communion antiphon, where Joachim is presented as the “faithful and wise steward” placed over his master’s household. He fulfilled that stewardship above all by preparing his daughter for God. Together with Saint Anne, he offered Mary to the Lord, helping prepare the woman who would become the Mother of God.

Saint Joachim therefore offers a particularly powerful example for fathers. Fatherhood is a stewardship. A father receives his children from God, forms them, protects them, and ultimately prepares them not merely for success in this world, but for their vocat