Author: Pflaum

We have been told repeatedly that Joseph was a poor man. In fact, except for his marriage to Mary, that’s probably the one thing that we all swear as fact. […]

Many significant sites from the life of Jesus await a pilgrim to the Holy Land. One can walk the Way of the Cross, visit the Upper Room, peer into the […]

It’s a no-brainer, right? Joseph was a carpenter. The Gospels tell us he was a carpenter. Tradition tells us he was a carpenter. End of discussion. Not so fast. The […]

It’s hard not to bring our own cultural experiences to our vision of Joseph. When we combine that with the gloss of theology that has built up over the centuries, […]

Our vision of the Nativity assumes that the shepherds were the first to see Jesus. Like the ideas that Jesus was born in a stable/shed or that Joseph acted as […]

Most Americans put on the green on March 17, Saint Patrick’s Day, but just two days later—March 19—is the Feast of Saint Joseph. Celebrated especially in Sicily, the Solemnity of […]

Artists almost always show Mary, Joseph, and the new-born Jesus all alone—except for a cow, a donkey, and eventually some sheep and scruffy shepherds. Like the idea of Jesus being […]

Our traditional Nativity scenes show the Holy Family in a drafty, often three-sided stable, in some desolate location. While scholars debate if Jesus was really born in Bethlehem and in […]

Our historical information about Joseph is limited, but the pious legends that have developed over the centuries abound because humans long to know the “rest of the story.” The Protoevangelium […]

We are told in Matthew 1:18 that Joseph was betrothed to Mary. Betrothal is a confusing concept especially for those in Western cultures. In biblical times, it was a serious […]