Tags
faith, intercessor, Patris Corde, patron, Pope Francis, Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Joseph, support, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
If you noticed that I am speaking late today, there is good reason. Today is the feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary and Mother of Jesus. I am a Sister of St. Joseph, one of the thousands of women whose religious community gathers with pride on this date each year to celebrate this quiet, loving, faithful and holy man who was willing to take on the protection and parenting of “the boy Jesus.” We who live under the patronage of St. Joseph trust the guidance we find in the Scriptures, the stories of Joseph, full of silence and listening to God and the messages of God. You will not find conversations of Joseph with God’s messengers. Rather, he is busy being silent deep in the heart of God, his love and reverence for his young wife and then his son, Jesus, of primary concern to him.
This evening, as the celebrations of this day ended we again had reason to pause and join our Sisters across our province who joined from far and near to pray in thanksgiving for Joseph—through the miracle of “Zoom”. We listened to a part of the Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis, Patris Corde which was a fitting conclusion to our day. Here is what we heard:
Each of us can discover in Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation…Even though Joseph’s fears, God’s will, his history and his plan were at work, Joseph, then, teaches us that faith in God includes believing that he can work even through our fears, our frailties and our weaknesses.
May we go to Joseph in any hour of need, for he is the patron of the universal Church and a great model of who we are to be in the world!