On the initiative of Pope Francis, who has a great devotion to Jesus’ foster Father, the Church is celebrating the Year of Saint Joseph until December 8, 2021.
Who is Saint Joseph? Saint Joseph is a normal, ordinary person who is the holiest of all the Saints. He is, specifically, the husband, most chaste, of the Virgin Mary and the just man who became Jesus’ Father on earth. Now, therefore, his soul is in Heaven.
No one has known and treated so closely with Jesus and Mary as Saint Joseph. God entrusted him with the divine mission to care for the Virgin and the Child Jesus, which he did to perfection, with strength and affection. And he became a Saint without leaving his humble work as a carpenter, as if to remind all of us that holiness consists of that: in doing the Will of God where He has placed us, doing everyday ordinary things very well and lovingly.
Jesus had immense love for Saint Joseph. And He is eternally grateful to him for all the care he gave Him. Thanks to Saint Joseph, the Child Jesus was able to flee from King Herod who sought to kill Him.
Saint Joseph is very influential in Heaven. When he asks something from Jesus, it’s obvious that the Lord will hear him and attend to his request. The Church has had him as her Patron for 150 years, the reason to dedicate this Year to Saint Joseph.
In addition to this Year dedicated to Saint Joseph, every year the month of March is dedicated to him, as well as every Wednesday.
In his Gospel, Saint Matthew says that Saint Joseph was a just man and that he knew how to listen, to follow God’s voice, to protect the Child Jesus. He is presented to us especially accompanying Mary and sharing with her the first works of the mystery of Jesus’ life. He was a simple, holy man who listened to God and fulfilled the Divine Will.
There is not much talk of him in the Gospels. We know that he worked as a carpenter, although he had royal blood. He was a young man, who loved Mary, his wife, with delicacy and tenderness, and who found his strength in faith to respect the ways of God.
He is an impressive Saint for his silence, but his silence is full of grandeur. No man was ever so close to Jesus. One doesn’t need to say anything if Christ lives in one. That is why all the Saints had a special predilection for Saint Joseph. His secret was in fact to live in the essential: to be Christ’s, to live in Him, with Him, and for Him.
He is an admirable model. A serene man with a permanent smile, because his soul was brimming with God’s peace, despite the many grave difficulties he had to face. He never lost his nerve, because he was a just man, a man very much in God.
Saint Joseph is also Patron of a happy death, as he had the best of deaths, surrounded by Jesus and Mary. Therefore, during our earthly journey we ask him to obtain for us a good death, having confessed, being in God’s grace, so that when our souls appear before Jesus, at the hour of judgment, the Lord may receive them not as a Judge but as a Saviour and Father.
There are some short prayers that are congratulations or compliments, which can help us to go to Saint Joseph, for example: “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, may I always be with the three of you.
