YOUR oWf^ 
 
 ST. JOSEPH 
 
 - "' ,v '• -wif*?/ 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOSEPH HUSSLEIN, ,S. J. 
 
 Associate Editor of “Ameiyjca^ 
 
 The America Press 
 
 NEW YORK. N. Y. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. OUR GLORIOUS ST. JOSEPH 
 
 II. THE SAINT OF THE INCARNATION 
 
 III. PREFIGURED IN THE OLD LAW. 
 
 IV. WHY WE LOVE ST. JOSEPH 
 
 V. THE POWER OF ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Price 10 cents. Second Edition. 
 
 Nihil Obstat 
 
 Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., 
 
 Censor Librorum 
 
 Imprimatur 
 
 ^ Patrick Cardinal Hayes, 
 
 Archiepiscopus Nco. Eb. 
 
 , 
 
 New York, January 8, 1925 
 
 Copyright 1925 
 
0 
 
 OUR GLORIOUS ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Saints know thee best, oh hidden, silent Saint! 
 
 And would that I could feel a little part 
 Of that great love Teresa's kindred heart 
 Felt for thee Foster-father !—Matthew Russell, S. J. 
 
 We often hear it said that little is known about St. 
 Joseph. True as that statement may appear we shall find, 
 upon closer study of the Scriptures, that in the little known 
 to us very much is contained. The saints and the simple 
 of heart can understand St. Joseph. And who, among all 
 the servants of God, after, our own Blessed Mother, is 
 more familiar to the Faithful throughout the world than 
 Joseph, her pure Spouse, the Foster-father of the world's 
 Redeemer ? 
 
 The life of St. Joseph was made known to us, purely 
 and entirely, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, 
 Our only source of information is the infallible Scripture. 
 Here we behold the Saint in all his simplicity and greatness:, 
 a man equally humble and exalted, gentle and strong, hid^ 
 den and glorious. 
 
 The Scripture words that speak of Joseph are like the 
 ocean in depth and like the firmament that still recedes be¬ 
 yond our ken. The more we search, the more we find. 
 
 There are “apocryphal” writings also that deal with the 
 life of St. Joseph, but the Church has never accepted them. 
 Some of the statements contained in these may be based 
 upon tradition, but no reliance can be placed on their 
 historic truth. Considered as religious documents they are 
 void of authority, and often, as St. Jerome says, the 
 merest dreams. Some, however, stripped of their exagger¬ 
 ations, are not without a legendary beauty. Such is the 
 familiar story of the flowering rod of St. Joseph. 
 
 This has served as an inspiration for some of the world’s 
 greatest painters. Eleanor C. Donnelly, in her “Legend of 
 St. Joseph’s Staff,” summons up a picture of Our Lady’s 
 suitors gathered in the golden porches of Judah’s Temple. 
 
2 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 To each a rod is given by the silvery-haired high priest. 
 “O flower of God, burst from his rod,” he silently prays, 
 “who Mary’s spouse shall be!” And there, at his word, 
 the dry staff in Joseph’s hand begins to bui'geon and to 
 bloom: 
 
 Till graceful, bell-shaped lilies, 
 
 Strange to Jerusalem, 
 
 Crown with their clinging clusters 
 The long green leafless stem. 
 
 Kneeling the youths salute it, 
 
 The token sent of God, 
 
 As Israel’s princes yielded 
 Homage to Aaron’s rod. 
 
 And Mary, veiled and trembling, 
 
 Hears through the silent house: 
 
 “Hail, flowering staff of Joseph; 
 
 All hail, the Virgin’s Spouse!” 
 
 Fra Angelico, Luini, Raphael and many other artists 
 depict St. Joseph as a noble, gracious man, in the full 
 strength of manhood. Such we know he must have been 
 to endure the labors and hardship which Providence ' 
 destined him to endure for Mary and the Divine Child. 
 The false conception that St. Joseph was already in his 
 declining years at the time of his Espousals has been traced 
 back to “apocryphal” sources. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a poetic truth in the blossom¬ 
 ing rod of Joseph. Its graceful lilies, white as virgin 
 snow, have become for us an exquisite symbol of Joseph’s 
 inviolate chastity; while the miracle, conceived as singling 
 him out for Mary’s Spouse from among all the noble 
 suitors, leaves us to ponder on the stupendous choice made 
 by Almighty God in selecting Joseph to entrust to him the 
 Incarnate Word and Plis immaculate Virgin Mother. 
 
 Of the character of Joseph we know that he was a “just 
 man,” and thus fit to be the Spouse of her who was de¬ 
 clared by the Angel “full of grace.” To be just implies 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEF®!' -p 
 
 a complete fulfilment of all the Divine laws. Abraham, 
 it has been said, was called the faithful; David, the pious; 
 Daniel, the wise; Moses, the meekest of men; but Joseph 
 combines all these qualities and possesses all virtues in 
 their perfection. 
 
 The same title that is applied to Joseph is used also in 
 reference to Our Divine Lord. He is called in the Holy 
 Scriptures: “The holy one and the just , the author of life.’’ 
 If nothing more were known by us concerning the virtues 
 of St. Joseph than that canonization by the Holy Ghost, 
 “a just man,” enough would therefore have been told us. 
 
 Of the royal ancestry of Joseph we are informed by 
 the words of the Angel who solemnly addresses him: 
 “Joseph, son of David.” To Ezechiel, fallen upon his 
 face, the angelic summons was: “Son of man, stand upon 
 thy feet, and I will speak to thee.” To St. Peter the 
 Angel simply said: “Arise quickly.” And to John the great 
 voice as of a trumpet shouted: “What thou seest, write in 
 a book.” Little heed does the Angel give to name or title. 
 But not so in the case of Joseph, for he is addressed by 
 the heavenly messenger as a prince royal of the people of 
 God, with the noblest title that any man then living could 
 possibly have borne: “Son of David.” 
 
 Yet it was not the royal blood in Joseph’s veins that the 
 Angel respected, but the Divine promise of the Messias, 
 which as the Prophecies made clear, was connected with 
 the royal House of David. Joseph was called to be the 
 witness of the ultimate fulfilment of that promise. He 
 was to be the guardian of the mysteries contained in it. 
 He was himself to stand in the most intimate relation to 
 the Saviour that would be born, the long and ardently 
 desired of His people Israel. 
 
 What was the ancient crown of Babylon, the royal asp 
 upon the forehead of a Pharaoh, the golden scepter in the 
 hand of an Augustus, or any other emblem of human 
 sovereignty and power compared with the white lily of 
 St. Joseph, the emblem of his virginal espousal to Mary 
 and of his chaste guardianship of Christ? Long ago the 
 Prophecy had predicted that the Messias should not come 
 until the scepter had passed from Judah and there would 
 
4 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 be no longer a ruler of David’s line. Only then was He 
 to appear, “that is to be sent, and he shall be the expecta¬ 
 tion of the nations.” (Gen. xlix. 10.) Now, therefore, 
 when the glory of royalty had disappeared the prophecies 
 were at last to be fulfilled, and to Joseph, “Son of David,” 
 would be born by Mary, his espoused wife, the Saviour of 
 the world, conceived by her most purely of the Holy Ghost. 
 He should be called, as the angel had foretold: “the son 
 of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him 
 the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the 
 house of Jacob forever. And of his Kingdom there shall 
 be no end.” (Luke i. 32, 33.) 
 
 The name “Joseph” itself—in Hebrew Yosef —is inter¬ 
 preted to mean “may God add.” The idea of “Increase” 
 is intimately connected with it.' Thus the Egyptian Joseph 
 is described in Holy Scripture as a fruitful tree that grows 
 by a fountain, and whose branches—“daughters” of the 
 parent stem, as the Hebrew text delightfully calls them— 
 stretch far and wide over the garden wall. (Gen. xlix. 22.) 
 
 By a special Providence, then, was this name given to 
 him who was to be the husband of Mary and whose vir¬ 
 ginal marriage God crowned with a virginal paternity, as 
 Foster-father of the Saviour of the world. In all things 
 Joseph succeeded, in all things he prospered, not in amass¬ 
 ing the treasures of earth, but the graces and glories of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Fourteen times in the Holy Scriptures he 'is called by 
 his name of “Joseph.” Seven times the name is mentioned 
 by St'. Matthew, five times by St. Luke, and twice by St 
 John. * St. Mark begins with the preaching of John the 
 Baptist, and so at once proceeds to the public coming of 
 Our Lord, but he finds occasion to point to Joseph in an 
 allusion to Christ’s lowly upbringing in the carpenter shop 
 of Nazareth: “Is not this the carpenter?” 
 
 Here, then, is another detail of St. Joseph’s life which 
 the sacred writers are at special pains to record. Joseph 
 was a carpenter and in that same trade Christ also took 
 part. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” the town folk of 
 Jesus asked. And again we hear them say: “Is not this the 
 carptener?” The Greek text leaves no doubt that such is 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 5 
 
 the exact translation. The Saviour of the world, we know 
 then, was reared in the carpenter’s home and played in the 
 carpenter’s shop, where in maturer years he partook of 
 the carpenter’s toil. And here, too, Mary loved and labored 
 at the side of these two beings most dear to her, her 
 virginal spouse and the Incarnate God, her own true Son, 
 who in his sweet-and winning way would call St. Joseph, 
 “Father!” 
 
 ' . ' ’ ; . . ' 
 
 And the Child grew in wisdom’s ken 
 
 And years and grace with God and men; 
 
 And in His father’s humble art 
 Took share and part. 
 
 “With toil,” saith He, “My limbs are wet 
 Prefiguring the Bloody Sweat” : 
 
 Ah! how He bears our chastisement 
 With sweet content! 
 
 «■ - .1 
 
 At Joseph’s bench, at Jesus’ side, 
 
 The Mother sits, the Virgin-Bride; 
 
 Happy if she may cheer their hearts 
 With loving arts. 
 
 O Blessed Three! who felt the sting 
 Of want and toil and suffering, 
 
 Pity the needy and obscure 
 Lot of the poor. 
 
 Banish the “pride of life” from all 
 Whom ampler wealth and joys befall: 
 
 Be every h^art with love repaid 
 That seeks your aid. 
 
 So sang Pope Leo XIII of that sublimest of all working¬ 
 men’s families, where by the labor of His own hands the 
 greatest of all the sons of David ennobled human toil. 
 Rejecting Solomon’s crown and scepter, He chose instead, 
 with loving predilection, the Carpenter Joseph’s humble 
 tools: saw and rule and hammer—fitting well into His 
 hands who was the Builder of the universe. 
 
 i 
 
II. 
 
 THE SAINT OF THE INCARNATION 
 
 • * 
 
 St. Joseph, it has been truly said, belongs to the Hier¬ 
 archy of the Incarnation. With Mary he is drawn closer 
 than any other creature into that inner circle the center of 
 which is the God-Man. Mary and Joseph are beautifully 
 symbolized by the two golden cherubim, one on the right 
 and the other on the left of the Mercy Seat to which God 
 descended in the Old Law. The wings of the two cherubim 
 were outstretched over the Ark of the Covenant, and they 
 faced one towards the other, and both towards the Oracle 
 of God between them. So by Divine predilection were 
 Mary and Joseph chosen to be most intimately devoted to 
 each other and mutually to cherish between them the In¬ 
 carnate Word, Emmanuel, “God with us.” 
 
 Neither patriarch nor prophet, neither apostle nor martyr, 
 not even the Precursor of Christ could be said to belong 
 to that inmost Holy of Holies where Mary and Joseph, 
 higher in dignity than the highest cherubim, humbly wor¬ 
 shipped the Divinity that dwelled with them in human 
 form. To them it was given to carry in their arms the 
 God-Man, to nourish and clothe Him, to protect and guard 
 His human existence. 
 
 But together they approach still more closely the mys¬ 
 teries of the Word-made-flesh. While Mary is the Virginal 
 Mother of Christ, and so incomparably above all other 
 created beings, St. Joseph may truly be described as the 
 virginal father. It is by the Holy Ghost Himself that 
 Joseph is given the name of “father” in the Sacred Scrip¬ 
 tures. At the same time it is made plain beyond all doubt 
 that he is not the physical, but the true moral father of 
 the Saviour as he was his legal father also in the eyes of 
 the law. Only when the Jews, not knowing of the mystery 
 of the Incarnation, take Joseph for the natural father of 
 Jesus, is the qualification added: “being, as it was supposed, 
 the son of Joseph.” Elsewhere Mary and Joseph are simply 
 described as the “parents” of Jesus, since from all that the 
 Sacred writers have previously narrated concerning the 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 7 
 
 virginal conception of Christ no one could possibly mis¬ 
 understand the meaning of this word as applied to Joseph. 
 
 “Joseph,” says the great Jesuit theologian Suarez, “is 
 father not merely in name but in reality, since he possesses 
 everything belonging to fatherhood that man can possess 
 without violating virginity.” In that virginity consists the 
 great glory of Joseph’s true paternity. 
 
 There is no fatherhood on earth to compare in greatness, 
 in beauty* in dignity, in sanctity with that of St. Joseph. 
 The Fathers and Doctors of the Church, with profound in¬ 
 sight into the works of God, extol in highest terms this 
 wonderful paternity of Joseph. Christ, as the true Child 
 of Mary by the Holy Ghost, formed by God alone out of 
 her immaculate substance, could not but belong to Joseph, 
 also, because virginally given to him within the bonds of 
 holy wedlock. Mary and Joseph "belonged no longer to 
 themselves but to each other, as truest husband and wife, 
 and so Mary’s Son belonged with her to Joseph. 
 
 Considering merely the human nature of Christ, Joseph 
 therefore had the full paternal right as well as the duty 
 to command, care for and protect the Divine Child en¬ 
 trusted to him. That was his vocation. His fatherhood 
 was the more sublime in that it was purely virginal. It 
 differed entirely, as St. Augustine is so careful to explain, 
 from any mere fatherhood by adoption from outside the 
 marriage bond. Joseph, says the great Doctor of the 
 Church, is father of Jesus, “in the same way that he is 
 understood to be husband of Mary,” namely virginally and 
 through holy marriage. 
 
 This may enable us to understand something at least of 
 the dignity conferred on St. Joseph, the full greatness of 
 which we cannot possibly comprehend. To do so would 
 imply that we could fully comprehend the Eternal God 
 who so intimately made Himself dependent upon St. Jo¬ 
 seph in the human nature He assumed. More intimate 
 indeed was this relation than we have yet said, and more 
 impossible than we perhaps have ever yet conceived will it 
 ever be for us to pay the debt we owe to Joseph. 
 
 St. Joseph’s marriage with Mary, as St. Thomas says, 
 was ordained by God to this special purpose, that the Divine 
 
8 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Child might be begotten and reared within it. According 
 to the Divine councils the Saviour was to be born not 
 merely of a virgin, but of an espoused virgin. Now by Jo¬ 
 seph’s consent did both these conditions come to pass. Not 
 only did he give his hand to Mary, but he freely gave her 
 also the inviolate gift of her virginity, and this he did by 
 sacredly pledging his own virginal chastity to her. It was 
 God who had inspired this vow in both their hearts. So 
 from that garden enclosed, that fountain sealed, divinely 
 entrusted and sacredly belonging to Joseph, the mystery of 
 the Incarnation could come to pass according to all the 
 Divine designs. 
 
 Wonderful, therefore, and most intimate was Joseph’s 
 relation to the Divine mystery of the Incarnation, but un¬ 
 speakable, too, were the sufferings and trials, no less than 
 the joys and glories it was to bring to him. By the martyr¬ 
 dom of his soul he was to participate according to his own 
 measure in the passion of the Saviour. 
 
 The first great trial came to him in Mary’s regard, be¬ 
 fore the mystery of the Incarnation had yet been revealed 
 to him by God’s own angel messenger. God permitted this 
 suffering, and it was not for Mary, greatly though her own 
 heart bled, to reveal without Divine sanction the secrets of 
 the King. But out of the darkness of this trial, exceeding 
 all martyrdoms by rack and rope, there shone out Joseph’s 
 heroic charity for Mary, his complete unselfishness and the 
 profoundest respect he ever entertained for even the least 
 of the sanctities of the law. That here as elsewhere Jie 
 showed himself “a just man,” was the supreme praise given 
 him by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 To give him full assurance of his own paternal rights 
 over the Divine Child that should be born to him by Mary, 
 of the Holy Ghost, he was further given the commission: 
 “And thou shalt call his name Jesus.” The assigning of a 
 name among the Jews was a strictly parental prerogative. 
 The same words had already been spoken to Mary. To 
 both, therefore, now belonged the full parental authority 
 over Jesus, and both together are in the Scriptures called 
 the “parents” of Jesus. To both the Divine Saviour gave 
 His complete and perfect subjection—yet first of all to 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 Joseph, who, as head of the Holy Family, was for both 
 Christ and Mary the “shadow of the Eternal Father,” His 
 visible representative on earth. 
 
 That Joseph, like Mary, practised perpetual virginity no 
 Catholic would doubt. When the Sacred Scriptures refer 
 to the “brothers” and “sisters” of Jesus it is only because 
 the Hebrew idiom includes all near relatives under these 
 terms. In fact, there is no Hebrew word to express the 
 idea of “cousins.” That term might probably have ex¬ 
 pressed exactly the particular sense in which these words 
 are meant here. The keen appreciation of tribal connection, 
 moreover, made it natural for the Jews to express them¬ 
 selves in such a way. The fact indeed that Christ com¬ 
 mitted his mother to John should make it plain that with 
 the death of the Saviour she was now left alone, although 
 henceforth she would be the Mother of all the Faithful, 
 who together constitute that mystic body whereof Christ is 
 the Head. 
 
 Important, too, is the part St. Joseph plays in the mys¬ 
 tery of the Nativity. The journey with Mary to Bethlehem, 
 the vain search for an inn to shelter his youthful Virgin 
 wife, the desolate stable at last chosen by him as the night 
 is falling, the birth there of the Christ Child, and finally 
 the first sublime adoration at the Crib, when Mary and 
 Joseph knelt absorbed in profoundest worship of that Child 
 who was their very God—these are scenes we have often 
 dwelled upon in thoughts too deep for tears! 
 
 And then to think that henceforth this Child was to be 
 all their own: to fondle, care for and to nourish, that so, 
 for the world’s salvation, He might be sacrificed at last on 
 the rough, hard wood of the Cross—that wood harder still 
 than the bare trough of the manager which loving hands 
 gently filled for Him with the straw of the stable! 
 
 So we might continue with mystery after mystery. First 
 there‘would pass before us the mystery of the painful Cir¬ 
 cumcision when the first drops of Christ’s blood were shed 
 and, together, Joseph and Mary gave His sacred name to 
 the Saviour of the world, “Jesus,” that name at whose 
 mention every knee must bow in heaven, on earth and under 
 the earth. Then would follow the solemn Presentation when 
 
10 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Joseph with Mary brought their Child into the Temple to 
 offer Him to the Lord, and their hearts were pierced, 
 while the glory, also, of the Saviour was revealed to them. 
 For this Child was to be for the fall and resurrection of 
 many. It was there that Joseph and Mary together made 
 to God the oblation of the Divine Victim of Calvary, and 
 so entered into closest relation with the great work of man’s 
 Redemption. 
 
 Who knows what depths of insight into Christ’s sacred 
 Passion may have been granted Joseph while pondering 
 over the prophecies of the Messias, and how close he may 
 have stood to the Cross of Christ—closer we may well 
 believe than any other save Mary alone! What soul, after 
 Mary’s, was so filled with grace and light as his to whom 
 the angels bore God’s messages? Vast was his compassion! 
 
 Surely, too, Joseph had intimate part in the wonderful 
 Epiphany, Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles led by the 
 star from the East. Their calling was our own vocation, 
 and they were the representatives at the Saviour’s birth for 
 all the races not sprung from the seed of Abraham. Jo¬ 
 seph’s part in this great mystery, so significant for the 
 Gentile world, may be more clear if we remember that he is 
 regarded as the first Christian missionary to heathen lands, 
 since he bore into pagan Egypt the Christ Child and His 
 Mother. ' 
 
 Of special importance here is the story of the three days’ 
 loss and the finding of Christ in Jerusalem where He had 
 remained behind “and his parents knew it not.” Here in 
 truth was another and unbloody Golgotha where the soul 
 of Joseph participated in the Passion of Christ. But most 
 important for our subject are the words of Mary herself, 
 when with Joseph she found her Son in the Temple: 
 
 And seeing him they wondered. And his mother said to him: 
 “Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold, thy father and I have 
 sought thee sorrowing.—Luke ii. 48. 
 
 “Thy father!” That is the word which in the moment 
 of tender and loving emotion, leaps to her lips without any 
 premeditation. “Thy father"—ii is evidently the ' name 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 11 
 
 Mary used in speaking of Joseph to her Divine Son. “Thy 
 father and I!” There in a flash is revealed to us the whole 
 home life of that “Earthly Trinity!” And it is Joseph, 
 too, who first comes to Mary’s mind. She is accustomed 
 to think of him first, and does so now even though her 
 own heart too has just passed with him through a living 
 martyrdom. 
 
 And then, once more, listen to the name by which the 
 Incarnate Word is called in that holy Family: “Son!” 
 That was obviously the title by which Joseph, like Mary, 
 called the Divine Saviour, “Son, why has thou done so to 
 us?” There was One Other only who might call Him by 
 that title and He was the Eternal Father, whose authority 
 Joseph represented. 
 
 Once only, and that during this incident of His stay in 
 the Temple, did Christ apparently disregard the paternal 
 right of Joseph. It was because the will and call of His 
 Eternal Father had to take precedence over every human 
 tie. From God alone is all authority, even that of parents, 
 derived. And the great object of Divine Providence was 
 here to teach both parents and children the supreme lesson 
 of Vocation: that God’s right is first and foremost, and 
 blessed they who understand this truth and joyfully apply 
 it in their own regard! 
 
 Parents indeed have good reason to rejoice when God 
 deigns to call their sons and daughters to His sublime 
 service, He will more than sustain them in their happy 
 sacrifice, great though this may often be. By the perfection 
 of their holocaust parents and children both may look 
 forward to God’s greatest blessings, His hundredfold, even 
 ‘here upon earth. 
 
 But with the lesson of Vocation taught, Jesus freely and 
 entirely submitted Himself to the authority of His “par¬ 
 ents,” to be subject to them even to the death of Joseph 
 and to His public ministry. “And he went down with 
 them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” 
 
 Of that home life in Nazareth a beautiful description is 
 given us from no less a pen than that of Pope Leo XIII. 
 It was composed for the Lauds of the Office of the Holy 
 Family and translated by Mgr. Hugh T. Henry: 
 
A 
 
 :12 . YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 U ■ " ■ 1 1 ■ 1 1 ■■ I ■ ■ ■■ ■!■ ■ ■■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ . .. i 
 
 O House of Nazareth the blest, 
 
 Fair hostess of the Lord, 
 
 The Church was nurtured at thy breast 
 And shared thy scanty board. 
 
 t . • .' 
 
 • ' , ■ t - r \ , . 
 
 . x _ „• i. " \ ■ • ' 
 
 ‘ In all the spreading lands of earth 
 The wandering sun may see 
 
 No dearer spot, no ampler worth 
 Than erst was found in thee! 
 
 ' * * . . , . . ... \ i • • 
 
 We know thy humble tenement 
 Was heaven’s hermitage: 
 
 Celestial heralds came and went 
 In endless embassage. 
 
 C.* t i. A • . .... , 
 
 4 \ ' ’ t ’ f 
 
 There, whatsoever Joseph asks 
 Christ hastens to fulfil: 
 
 i. 
 
 While Mary loves the household tasks 
 That wait her joyous will. 
 
 There Joseph toileth at her side 
 Her joys and griefs to share, 
 
 With thousand ties knit to his bride, 
 
 Ob love and work and prayer. 
 
 • ' ■ ' *' f 
 
 . • « y ... «, 4 . y ' , , . ‘ . * • ■ 
 
 Yet how their bosoms constant burn 
 And deeper ardors prove 
 
 In love of Christ, whose eyes return 
 Tokens of mutual love. 
 
 . . .. .» . . j J ' . * t 
 
 - O, then, in all the homes of earth, 
 
 Be love the bond of life: 
 
 May it enthrone at every hearth 
 The peace that husheth strife. 
 
 By the side of these noble and dignified verses, incor¬ 
 porated in the liturgy of the Church, let us place another 
 poem written in a fighter and more playful vein. It is by 
 Katherine Tynan, and entitled, “The Man of the House/’: 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 13 
 
 --- 1 
 
 Joseph, honored from sea to sea, 
 
 This is your name that pleases me, 
 
 “Man of the House/’ - 
 
 I see you rise at the dawn and light 
 The fire and blow till the flame is bright. 
 
 I see you take the pitcher and carry 
 The deep well water for Jesus and Mary. 
 
 You knead the corn for the bread so fine, 
 
 Gather them grapes from the hanging vine. 
 
 There are little feet that are soft and slow, 
 
 Follow you whithersoever you go. 
 
 There’s a little face at your workshop door, 
 
 A little one sits down on your floor: 
 
 Holds His hands for the shavings curled, 
 
 The soft little hands that have made the world. 
 
 ; a ^ ^ * , m ; .. . .4 t ; * 
 
 Mary calls you: the meal is ready: 
 
 You swing the Child to your shoulder steady. 
 
 I see your quiet smile as you sit 
 And watch the little Son thrive and eat. 
 
 ,.i.* ‘ - ■ . , ' t. 
 
 The vine curls by the window space, 
 
 The wings of angels cover the face. 
 
 Up in the rafters, polished and olden, 
 
 There’s a Dove that broods and his wings are golden. 
 
 You who kept Them through shine and storm, 
 
 A staff, a shelter kindly and warm. 
 
 Father of Jesus, husband of Mary, 
 
 Hold us your lilies for sanctuary! 
 
 Joseph^ honored from sea to-sea, 
 
 Guard me mine and my own roof-tree. 
 
 “Man of the House.” 
 
 
III. 
 
 PREFIGURED IN THE OLD LAW 
 
 While directly mentioned in the New Testament, St. 
 Joseph is hardly less clearly foreshadowed in the Old. 
 Many types and figures are pointed to, such as Abraham 
 and Moses, yet the Church herself in her Divine Office 
 dwells most insistently upon the similarity between the 
 Egyptian Joseph and the Foster-father of Our Lord. Con¬ 
 stantly, and with most happy effect, she applies to the 
 Spouse of Mary the Scripture words spoken of him whom 
 Pharoah so gloriously exalted. Well, therefore, could Pope 
 Leo XIII say that we may with full right claim to see in 
 the earlier Joseph the “express image” of the later and 
 greater Patriarch. 
 
 It is a fact that under certain aspects Christ also is pre¬ 
 figured by the Egyptian Joseph, in whom we certainly be¬ 
 hold one of the most beautiful, attractive and lovable 
 figures of the Old Testament. But the truth of that further 
 and more minute parallel which the Church so insistently 
 draws between the two great Patriarchs, who both provi¬ 
 dentially came into the pagan land of Egypt and both ar¬ 
 rived there through the cruel injustice of man, and both 
 brought with them a blessing for that land of idols, and the 
 world is nowise affected by this fact. 
 
 Naturally, it is to the chastity of the Egyptian Joseph 
 that our thoughts will first revert. In this he stands forth 
 as a beautiful type of the angelic purity of our own St. 
 Joseph, a purity such as never was required of any other 
 mortal man. For Joseph was to be the virgin Spouse of 
 the immaculate Mother of Christ and the virginal Guardian 
 of the immaculate Lamb of God. He was to be the “shadow” 
 of the Eternal Father, and visibly to hold the place of 
 Mary’s invisible Spouse, the Holy Ghost; 
 
 More than the Egyptian Joseph, he was entrusted with 
 the greatest treasures earth has ever known and was given 
 complete management of that household of which God 
 Himself was a member. More than his Egyptian name¬ 
 sake, too, was he supremely successful in all things, serving 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 15 
 
 \ 
 
 j 
 
 most perfectly His Divine Master, who at the same time 
 was his least and humblest subject. Well, therefore, does 
 the Church quote in reference to St. Joseph those words of 
 the Old Testament: 
 
 And Joseph found favor in the sight of his master, 
 and ministered to him: and being set over all by him, 
 he governed the house committed to him, and all things 
 that were delivered to him.—Gen. xxxix. 4. 
 
 Not only was the house of Putiphar blessed for the sake 
 of Joseph and all his substance increased, for “the Lord 
 was with him, arid he was a prosperous man in all things,’* 
 but in time to come the whole kingdom of Pharaoh himself 
 was to be entrusted to Joseph, even as the universal Church 
 has been placed under the patronage of our great Saint. 
 Again the Church herself, with supreme fitness, applies to 
 him here the words of Pharaoh: 
 
 Can we find such another man, that is full of the spirit 
 of God? . . . 
 
 Seeing God has shown thee all that thou has said, 
 can I -find one wiser and one like unto thee ? 
 
 Thou shalt be over my house. . . . Behold, I have appointed 
 thee over the whole land of Egypt.—Gen. xli ; 38-41. 
 
 At the command of his mouth all people were to obey. 
 Only in his kingly throne would Pharaoh remain above 
 him, but all Egypt was to be subject to him.. And Pharaoh 
 took the ring from his hand and gave it to Joseph,- and he 
 put on him a robe of silk, and hung a chain of gold about 
 his neck. He bade him ascend into Pharaoh’s own second 
 chariot, while a crier went before proclaiming that all must 
 do homage to him, for henceforth he was to be the governor 
 of the whole land of Egypt. 
 
 But what was the governorship over the land of Egypt 
 compared with the dignity of being entrusted, not only with 
 the care of Christ and His Ever-virgin Mother, but' of 
 being solemnly proclaimed Patron of the universal Church. 
 
16 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 j 
 
 Under Joseph’s care God wished to place all the members 
 of Christ’s mystic body, and for that reason, too, did He 
 bestow on him a father’s heart, vast in its capabilities of 
 love, that all might be embraced in its watchful protection 
 and tender affection. 
 
 The great service performed by the earlier Patriarch, be¬ 
 cause of which Pharaoh himself gave to him a new name, 
 which in the Egyptian tongue signified, “Savior of the 
 World,” consisted in saving from death the inhabitants not 
 merely of Egypt but also of the surrounding lands. And 
 this he did by preserving for them the wheat of the years 
 of abundance that it might keep them alive during the years 
 of starvation. 
 
 Here in truth he became the most beautiful prototype of 
 that later Joseph, who preserved from the hands of Herod 
 the true Bread of life, which is Christ Jesus. Joseph of 
 Egypt garnered away year by year the grain. harvested in 
 the time of plenty, and so Joseph, Patron of all the Church’s 
 children, year by year guarded and preserved for us Him 
 who in the years to come was to be our daily food in the 
 Holy Eucharist: 
 
 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 
 
 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and 
 the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the 
 world.—John vi. 51, 52. 
 
 Although Jesus is the one true “Saviour of the world,” 
 yet Joseph, too, had part in the sublime work of the world’s 
 redemption. St. Joseph, it has often been said, was the 
 savior of the Saviour of mankind. On him did we de¬ 
 pend for our Bread of life even far more than the world 
 in the ancient days depended on the Egyptian Joseph for 
 the purely material bread of the body. It was Joseph’s 
 virginity that made possible Mary’s Virginal Motherhood. 
 Great was the debt that Egypt owed to its preserver but far 
 greater is the debt that every human being owes and ever 
 must owe to Joseph. 
 
 But there are still other striking parallels. It was in 
 sleep that the great mystery of the Incarnation was made 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 17 
 
 known to Joseph and his own surpassing part in it, which 
 was henceforth to dominate and determine his whole life. 
 In the same way the Angel again came to him and bade 
 him take the Child and His Mother and flee with them 
 into Egypt. So, too, We are once more told, “an angel ot 
 the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt” ordering 
 him back into the land of rsrael. And when, on arriving 
 there, new dangers confronted him, “being warned in sleep,” 
 he retired “into the quarters of Galilee. And coming he 
 dwelled in a city called Nazareth.” 
 
 Can we fail to see how intimately in all this he was 
 prefigured by the Egyptian Joseph? A divinely sent , , 
 prophetic dream also determined the whole life of this 
 earlier Patriarch, precisely as in the case of St. Joseph. 
 His bretheren in fact called him “the dreamer,” and here 
 was the great dream itself that seemed most to have aroused 
 their jealousy: 
 
 • > He dreamed also another dream, which he told his 
 
 brethren, saying: “I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, 
 and the moon, and eleven stars worshipping me.”— 
 
 Gen. xxxvil. 9. 
 
 That dream was prophetic not merely of the future 
 greatness of Joseph, the future ruler of Egypt, but it also 
 can be most beautifully applied in the case of St. Joseph 
 himself, the Spouse of Mary and the virginal father of 
 Christ. 
 
 To “worship,” of course, does not in this connection 
 imply any religious act, but the homage paid by a subject 
 to a person in authority. To Joseph, Christ Himself, the 
 eternal Sun of Justice, and Mary, the Mother of God. who 
 reflected in tender beauty the dazzling brightness of that 
 Sun, were to give their most complete obedience. Christ 
 was “subject” to him, the Scripture plainly tells us. Mary, 
 too, as his true wife, joyfully rendered her own loving 
 obedience to Joseph as the head of the house. The sub¬ 
 mission of both to him, as the representative of the Eternal 
 Father, could not be shown more perfectly than in the 
 Angel’s summons: “Arise and take the child and his 
 
18 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 j 
 
 mother.” To Joseph—not to Jesus or to Mary—were the 
 orders of Heaven issued. Though he was in truth the 
 least of that Earthly Trinity, in grace and dignity inferior 
 to both Christ and Mary, yet he was the first and greatest 
 in authority. But for his own part he gives us the example 
 of the most perfect of superiors, sacrificing his whole life 
 in humble and unselfish devotion, to those whom God had 
 given into his faithful charge. 
 
 Thus, then, did Sun and Moon bow in sweet obedience 
 to Joseph, while the eleven stars, representing the tribes 
 of Israel and through them the Faithful of God’s Church, 
 over which Joseph is placed as the Patron of this mystic 
 Israel, unite in giving the most constant, universal and 
 affectionate veneration to him. Here, then, we have in all 
 truth “the sun, the moon, and eleven stars worshipping” 
 Joseph, that is, yielding complete obedience to him as did 
 Jesus and Mary, or giving loving veneration as does today 
 the Universal Church, placed like Christ Himself beneath 
 St. Joseph’s fostering care. What man was ever honored 
 like to this! 
 
 But, for our own sake, the best still remains to be said. 
 Why was the splendor and power of the Egyptian Pharaoh 
 providentially conferred on the earlier Joseph? Was it riot 
 that by using his position for the benefit of others and for 
 the glory of God he might become, in a sense, as Pharaoh 
 magnificently called him, the “savior of the world.” He 
 was not, like Christ, to save men from their sins, but 
 merely from their material wants, yet he was to be a di¬ 
 vinely ordained instrument for preserving the lives of his 
 own brethern as well as of countless others in his day. 
 When the famine at length broke out, and the people cried 
 to Pharaoh for food, all that he said to them was: “Go to 
 Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you.” 
 
 Here surely there is a great lesson to be learned, for 
 constantly the Church repeats to us the selfsame words: 
 “Go to Joseph!” 
 
 Catholics well know they have at all times free access to 
 God, and no one is ever placed as a hindrance between 
 them and Him. The sacred Humanity of Christ Itself is 
 not an obstacle to prevent their closest approach to the 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 19 
 
 Triune God, but a help leading up to Him. So, in their 
 own sweet way, Mary and Joseph have but one function, 
 and that is to bring us to Christ, for we are Christ’s and 
 Christ is God’s. Gently they lead us in our weakness up 
 to Him or bear us in their encircling arms where we might 
 else stumble and fall, or even fail entirely to attain our own 
 eternal destiny. They do far more. They intercede for 
 us, and where* our prayers are so weak, so feeble, and our 
 lives so unworthy, they obtain What else might be denied 
 us or certainly would be given in less fulness and abundance. 
 
 Christ cannot but be pleased if we love those whom He 
 loves most dearly, and so in her turn Mary cannot but 
 rejoice at the tender love we show to Joseph and the child¬ 
 like trust with which we go to him. So Christ Himself 
 did not disdain to have recourse to him for help 
 and for protection. Often, too, on his strong shoulders 
 Mary leaned and found comfort at his loyal, manly breast, 
 warm with boundless and untold affection. He was the 
 stay and help she needed in her weariness and trials, pa¬ 
 tiently endured for her Divine Son and Saviour. 
 
 More did she owe to Joseph than words can ever tell. 
 He was the guardian of her virginity, the preserver of her 
 Child, the support and sure reliance of her earthly life, 
 a guide along the way, a comfort in affliction, a new joy 
 added to her happiness for time and for eternity, and above 
 all the faithful confidant of the Divine secret that was safely 
 laid up in his devoted heart. 
 
 Is it then hard to see why Mary must love those who love 
 her loyal Spouse, and Why Christ Himself would have us 
 imitate the confidence that He unfailingly reposed in him? 
 Knowing St. Joseph as we now can know him, how could 
 we ever fully please either Jesus or Mary if we failed to 
 show him in our turn something at least of that honor, 
 love and confidence that they unceasingly bestowed 0*1 
 him? In the hands of Joseph, let us remember, is still the 
 mystic key to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary that can open 
 them for us at will. 
 
 Joseph of old might hold the keys to the granaries of 
 Egypt, but our own St. Joseph can open at will the golden 
 granaries of Heaven. Who would not go to Joseph? 
 
20 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 j 
 
 Considering the Egyptian Joseph as a type of our own 
 Saint, a most pertinent question has been asked regarding 
 those words coming from the lips of Pharaoh: “Go to 
 Joseph!” Are we to view them as really meant by the Holy 
 Ghost to apply to our own St. Joseph? If that is true they 
 necessarily imply the promise to us that our prayers shall 
 be heard with special favor when presented through him. 
 “Go to Joseph/’ spoken typically of St. Joseph, must be 
 understood with the additional, “and there you shall receive 
 help.” 
 
 Whatever deep meaning we give to these words, they 
 certainly have the highest significance for us. That much 
 at least we may say without doubt. The interpretation of 
 the Fathers, the liturgical use which the Church makes of 
 them, the exhortations from the See of Peter, all imply 
 that this counsel and admonition: “Go to Joseph!” is not 
 to be taken lightly. We cannot understand it in any other 
 way than as a solemn assurance on the part of Holy Church, 
 the Bride of Christ, that if we heed her voice, and in our 
 needs and trials “go to Joseph,” we cannot be disappointed. 
 Ite ad Joseph, “Go to Joseph!” she repeats with loving 
 insistance, until it has become a familiar refrain to every 
 ear: “Go to Joseph; and do all that he shall say to you.” 
 
 That last clause, too, we must not omit. To be like 
 Christ, children of Joseph, is not enough, we must like 
 Christ also be children obedient to him. The will of Jo¬ 
 seph is no other than the will of God in our regard. But 
 he in turn will help us to fulfil it perfectly, as he himself 
 fulfilled it here below. For he was ever a man faithful and 
 just. 
 
 But that our prayers may be heard we must naturally 
 comply with the conditions of every prayer of petition. We 
 should go to him with confidence and persistence, and what 
 we ask must be pleasing to God. Should our favor not 
 be granted then something better is doubtless in store for 
 us. From the Chair of Peter itself we are exhorted with 
 ardent words to cherish in our souls this trusting devotion 
 to St. Joseph. Addressing the universal Christian jvorld 
 Pope Leo XIII solemnly proclaimed: 
 
21 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Our heart harbors yet another wish. We deem it 
 most salutary that the Christian people, besides their 
 veneration for the Ever-Blessed Virgin and Mother of 
 God, honor oBo and'invoke with unbounded cdnfidence 
 her most pure Spouse, St. Joseph. ... We are greatly 
 concerned that this devotion strike deep root in the life 
 and habits of the Faithful. 
 
 Surely most needed by souls is that beautiful prayer we are 
 taught to recite daily from childhood up: 
 
 Guardian of virgins, and holy father Joseph, to whose 
 faithful custody Christ Jesus, Innocence itself, and Mary, 
 
 Virgin of virgins, were committed; I pray and beseech 
 thee, by these dear, pledges, Jesus and Mary, that, being 
 preserved from all uncleanness, I may with spotless mind, 
 pure heart and chaste body, ever serve Jesus and Mary 
 most chastely all the days of my life. 
 
 It is a pious belief, says St. Benardine of Sienna, though 
 certain proof cannot be given, that out of the greatness of 
 His filial love Jesus bestowed upon His Foster-father also 
 the privilege which He granted to Mary in her Assumption. 
 It is accepted by Saints and learned men that when, upon 
 the death of Jesus, “the graves opened and many bodies of 
 saints that had slept arose,” as the Scripture tells us, Joseph 
 \vas doubtless among their number. And it is further be¬ 
 lieved by them that his body did not thereafter return again 
 to dust, but that he now reigns, like Mary, glorious in body 
 and soul, with Christ. 
 
 : This, says no less an auhority than the great Jesuit the¬ 
 ologian Suarez, “is an opinion sufficiently accepted, accord¬ 
 ing to which it becomes probable that St. Joseph is reigning 
 with Christ in glorified body and soul.” (Opera Omnia, XIX, 
 Q xxix, art. ii, 8.) So, then, with St. Bernardine we may 
 gladly .and reasonably believe that “the Holy Family, united 
 on earth by a community of suffering and the bonds of love, 
 now in body and soul reigns glorified in Heaven. More hon¬ 
 ored than Joseph of Egypt is Joseph the spouse of Mary, 
 surpassing, we may further believe, all other saints in grace 
 and in beatitude. ! . v . 
 
IV. 
 
 WHY WE LOVE ST. JOSEPH 
 
 Devotion to St. Joseph is preeminently a Scriptural de¬ 
 votion. Its first promoter is the Holy Ghost. The strongest 
 impetus to its growth was given by the wiitings of the 
 early Fathers and Doctors of the Church. The pages of 
 St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose glow with the 
 praise of this great Saint. In the Middle Ages, St. Bernard 
 exalted his virtues. In more recent times, St. Bernardine 
 of Sienna, Gerson, St. Francis de Sales and St. Teresa are 
 illustrious for their devotion to this Saint of Saints. These 
 are but a few names out of the many to show that there 
 was no time when the glories of St. Joseph were ignored, 
 although in the Divine Providence the highest honor was 
 bestowed upon him in these later times when one hundred 
 and fifty-three of the Fathers gathered at the Vatican 
 Council petitioned that he be declared Patron of the Uni¬ 
 versal Church. 
 
 It was eminently fitting that this glorious dignity should 
 be conferred upon him, and that he who had been the 
 guardian of Christ and His Blessed Mother, should also be 
 the Patron of that Church which Christ came to found. 
 He who had nourished, protected and preserved the body of 
 the Saviour was rightly selected as the Patron of His mystic 
 body, consisting of all the Faithful. As the Head of the 
 Holy House of Nazareth he deserved also to be set as 
 guardian over that spiritual structure Christ would build 
 upon the Rock of Peter. Unbounded, therefore, was the joy 
 of all Christians when Pius IX solemnly proclaimed St. 
 Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. Leo XIII re¬ 
 affirmed this patronage and added all his prestige to the 
 promotion of the beautiful devotion to this great Saint, 
 which so strongly appeals to every Christian heart that truly 
 loves Christ and His Virgin Mother. 
 
 There is no age, no sex, no rank, no class, no profession 
 or walk of life whereof St. Joseph is not the proper 
 patron. Virgins can confidently call on him, for he was the 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 23 
 
 guardian of Mary. Those joined in holy wedlock will do 
 well to put themselves under his protection to whom was 
 given supreme charge over the holiest of families. Children 
 will sweetly fold their hands and seek his love and inter¬ 
 cession, since they know he bore in his strong arms the 
 sweet Christ Child. Youths and maidens all will find in 
 him a fatherly protector and a wise counsellor who safely 
 guided and tenderly cherished the maiden Mary and the 
 youthful Christ. The rich and the great of this earth can 
 look up to him as the noblest of a royal line, the princely 
 scion of David, the man exalted in his sublime position 
 above all dignities of earth and heaven, less only than the 
 Virgin Mother of God herself in his intimate relationship 
 to the Incarnate Word. But the poor and lowly and those 
 who drain the cup of suffering can best understand this 
 great but gentle Saint, with the hardened hands of toil, who 
 in the sweat of his brow earned the daily bread for Jesus 
 and for Mary. Doubtless, he too had tasted all the trials 
 and the hardships of this life, with its dearth and unem- 
 ployrqent, its weary search for labor, its wanderings among 
 people of an alien tongue, its often penurious wage, its 
 goading stings and harsh indignities from man’s unkindness 
 and the bitter bread of the poor. There are the pangs of 
 the poorest of the poor, and it is not unlikely that Joseph 
 felt them all. 
 
 It was Joseph who supported Mary when all the doors of 
 Bethlehem were shut upon them, who .turned into a home 
 the foul and loathsome stable that took on brightness from 
 the touch of Mary’s fingers, and who made ready for the 
 Infant Christ the one and only piece of rough-hewn, ancient 
 , furniture, the manger of the beasts. It was he who gathered 
 the clean straws and with loving hand placed them for a 
 bedding in the crib. With pious relism, W. M. Letts has 
 sketched the scene of adoration that now followed by first 
 describing its modem parallel, as in many a church and on 
 many a Christmas day it was to be repeated through the 
 centuries to come: 
 
24 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 _____j 
 
 Foreninst the crib there kneels a little child, 
 
 Behind him in her ragged shawl his mother, 
 
 For all the ages that have passed one child 
 Still finds God in another. 
 
 And there’s our Saviour lying in the hay, 
 
 Behind Him in her shawl His watchful Mother; 
 
 Two mothers with their sons, each knows the joys 
 And sorrows of the other. 
 
 The Father kneels away there by the door, 
 
 The hands he clasps in prayer are rough with labor; 
 
 The likes of Him that hunger and that toil 
 Once called St. Joseph neighbor. 
 
 St. Joseph is a saint that everyone must love. His own 
 love for Mary and for Jesus, his tender care for them 
 and their unbounded gratitude and sweet affection in re¬ 
 turn, make it impossible not to feel drawn to him, and 
 with Mary and Jesus to entrust ourselves to his care and 
 intercession. Love of St. Joseph might almost, in our day, 
 be called a test of the depth of true Catholicism. To think 
 of the Holy Family and leave him out of our range would 
 surely be a spiritual abnormality. Thus the Little Flower, 
 writing of her pilgrimage to Rome, says in her loving and 
 confident way: 
 
 I prayed especially to St. Joseph to watch over me. 
 
 From my childhood, devotion to him had been inter¬ 
 woven with my love for our Blessed Lady. Every day 
 I said the prayer beginning: “Guardian of virgins, and 
 holy father Joseph” ... so I felt that I was well pro¬ 
 tected and quite safe from danger. » 
 
 But there is another and most charming reference to him 
 which shows her childlike familiarity with the Holy Family 
 —and why indeed should we not all be perfectly at home 
 in that holy house of Nazareth, with those three most dear 
 and near to us: Jesus, Mary, Joseph! It was in the re¬ 
 fectory, she says, that the sweetest aspirations of love 
 often came to her. Sometimes she quite came to a stand¬ 
 still at the thought that Our Lord, if in her place, would 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 25 
 
 have partaken of the very dishes there set before her. Then 
 she adds, “Here are my little rubrics,” and she thus sets 
 forth her table program: 
 
 I imagine myself at Nazareth, in the house of the Holy 
 Family. If, for instance, I am served with salad, cold 
 fish, wine or anything pungent in taste, I offer it to St. 
 Joseph. To Our Blessed Lady I offer hot foods and ripe 
 fruits, and to the Infant Jesus our feast-day fare, espe¬ 
 cially broth, rice and preserves. 
 
 Lastly, when I am served a wretched dinner I say 
 cheerfully: “Today, my little one, it is all for you!” 
 
 That is Divine love at play. And there was much play 
 and joy, too, in that Holy Family, and not all sorrow, trial 
 and hardship. The gladdest hearts the world has ever 
 known were in that home, for the simple reason that they 
 were the holiest. Let us hold fast to that truth, and let 
 no wrong asceticism ever drive it out of our mind. To be 
 glad is our duty. Rejoice always, the Apostles tell us, but 
 rejoice in the Lord, 
 
 Mary and Joseph profoundly adored the God who hac: 
 made Himself their “Son,” nor need we imagine that it 
 was difficult for them to blend the most perfect devotion 
 the world has ever known with the sweetest family affection. 
 We see how the Little Flower herself can make her play¬ 
 mate of the Christ Child, and even far more perfectly than 
 she could Joseph and Mary both play with Him and adore 
 Him. Then, too, God gave to them a special grace that 
 went with this vocation. Coventry Patmore comes home to 
 a great truth when he thus naively describes St. Joseph’s 
 love for Mary and the love of Mary for Christ, all so 
 human and all so Divine: 
 
 Say, did his sisters wonder what could Joseph see 
 In a mild, silent little maid like thee? 
 
 And was it awful, in that narrow house, 
 
 With God.for Babe and Spouse? 
 
 Nay, like thy simple, female sort, each one 
 Apt to find Him in Husband and in Son, 
 
26 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 J 
 
 Nothing to thee came strange in this 
 Thy wonder was but wondrous bliss. . . . 
 
 All mothers worship little feet, 
 
 And kiss the very ground they’ve trod ; 
 
 But, oh, thy little Baby sweet 
 Who was indeed thy God! 
 
 We see here, too, how devotion to St. Joseph is always 
 connected with devotion to Mary and Jesus, and cannot but 
 help constantly to promote this in our lives. Best known 
 for her devotion to St. Joseph is undoubtedly the Patron 
 and spiritual Mother of the Little Flower, St. Teresa of 
 Avila. She herself tells us how Our Blessed Lady appeared 
 to her with Joseph to reward her for her great devotion 
 to him. ~ 
 
 She seemed to perceive, St. Teresa says, a white mantle 
 cast about her, showing how she was cleansed from all sin, 
 while Our Lady with both hands embraced her and ex¬ 
 pressed great pleasure at the affectionate devotion and love 
 shown for her pure Spouse St. Joseph. She then recom¬ 
 mended St. Teresa to turn to him for all that might be best 
 for the convent, with the assurance that, it would be granted 
 her. Finally, Our Lady presented her with a precious stone 
 as a pledge of what she had promised, while a rich necklace, 
 with a golden cross, seemed to be placed about her neck. 
 At the conclusion of this vision the soul of St. Teresa was 
 filled with a burning desire to live solely and alone for the 
 service of God. Such sentiments, together with the peace 
 which God gives, are the test, as St. Ignatius says, by 
 which we can always recognize the work of the good spirit 
 within our souls and can certainly know that we are not 
 being deceived or misled. 
 
 St. Joseph is in a special way the Patron of souls who 
 wish to make progress in the interior life, wherein he him¬ 
 self was a consummate master. This is true of all souls, no 
 mater how far they may proceed in the spiritual or mys¬ 
 tical life. A special evidence, if any evidence were needed, 
 are the frequent Divine communications vouchsafed him. 
 Four distinct occasions are mentioned in the Sacred Scrip¬ 
 tures on which he was favored with angelic visitations. But 
 we do not need these extraordinary signs of Heaven to 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 27 
 
 _i 
 
 appreciate how deeply versed in spiritual things he must 
 have been who for almost thirty years of his life was in 
 constant intercourse with the Mother of God and with God 
 Himsefl in human form. 
 
 Wisely did St. Teresa place under his special patronage 
 all the Carmelite convents she founded. To a great number 
 she gave his own name. Other religious Orders in the 
 Church similarly sought to honor St. Joseph. 
 
 Classical in the literature on our great Patriarch are St. 
 Teresa’s famous words that have inspired increased con¬ 
 fidence towards him in countless souls, ever since the day 
 they first were written: 
 
 I took St. Joseph for my patron and advocate, and 
 I recommend myself unceasingly to his protection. I 
 do not remember ever to have asked anything of him 
 that I did not obtain. 
 
 It seems as though God gives to other saints the 
 grace to assist us in some certain necessity; but according 
 to my experience St. Joseph assists us in every want, 
 
 Our Lord wishing to make us understand that, as He 
 was obedient to His Foster-father here upon earth, so 
 He now can refuse him no request in Heaven. Many 
 persons who have invoked him by my advice have ex¬ 
 perienced this truth, and the number of his clients in¬ 
 creases daily and corroborates what I declare. 
 
 I would desire to persuade everyone to honor so great 
 a Saint, so frequently have I been shown the powerful 
 influence he possesses with God. I have never met any¬ 
 one who had true devotion to him, who did not advance 
 rapidly in the path of virtue, because he mightily aids 
 all who recommend themselves to his intercession. 
 
 For several years past I have asked a special favor at 
 his festival, and it has always been granted; or, if the 
 request was not judicious, he has denied it for my 
 greater good. I implore those who do not credit this to 
 make the trial for themselves. Let him who has no guide 
 in the way of prayer take this great Patriarch for his 
 director, he will not go astray. 
 
 
* 
 
 V. 
 
 THE POWER OF ST. JOSEPH 
 
 It surely was a daring promise made by the Little Flower, 
 and yet not too daring to be wholly true, when she gave us 
 the assurance that God would deny her nothing in Heaven 
 for the simple reason that she had never refused Him any¬ 
 thing on earth. What then can God deny to St. Joseph 
 who is above all saints the model of obedience to the Divine 
 will ? • • , v 
 
 The obedience of St. Joseph is the great example of 
 obedience proposed to us. It does not, of course, surpass 
 the obedience of Christ and of Mary to Joseph himself. 
 But it is an obedience of which the Scriptures give us the 
 most minute details, with the clear purpose that we should 
 model our own obedience upon it, that so we may become 
 like to Christ. 
 
 The perfect copy of Christ was Mary, but the perfect 
 copy of both was Joseph. Before his eyes he ever held 
 their loving, breathing example. Never did he vary from 
 this until his eyes were closed forever by the loving touch 
 of the Divine Foster Son and a last fervent kiss was printed 
 on his white forehead by the virgin lips of Mary, his own 
 immaculate wife. 
 
 The path of his life had been one straight path of duty, 
 such as we all have to tread, with thorns and flowers along 
 the way. The thorns were many and long and sharp, but 
 the flowers in turn were bright and sweet. So there is but 
 one task for each and all of us, in which alone our happiness 
 can be found, and that is to do most perfectly God’s most 
 loving Will. We accomplish this, through His grace, by the 
 virtue of obedience, and our highest motive is Divine Love. 
 In all this Joseph is our great example. Like him let us 
 never fear and never hesitate, even for a moment’s space, 
 to do that most tender of all wills, the Divine Will. 
 
 St. Joseph’s obedience was most blind, unquestioning and 
 sublime. Tried by Almighty Cod in many and various ways, 
 it shone out like gold in the furnace. In time of doubt and 
 hesitation he humbly deliberated with God in prayer. What 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 29 
 
 .. --- i 
 
 could equal that first great trial in Mary’s regard? Yet 
 through it all the Scriptures can give him the sublime 
 praise: he was a “just man.” His resolution was formed 
 with equal charity to Mary, forgetfulness of himself and 
 complete compliance with the slightest inplication of the 
 Divine law. The “just man” must first be the obedient man. 
 
 The obedience of St. Joseph is such, as has been well 
 said, that it is the perfect echo of every Divine command. 
 “Arise and take the child and his Mother, and fly into 
 Egypt,” is the order given by God through His angel mes¬ 
 senger, and the echo comes back: “Who arose, and took the 
 child and his mother by night and retired into Egypt.” In 
 Joseph’s fulfilment there is even a phrase added that was 
 not literally in the Divine order—“by night.” That little 
 phrase contains in itself a prieele s wealth of meaning. It 
 shows not merely St. Joseph’s obedience, but his prompt 
 obedience. There is no moment’s thought or delay. The 
 order is clear and the fulfilment of it is both perfect and 
 instant. 
 
 It is therefore this flight into Egypt which for all time 
 will remain the example by which even saints can test the 
 perfection of their obedience, comparing their own efforts 
 with the qualities St. Joseph displayed. To save the Son 
 of the Infinite God from the hand of a weak human king, 
 he was to take “the child and his mother and fly with them 
 into Egypt.” There is no previous notice, no time for 
 preparation. The goal is a distant, benighted, pagan land. 
 There were Jews settled in that country, it is true, but how 
 could he find the way to them? The roads were surely un¬ 
 known to Joseph, the language would be strange. He re¬ 
 membered how even his own people had closed their doors 
 on him in Bethlehem. 
 
 And then, could not Almighty God have foreseen, or pre¬ 
 vented, or at least have eased and simplified this terrible 
 experience? There was no explanation and no direction 
 given him—only: “Arise, and take the child and his mother, 
 and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee.” He 
 did not mind what might befall himself, but think of the 
 Mother and Child! Yet without a word, without a question, 
 he flees out into the night, and trusts to God. For this 
 
30 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 reason he was to succeed in all things, even where failure 
 seemed most evident. His life was one great success in the 
 eyes of God. 
 
 And then think how perfect must have been his obedience 
 to every slighest inspiration of grace that he might be able 
 for all the many years to give command, in meekness and 
 humility, to Mary and to Christ. Through him the Eternal 
 Father spoke, and through him Mary’s invisible Spouse, 
 the Holy Ghost, perfectly carried out His Divine designs. 
 The soul of Joseph was ever alert, responsive to the least 
 whispering of God, obedient in the slightest as in the great¬ 
 est things. And so he who denied God nothing cannot now 
 be denied by God in anything, nor will he ever ask what 
 could be opposed to the Divine Will—that Will in whose 
 fulfilment all our greatness and our happiness must forever 
 consist. 
 
 If neither God the Father can refuse anything to him who 
 held His place on earth, nor the Holy Spirit who, as St. 
 Augustine says, was the conjugal love in that union 
 between Mary and Joseph, what can the Divine Son refuse 
 him whom tie beheld only under the sweet, compelling re¬ 
 lationship of “father”. For the paternity of Joseph, as the 
 Fathers and Doctors and theologians of the Church so 
 rightly insist, was true and real—all the more exalted be¬ 
 cause purely virginal. 
 
 Nor yet will the prayer of Joseph for us ascend alone 
 to the Triune God and to his Foster-Son. To it will in¬ 
 fallibly be added the mighty intercession of Mary. “Son, 
 Thy father and I . . . ” Those were the very words the 
 Scripture records from her lips, and how can Christ refuse 
 her now when with those selfsame words she joins her 
 prayers with those of Joseph, saying at the right hand of 
 the Saviour’s Throne: “Son, Thy father and I request...” 
 
 Surely we are safe in Joseph’s hands. True devotion to 
 him, it has well been said, cannot but be a pledge of eternal 
 salvation, because it-always must imply the truest and ten- 
 derest devotion to Mary and to Christ, for whom alone he 
 lived on earth, and with whom he is now inseparably united 
 in the glory of Heaven: one heart, one soul, one mind with 
 them. Affectionately, in his Hymn to St. Joseph, Faber 
 
YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 31 
 
 expressed the pious aspirations of the Faithful throughout 
 the world when he wrote: 
 
 There are many saints above 
 Who love us with true love, 
 
 Many angels ever nigh; 
 
 But Joseph, none there be, 
 
 O, none who love like thee! 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
 Thou wert guardian of Our Lord, 
 
 Foster-father of the Word, 
 
 Who in thine arms did lie; 
 
 If we His brothers be, 
 
 We are foster-sons to thee. 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die/ 
 
 Thou wert Mary’s earthly guide, 
 
 Forever at her side, 
 
 O, for her sake, hear our cry; 
 
 For we follow in thy way, 
 
 Loving Mary as we may, 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
 Thou to Mary’s virgin love 
 Wert the image of the Dove, 
 
 Who was her Spouse on high; 
 
 Bring us gifts from Him, dear Saint, 
 
 Bring us comfort when we faint, 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
 Thou wert a shadow thrown 
 From the Father’s summit lone, 
 
 Over Mary’s life to lie; 
 
 O, be thy shadow cast 
 
 O’er our present and our past, 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
 Sadly o’er the desert sand, 
 
 Into Egypt’s darksome land, 
 
 As an exile didst thou fly; 
 
 And we are exiles, too, 
 
 With a world to travel through,' 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
32 
 
 YOUR OWN ST. JOSEPH 
 
 -—--- i 
 
 When thy gentle years were run, 
 
 On the bosom of thy Son, 
 
 Like an infant didst thou lie': 
 
 I * 
 
 O, by thy happy death, 
 
 In that tranquil Nazareth, 
 
 Dearest of Saints, be near us when we die! 
 
 Devotion to St. Joseph is most fittingly connected with 
 our prayer and preparation for a happy death, the crown 
 of a Christian life. The death of Joseph in the arms of 
 Jesus and Mary has inspired Christian art with some of its 
 noblest conceptions as it has aided millions of Christians 
 by their confidence in our great Saint, to perfect themselves 
 in those two supreme arts, the art of living well and of 
 dying well. 
 
 To the special friends of St. Joseph every Wednesday of 
 their lives is a red-letter day. With each revolving week 
 the return of that day, dedicated to St. Joseph, brings 
 renewed confidence and joy. Their hearts go out to him in 
 affectionate devotion and . love that find expression, if not 
 always in lengthy prayers, yet, at least in the filial 
 uplifting of their thoughts to him. In the same way, too, 
 the Month of Joseph is dear to them like the Month of 
 Mary, and the Christmas season, or the Month of the Sacred 
 Heart, and there are countless ways in which they can 
 manifest the warmth of their childlike trust in him. 
 
 Some there are who wear the Cincture of St. Joseph, 
 some who practise the Church’s beautiful and indulgenced 
 devotion to the seven sorrows and the seven joys of his life. 
 But all, whether they do much or little, know that their de¬ 
 votion to Joseph is devotion to Mary and to Christ, and 
 evermore leads up to this. It is not confined to any day or 
 month, but runs through all their lives, in constant union 
 with devotion to Jesus and Mary. Perfectly and fer¬ 
 vently this threefold affection of every Catholic heart is 
 summed up in that indulgenced aspiration which the Church 
 places upon the lips of all her children: 
 
 Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul; 
 
 Jesus, Mary, Joseph, assist me at the hour of my death; 
 
 Jesus, Mary, Joseph, may I die in your sweet embrace! 
 
Important Pamphlets by the Same Author 
 
 The Sacred Heart. A complete exposition of this devo¬ 
 tion, together with an account of its early history and 
 of the revelations to Sts. Mechtilde, Gertrude and Mar¬ 
 garet Mary. There is a lucid explanation of its prac¬ 
 tices and promises. To spread this pamphlet is an 
 apostolate. 
 
 The Heart of the Little Flower. A revelation of the 
 charm and beauty of this favorite of God and man. 
 Her Little Way and her secrets of sanctity are here 
 made plain. It is a summary of her spiritual life. The 
 pamphlet has won its way into thousands of hearts. 
 
 The Christ Child. Dealing with the prophecies concern¬ 
 ing the Christ Child, the beauty and mysteries of His 
 coming, and finally presenting Saint Therese in the de¬ 
 lightful role of Laureate of the Divine Child. Inter¬ 
 spersed are some of the finest Christ Child poems. 
 
 The Souls in Purgatory. Setting forth the entire Cath¬ 
 olic doctrine on Purgatory, giving its Scriptural proofs 
 and other reasons, while also showing the modern 
 Protestant attitude. Spiritism and indulgences are 
 treated here, and the best means of helping the Poor 
 Souls. 
 
 God and Caesar. This pamphlet clearly defines the rela¬ 
 tion between Church and State. It opens with a brief 
 history touching on this subject, from the landing of 
 the Pilgrims to the Ku Klux. Important chapters are: 
 “Is the Church in Politics?” “Church and People,” 
 “Church and State.” 
 
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