Today, of course, is the great Feast of Saint Joseph, the Chaste Spouse of Our Lady, the just and silent man of the House of David. Saint Joseph denied himself his biological fatherhood in order to serve as the ever-virginal spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the most loving foster-father to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In him, Saint Joseph, is to be found every virtue for a husband and father to imitate: patience, charity, forbearance in all difficulties, fortitude, perseverance, temperance, and total self-abnegation. Those of us who are husbands and fathers must learn to be more silent, to learn to be more loving, to learn to be more patient, to learn to be more meek, to learn to be ever-ready to worker harder and harder at our life's work so as to help our wives and our children to live as redeemed creatures here below in order to know eternal happiness hereafter in Heaven. Saint Joseph is the model of home life and the patron of artisans, the protector of widows and orphans, the patron of those who are in danger of death. May we invoke his patronage each day after we invoke that of his Most Chaste Spouse, Our Lady, and never be slow to turn to him in our spiritual and temporal needs:
"O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in thee all my interests and desires. O thou Saint Joseph, do assist me by thy powerful intercession, and obtain for me from thy divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; so that, having engaged here below thy heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers. O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating thee, and Jesus asleep in thy arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near thy heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. Saint Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for me. Amen!"
A blessed Feast of Saint Joseph to you all!
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
An original article, Jorge's Guide to Clerical Malformation: Textbook Modernism, was posted at Midnight yesterday and tweaked a bit about fifteen hours later.