Saint Joseph, a model for all
These are the reasons why men of every rank and country should fly to the trust and guard of the blessed Joseph.
• Fathers of families find in Joseph the best personification of paternal solicitude and vigilance;
• spouses a perfect example of love, of peace, and of conjugal fidelity;
• virgins at the same time find in him the model and protector of virginal integrity.
• The noble of birth will earn of Joseph how to guard their dignity even in misfortune;
• the rich will understand, by his lessons, what are the goods most to be desired and won at the price of their labour.
As to workmen, artisans, and persons of lesser degree, their recourse to Joseph is a special right, and his example is for their particular imitation. For Joseph, of royal blood, united by marriage to the greatest and holiest of women, reputed the father of the Son of God, passed his life in labour, and won by the toil of the artisan the needful support of his family.
It is, then, true that the condition of the lowly has nothing shameful in it, and the work of the labourer is not only not dishonouring, but can, if virtue be joined to it, be singularly ennobled. Joseph, content with his slight possessions, bore the trials consequent on a fortune so slender, with greatness of soul, in imitation of his Son, who having put on the form of a slave, being the Lord of life, subjected himself of his own free-will to the spoliation and loss of everything.
Leo XIII, Pope from 1878-1903
Quamquam pluries (©Libreria Vaticana Editrice)
thank you for your response to my prayer request, may god bless you always.
Dear Lord, we thank You for the example Joseph set. Lord, let us all learn from the noble lives of God fearing people. Amen.
+++Amen........Matthew 1:18-20 Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. Amen......... O blessed Joseph, faithful guardian of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, protector of thy chaste spouse, the virgin Mother of God, I choose thee this day to be my special patron and advocate and I firmly resolve to honor thee all
the days of my life. Therefore I humbly beseech thee to receive me as thy client, to instruct me in every doubt, to comfort me in every affliction, to obtain for me and for all the knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus, and finally to defend and protect me at the hour of my death. Amen............."I know by experience," says St. Teresa of Avila, "that the glorious St. Joseph assists us generally in all necessities. I never asked him for anything which he did not obtain for me."......All my Love, Prayers, & Blessings, Sandy+++
God Our Father, we thank you for St. Joseph and the mighty, humble role he played in our salvation for caring for Jesus and Mary!