Year of St. Joseph
We live in a time when there’s an overabundance of words. With social media any self-proclaimed prophet or expert can publicize their views and opinions on any perceived issue. What was once a means of information and self-expression has today become a flood of deafening and confusing noise.
It may seem ironic, then, that the Church has this year invited us to pay special attention to the figure of Joseph of Nazareth, a man who doesn’t say one word in the Gospels. Perhaps God is inviting us, through Joseph, to cut down on our talking and, like him, be better listeners and doers of His Word. As St. John of the Cross wisely says, “what is wanting, if anything is wanting, is not writing or speaking - rather these usually superabound - but silence and work.
These words beautifully describe the life of St. Joseph, a constant quiet attentiveness to God so as to act in accordance to His will. Joseph’s silence was not a sign of weakness or fear, but rather the opposite. It revealed him as a holy and wise man who knew the source of his strength was precisely in listening to the Word of God and allowing it to be his guide in his life decisions. Joseph was not a man of words, but of action. Through his listening heart and courage, he heard and accepted the divine call to be father and protector to the Incarnate Son of God.
Joseph welcomes God’s designs in his life in all their mystery, reminding us that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2: 4). There was no questioning, but the response of faith in the humble acceptance that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways (cf. Is 55: 8). This holy Patriarch understood that his actions were not for his own plans, but for God’s plan and the service of his family.
St. Joseph teaches us that there is no dichotomy between the interior and the exterior life. This is an important lesson for those who usually tend to focus on the active part of our lives: doing work, providing for the family, climbing up the corporate ladder, prestige, etc. We are raised to think that our worth and value are based on our doing and accomplishing. But because of this over focus on the exterior life, we frequently neglect our interior life. In St. Joseph we see that in order to have a meaningful, life-giving and mission-oriented active life, we need to start in the quiet attentiveness to the God whom we know loves us.
Prayerful silence and Spirit-oriented action. These may be God’s invitation to us in these turbulent times as He directs our attention to St. Joseph.
Prayer during the Year of St. Joseph
To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you
to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance
which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father, ward off from us
every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector, be kind to us
and from heaven assist us in our struggle
with the power of darkness.
As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God's Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.
