From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Excerpt from sermon on St Joseph   
      
   St Bernardine of Siena reflected that St Joseph “is verily the key   
   which unlocked the treasures of the Church of the Old Testament, for   
   in his person all the excellence of Patriarchs and Prophets comes to   
   the completion of achievement, seeing that he alone enjoyed in this   
   life the full fruition of what God had been pleased to promise   
   aforetime to them. It is therefore with good reason that we see a type   
   of him in that Patriarch Joseph who stored up corn for the people. But   
   the second Joseph has a more excellent dignity than the first, seeing   
   that the first gave to the Egyptians bread only for the body, but the   
   second was, on behalf of all the elect, the watchful guardian of that   
   Living Bread which came down from Heaven, of which whosoever eats will   
   never die”   
   -- St Bernardine of Siena (Sermon on St Joseph).   
      
      
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   March 19th - St. Joseph   
      
   In one sense, St. Joseph has shared the lot of all human fathers.   
   Mothers are wont to receive the most praise for their offspring, and   
   husbands remain background figures. Of course there were other reasons   
   why Joseph became the object of special veneration in the Church only   
   several centuries after Mary had been accorded that honor. The chief   
   one is that he was not the true father, but only the foster father of   
   Jesus, though Mary was the true mother of the Son of God.   
      
   Eventually, however, St. Joseph would deserve to be recognized   
   (although this truly humble man would doubtless have preferred to   
   remain ever in the shadows.) What an important role he played in the   
   formative years of Christ! He was not the actual parent of Our Lord,   
   but he was his legal father in a true if virginal marriage; and it was   
   by virtue of Joseph’s descent from King David, as the genealogies of   
   the New Testament indicate, that Jesus was entitled to be called “Son   
   of David,” a prophetic and messianic title. Furthermore, Joseph not   
   only protected his foster son, but gave him human training both in the   
   profession of carpentry and in the arts of family life. To do that,   
   the saint must have been a rather young man, for Jewish practice   
   recommended that men marry in their late teens.   
      
   All this we conclude from the New Testament, although it tells us even   
   less about Joseph than it does about Mary. We can ignore the   
   apocryphal tales of St. Joseph that began to be written about the Holy   
   Family from about 150 onward. These are, in general, devout fiction.   
   The foster father was evidently dead by the time of Our Lord’s   
   crucifixion, else Jesus would not have commended his mother to the   
   care of St. John the Apostle, and through John to all of us.   
      
   St. Matthew tells us that even when Joseph married Our Lady he was a   
   “just man,” i.e., conscientious, principled. But we must assume that   
   Joseph became holier still through his family contacts with Jesus and   
   Mary. Who would not have? A Trappist monk who is an old friend of mine   
   once wrote me an interesting reflection on St. Joseph’s growth in   
   virtue.   
      
   Of Joseph’s initial decision, when he found that Mary was pregnant   
   before their marriage, Father Anthony called his impulse to divorce   
   her quietly, a “stupid” one. If the reason for the separation ever did   
   come out–suspicion of adultery–the Jewish law would have demanded that   
   Mary be stoned to death.   
      
   Luckily, Joseph did not have to follow this purely natural chain of   
   reasoning. God settled the issue supernaturally by informing him that   
   Mary had conceived, not through any human intervention but through the   
   agency of the Holy Spirit. How the saint, ever obedient and compliant,   
   must have rejoiced at that news! It was no doubt a learning experience   
   on his part, that he must always rely on God’s guidance rather than   
   purely human reasoning.   
      
   Father Anthony passed on to an interesting conclusion regarding   
   disruptive tendencies in other human families.   
      
   “I’ve often thought how encouraging it would be for people tempted to   
   divorce to realize that St. Joseph went through the same torture. Even   
   for the divorced, it would be encouraging to realize that a direct   
   intervention of God alone saved the marriage of Mary and Joseph.”   
      
   There’s a thought for today’s married couples in times when so many   
   divisive problems arise!   
      
   Devotion to St. Joseph as a great forgotten man began to receive   
   strong backing in the 15th and 16th centuries, with SS. Bernardine of   
   Siena and Teresa of Avila as leading promoters. Pope Sixtus IV first   
   introduced a feast in his honor in Rome around 1479. Eventually, Pope   
   Pius IX in 1870 proclaimed Joseph the Patron of the Universal Church–a   
   bow to his fatherly skills. In 1962, Pope John XXIII, in response to a   
   vast popular demand, added the name of St. Joseph to the   
   “Communicantes” of the Roman Canon, (the first Eucharistic prayer of   
   the Mass). Thus the humble “man nearest Christ,” patron of fathers,   
   patron of laboring men, and patron of the universal Church, had   
   finally been given due recognition.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous   
   sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills   
   the soul with holy thoughts and good desires.   
   --St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known   
   thee; and these know that thou hast sent me. 26 I made known to them   
   thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast   
   loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  [John 17:25-26]   
      
      
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   Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt   
   before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires.   
   Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain   
   for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus   
   Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly   
   power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of   
   Fathers.   
   Oh, St. Joseph, I never grow weary of contemplating you, and Jesus   
   asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your   
   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. St. Joseph, Patron of   
   departing souls, pray for us. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)