Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patron of the Universal Church

By Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene OCD   |   19 March 2025

Prelude

O glorious St Joseph, under your patronage may my interior life grow and develop.

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Today the Church presents St Joseph, the great patriarch, to whose care God willed to entrust the most chosen portion of His flock, Mary and Jesus. Because Joseph was selected by God to be the guardian of the family of Nazareth, the nucleus of the great Christian family, the Church recognizes in him the Guardian and Patron of all Christendom. Herein lies the significance of today’s feast, which invites us to fix our attention on the mission entrusted to this great saint in relation to Jesus and to the Church. Aware of the great mystery of the Incarnation, Joseph’s whole life gravitated about that of the Incarnate Word: for Him he endured worry, suffering, fatigue, labour. To Him he consecrated all his solicitude, his energy, his resources, his time. He reserved nothing for himself, but completely oblivious of any personal needs, desires, or views, he devoted himself entirely to the interests and the needs of Jesus. Nothing existed for Joseph except Jesus and Mary, and he felt that his life on earth had no other raison d’être than his care of them. In this way he participated fully, as a humble, hidden collaborator, in the work of the Redemption; if he did not accompany Jesus in His apostolic life and to His death on the Cross — as Mary did — nevertheless, he worked for the same end as the Saviour. Having been the faithful guardian of the Holy Family, it is impossible that from the heights of heaven St Joseph should not continue to protect the great Christian family, the universal Church, which, confident of his protection, and relying on his assistance, prays thus:

“Sustained, O Lord, by the protection of the spouse of Your holy Mother, we beseech Your clemency … that by his merits and intercession You will guide us to eternal glory.” (Roman Missal)

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St Joseph’s vocation to become the guardian of the Holy Family was also an invitation to divine intimacy. We must not forget that he stood at the dividing line between the Old and the New Testament. The first part of his life belonged to the Old Testament, the second, to the New. Before the coming of Jesus, he, like all the patriarchs of the Old Law, would certainly have followed the trend of his time, and his relations with God would have been especially influenced by the sentiment of reverent fear. But as soon as the Angel revealed to him the mystery of the Incarnation, and he learned that Mary his Spouse was to be the Mother of the Redeemer, everything in his life changed. God, whom he had always honoured as the Most High, the Inaccessible, the Thrice Holy, had now come near to him, so near that He had taken flesh in the womb of his Spouse, and had chosen him, Joseph, as His foster father. As soon as Jesus was born, He was placed in Joseph’s arms and entrusted to his care; later He would grow in his sight, be fed at his table, and sleep under his roof. What a life of intimacy! And it was not only an intimacy of external relations, but also one of profoundly interior, spiritual relations, for Joseph knew by faith that Jesus was his God. Thus, together with Mary, this great Saint was the first one to enter into that life of love and intimacy with God, to which Jesus opened the door.

Let us, then, watch Joseph fulfil his mission, not only with complete exterior dedication, but also with a heart filled with Jesus, a heart in which a glorious life of divine intimacy flourishes. While he is devoting himself to the work required by his position as foster father, he lives, in the secrecy of his heart, in continual relations of love with his God, the Incarnate Word. In the Church, each one of us has his mission to fulfil for the good of souls and the glory of God. This mission requires work — often fatiguing work — and much sacrifice and intense activity. Like St Joseph, we must give ourselves generously and totally, without sparing, without reserve, but, at the same time, we must also give ourselves to the works of God with a heart filled with God, with a heart which lives with Him in an intimacy nourished by the assiduous exercise of prayer. St Joseph teaches us the blessed secret of a life of combined activity and contemplation, so that, following his example, we may give ourselves to the active life without neglecting our life of intimate union with God.

Colloquy

“O St Joseph, happy are you to whom it was given not only to see and hear that God whom so many desired to see and saw not, to hear and heard not, but even to carry Him in your arms, to embrace Him, to clothe Him, to watch over Him. … O St Joseph, what others have only after death, you had while still living; like the blessed in heaven, you enjoyed God and lived close to Him. You clasped to your heart the Infant Jesus, you accompanied Him in the flight to Egypt, you sheltered Him under your roof.” (Roman Breviary)

“Oh, how sweet were the kisses you received from Jesus! With what joy you heard the little one lisp the name of ‘father’, and how delightful to feel His gentle embrace! With what love did He rest on your knees, when His little body was worn out with fatigue! Love without reserve brought you to Him as to a most dear Son whom the Holy Spirit had given you through the Virgin, your Spouse.” (St Bernardine of Siena)

“O glorious Saint, it is a thing which truly astonishes me, the great favours which God has bestowed on me and the perils from which He has freed me, both in body and in soul, through your intercession. To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succour us in some of our necessities, but you succour us in them all. … If anyone cannot find a master to teach him how to pray, let him take you as his master and he will not go astray ” (St Teresa of Avila)

May the life of the whole Church, as well as the interior life of every Christian, grow and prosper under your patronage, O Joseph. I place my spiritual life under your protection. You, who lived so close to Jesus, bring me to intimacy with Him, so that, following your example, I may serve Him with a heart full of love.