Joseph, Loving with a Father’s Heart
With a Father’s heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus. Matthew and Luke, the two evangelists who speak most of Joseph, tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence. We know that Joseph was a lowly carpenter betrothed to Mary, a “just man” ever ready to carry out God’s will as revealed to him in the Law and through four dreams. He had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel. Each of us can discover in Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.
—Pope Francis
Joseph, Be with Us: Monthly Prayer for February
Joseph, husband of Mary, be with us this day. You protected and cherished Mary; loving the child Jesus as your Son, you rescued him from the danger of death. Defend the Church, the household of God, purchased by the blood of Christ. Guardian of the holy family, be with us in our trials. May your prayers obtain for us the strength to flee from error and wrestle with the powers of corruption so that in life we may grow in holiness and in death rejoice in the crown of victory. Amen.
Image: Go To Joseph by Michael O'Neill McGrath. World Library Publications.
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