is St. Joseph. He is the patron saint of the Universal Church and the foster father of the Savior of the world.

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The point of these three stories is certainly not that in order to make a difference in the world you have to be an activist priest, a missionary sister, or a layman raised up to be the guardian of the Redeemer Himself! But notice how the Lord used each of these three people in ways far beyond what any of them could have expected. Bartolome Las Casas was providentially put into contact with what was happening on the other side of the world, originally by his father's desire for wealth, and the Lord used Bartolome's subsequent firsthand knowledge of the situation of the indigenous peoples in theNew World — and his writing skills — to overturn terrible injustices being perpetrated in the Spanish Empire. Mother Cabrini entrusted her daydreams of missionary adventures to our Lord when it appeared that they could never be fulfilled, and Christ used the scheming of Monsignor Serrati, the words of the Pope (who, no doubt, had been prepped by the Bishop of Piacenza), and the further (well-intentioned) conspiracy of Cardinal Tuto and the sisters to make her life bear fruit beyond her imagining. As for St. Joseph, he died before ever seeing the full fruition of his labors, but he had the assurance of the angel who had come to him in a dream and told him that his Son would be named "Jesus" (which means "God saves") because