ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE

ST. JOSEPH​

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Today is the solemnity of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus and husband of Mary. What a great saint to ask to join us in prayer as a community and universal church! After all, he is the patron of the whole church! 

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I like the picture (below) of Joseph in our church, located near the confessional. This picture shows Joseph illuminated in light. I see it symbolically that he stood in the light of his son, Jesus. And in that light, Joseph is a great intercessor to Jesus for the intentions we hold in our hearts. Do you have a devotion to Saint Joseph?

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Here is Fr. Cordier's morning homily on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph.

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Homily: March 19, 2020 

 

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

This is a wonderful solemnity, as we love St. Joseph, who is a member of the Holy Family, the model and example for all families. 

 

As we know, St. Joseph, is silent in the Gospels, he is not quoted as saying anything. Yet what he did speaks volumes, when he listened and obeyed the voice of God in the Gospels. We can learn much from what St. Joseph did. 

 

Also even his very name says a lot. Dominican priest, Father Michel Gasnier, wrote a book entitled “Joseph the Silent” noting that the humble carpenter’s name is an acronym pointing to his most outstanding virtues: Justness, Obedience, Silence, Experience(wisdom), Purity, and Humility. 

 

Looking at the first virtue, Fr. Gasnier explains that justness is often translated as “righteous” and is applied to the greatest of the patriarchs, such as Noah and Abraham. “To be just means to be holy as God is holy. Being just means being centered in God. It encompasses all the virtues in the Bible. The upright man is a man of faith and trust in God’s providence.” There you have St. Joseph in a nutshell. And there you have a model for today’s men. 

 

Looking at the last virtue, humility, St. Joseph never put himself on a pedestal. He never tries to stand out; he never tries to put himself first. He puts God first and he puts his wife above himself. It’s an awareness of the truth of who we are before God. He did the ordinary things every day with love.

 

In his 1989 encyclical Redemptoris Custos (Guardian of the Redeemer), St. Pope John Paul II quoted his predecessor St. Paul VI on this very principle about St. Joseph: He is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of ‘great things’ – it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic. 

 

That’s the stuff that makes us saints. We have no better model of that to follow than St. Joseph. 

 

Saint Joseph…pray for us.  

 

Fr. Micheal Cordier