Welcome to
Saint Joseph Parish
8 Robinson Avenue
Danbury, Connecticut 06810-5517
Telephone Number:  (203) 748-8177

Reverend Samuel V. Scott, Pastor 
Reverend David W. Franklin, Parochial Vicar
Reverend Raymond M. Scherba, Part-Time Parochial Vicar 
Deacon Donald J. Naiman

Parish Office Hours 
Monday - Friday 
9:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. 
 

All bulletin notices should be email to Kathee Meerman

recstjoseph@yahoo.com

Monsignor Charles M. Murphy
Will be speaking on Mystical Prayer
Monday, September 23, 2019
7:00 p.m.  in the Church

Monsignor Charles M. Murphy will be speaking in the metro New York area for the first time on his new book, "Mystical Prayer: The Poetic Example of Emily Dickinson."  Please join us on Monday evening, September 23, 2019, in the Church for this spiritual topic.  He will also be interviewed by Cardinal Dolan on Sirius XM Satellite Radio on Tuesday, September 24. 

Mystical Prayer

The Poetic Example of Emily Dickinson
Charles M. Murphy

In this book, Charles Murphy explores the still unfolding rediscovery of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), our foremost American poet, as a mystic of profound depth and ambition. She declined publication of almost all of her hundreds of poems during her lifetime, describing them as a record of her wrestling with God, who, in the Puritan religious tradition she received, she found cold and remote. Murphy places Dickinson's writings within the Christian mystical tradition exemplified by St. Teresa of Avila and identifies her poems as expressions of what he terms theologically as "believing unbelief." Dickinson's experiences of love and her confrontation with human mortality drove her poetic insights and led to her discovery of God in the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

Monsignor Charles Murphy, PA, STD, is former rector of the North American College in Rome and, among other pastoral responsibilities in the Diocese of Portland, Maine, founded the permanent diaconate program. He is the author of several books, including At Home on Earth: Foundations for a Catholic Ethic of the Environment, Wallace Stevens: A Spiritual Poet in a Secular Age, and Belonging to God: A Personal Training Guide for the Deeper Catholic Spiritual Life. He holds a bachelor's degree in Latin and Greek from the College of the Holy Cross, a master's degree from Harvard, and the doctorate in sacred theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.