June 30th
“Jesus and Mary themselves obey and offer their homage to Joseph, for the reverence what the hand of God has established in him, namely, the authority of spouse and the authority of father.”
-Pope Pius XI
Tag Archives: Saint Joseph
Great confidence
June 29th
At a difficult time in the Church’s history, Pope Pius IX, wishing to place her under the powerful patronage of the holy patriarch Joseph, declared him “Patron of the Catholic Church.”(42) For Pius IX this was no idle gesture, since by virtue of the sublime dignity which God has granted to his most faithful servant Joseph, “the Church, after the Blessed Virgin, his spouse, has always held him in great honor and showered him with praise, having recourse to him amid tribulations.”(43)
What are the reasons for such great confidence? Leo XIII explained it in this way: “The reasons why St. Joseph must be considered the special patron of the Church, and the Church in turn draws exceeding hope from his care and patronage, chiefly arise from his having been the husband of Mary and the presumed father of Jesus…, Joseph was in his day the lawful and natural guardian, head and defender of the Holy Family…. It is thus fitting and most worthy of Joseph’s dignity that, in the same way that he once kept unceasing holy watch over the family of Nazareth, so now does he protect and defend with his heavenly patronage the Church of Christ.”(44)
“This patronage [of St. Joseph] must be invoked as ever necessary for the Church, not only as a defense against all dangers, but also, and indeed primarily, as an impetus for her renewed commitment to evangelization in the world and to re-evangelization in those lands and nations where-as I wrote in the Apostolic Exhortation Christideles Laici – “religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and…are now put to a hard test.”(45)
In order to bring the first proclamation of Christ, or to bring it anew wherever it has been neglected or forgotten, the Church has need of special “power from on high” (cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8): a gift of the Spirit of the Lord, a gift which is not unrelated to the intercession and example of his saints.”
Expressions of trust
June 28th
“Joseph found happiness not in mere self-sacrifice but in self-gift. In him, we never see frustration but only trust. His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust. Our world today needs fathers. It has no use for tyrants who would domineer others as a means of compensating for their own needs. It rejects those who confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction.
Every true vocation is born of the gift of oneself, which is the fruit of mature sacrifice. The priesthood and consecrated life likewise require this kind of maturity. Whatever our vocation, whether to marriage, celibacy or virginity, our gift of self will not come to fulfillment if it stops at sacrifice; were that the case, instead of becoming a sign of the beauty and joy of love, the gift of self would risk being an expression of unhappiness, sadness and frustration.”
APOSTOLIC LETTER “PATRIS CORDE” OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF ST JOSEPH, PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
The interior life
June 27th
“Saint Joseph…is a teacher of the interior life. Place yourself under his patronage and you’ll feel the effectiveness of his power.”
-St. Josemaria Escriva
The plan of salvation
June 26th
“The greatness of Saint Joseph is that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus. In this way, he placed himself, in the words of Saint John Chrysostom, “at the service of the entire plan of salvation.”
Faith does not falter
June 25th
“Joseph’s faith does not falter, he obeys quickly and to the letter.”
-St. Josemaria Escriva
Safest refuge in trials
June 24th
“Be in good spirits under the fatherly mantle of St. Joseph,
a place of safest refuge in trials and tribulations.”
-St. Joseph Marello
The path of virtue
June 23rd
“I take refuge in thy arms [St. Joseph],
so that thou mayest lead me in the the path of virtue.”
-St. Clement Mary Hofbauer
To save a life
June 22nd
“To give life to someone is the greatest of all gifts. To save a life is the next. Who gave life to Jesus? It was Mary. Who saved his life? It was Joseph. Ask St. Paul who persecuted him. Ask St. Peter who denied him. Ask all the saints who put him to death. But if we ask, ‘Who saved his life?’ Be silent, patriarchs, be silent, prophets, be silent, apostles, confessors, and martyrs. Let St. Joseph speak, for this honor is his alone; he along is the savior of his Savior.”
-Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
His glorious son
June 21st
“Nothing will be refused him [St. Joseph],
neither by Our Lady nor by his glorious son.”
-St. Francis de Sales
