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Today is Tuesday, December 8th, 2020.

It is also the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Today we celebrate the fact that Mary, through the power of God, was sinless at her conception and remained sinless

her entire life. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was only officially declared by the

church in 1854. The church teaches that Mary is God's most perfect creation second only to the

incarnation. Also, Mary being sinless and perfect

was important because it is Mary who brought Jesus into the world. Remember also,

Sprouts, that today is a holy day of obligation, and if at all possible, the church asks us to go

to Holy Mass today. Well, this week on the Catholic

Spouts podcast, we are talking about my personal hero, St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the

loving foster father of Jesus Christ. Yesterday, we learned some facts and stories about St. Joseph,

and today we are going to explore just how prayerful

St. Joseph was. Although we don't hear a ton about St. Joseph in the gospel, there are two separate

times in the gospel when God sends his angel directly to St. Joseph with a message. This alone

makes it clear that St. Joseph was prayerful and open to God's message in his life.

The first time an angel appeared is shortly after St. Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant. He struggles

to believe what Mary tells him, that the child was divinely conceived. He decides to quietly

divorce Mary, but even then, he prays to God for guidance, and that guidance comes in a dream.

While asleep, an angel of God enters St. Joseph's dream and tells him that indeed the child was conceived through the power of God, and that the child would be the Messiah.

When he awakes, St. Joseph doesn't question the dream

or forget about the message. He gets up, takes Mary into his home, and commits himself to being

...