Thursday, September 03, 2009

Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Someone left a child's book about Mary in the vestibule of my church. I read it and the first couple of chapters were charming but because the author was a member of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Feeney's group, I was cautious. And sure enough there was a problem. The author seemed to have a tremendous issue with Jews. When the book got to St. Joseph it states that God chose him for Mary because the saint was not a typical Jew in that he did not take part in the pursuit of money or power. Can you say stereotype, boys and girls? St. Joseph was not tycoon, obviously but he didn't work for free. He didn't go skipping around Nazareth with daisies and daydreams. Mary and Jesus lived off of what he made so I'm certain that he was quite serious about getting paid for his work.

The book then went on to state that St. Joseph went to the synagogue but had no official position there since he was not a show off. He even had (according to the book a gentile type job because Jews weren't good builders! I wonder who the author thought built all the houses and buildings in Israel. I almost never throw a book into the trash. I'll donate them, give them to friends or sell them but this thing had so little redeeming value I just couldn't pass it on to anyone else.