“Saint Joseph With The Infant Jesus”.
Artist: Guido Reni (1575-1642).
Date: 1620s.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.
Collection: Hermitage Museum.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 5.
Lent.
Today, Joseph, the Spouse of The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Foster-Father of The Son of God, comes to cheer us by his dear presence.
In a few days hence, the august Mystery of The Incarnation will demand our fervent Adoration; who could better prepare us for the grand Feast, than he that was both the confidant and the faithful guardian of The Divine Secret ?
The Son of God, when about to descend upon this Earth to assume our human nature, would have a Mother; this Mother could not be other than the purest of Virgins, and her Divine Maternity was not to impair her incomparable Virginity.
“Litaniæ Sancti Joseph”.
Litany of Saint Joseph.
Gregorian Chant.
Sung by:
Available on YouTube
Until such time as The Son of Mary were recognised as The Son of God, His Mother’s honour had need of a protector; some man, therefore, was to be called to the high dignity of being Mary’s Spouse. This privileged mortal was Joseph, the most chaste of men.
Heaven designated him as being the only one worthy of such a treasure: The rod he held in his hand in the Temple suddenly produced a flower, as though it were a literal fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaias: “There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root”.
The rich pretenders to an alliance with Mary were set aside; and Joseph was espoused to The Virgin of The House of David, by a union which surpassed in love and purity everything the Angels themselves had ever witnessed.
But he was not only chosen to the glory of having to protect The Mother of The Incarnate Word; he was also called to exercise an adopted paternity over the very Son of God.
Saint Joseph.
Artist: Guido Reni (1575–1642).
Date: 1640-1642.
Source/Photographer:
The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000
Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM),
distributed by DIRECTMEDIA
Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202.
Collection: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
(Wikimedia Commons)
So long as the mysterious cloud was over the Saint of Saints, men called Jesus “the Son of Joseph” and “the Carpenter’s Son”.
When Our Blessed Lady found the Child Jesus in the Temple, in the midst of the Doctors, she thus addressed Him: “Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing”; and the Holy Evangelist [Editor: Saint Luke] adds that Jesus was subject to them, that is, He was subject to Joseph as He was to Mary.
Who can imagine or worthily describe the sentiments which filled the heart of this man, whom the Gospel describes to us in one word, when it calls him “the Just Man” ?
“The Heavenly Trinity And The Earthly Trinity”.
Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).
Date: 1681.
Collection: THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Source/Photographer:
(Wikimedia Commons)
“Who Saint Joseph Was
And Why You Need to Know Him”.
Available on YouTube
Let us try to picture him to ourselves amidst the principal events of his life: His being chosen as the Spouse of Mary, the Most Holy and Perfect of God’s creatures; the Angel’s appearing to him, and making him the one single human confidant of the Mystery of The Incarnation, by telling him that his Virgin bride bore within her the fruit of the World’s salvation; the joys of Bethlehem, when he assisted at the birth of The Divine Babe, honoured The Virgin Mother, and heard the Angels singing; his seeing first the humble and simple Shepherds, and then the rich, Eastern, Magi, coming to the stable to Adore the new-born Child.
The sudden fears which came to him, when he was told to arise, and, midnight as it was, to flee into Egypt with the Child and the Mother; the hardships of that exile, the poverty and the privations which were endured by the hidden God, whose foster-father he was, and by the Virgin, whose sublime dignity was now so evident to him; the return to Nazareth, and the humble and laborious life led in that village, where he so often witnessed the World’s Creator sharing in the work of a Carpenter.
“The Flight Into Egypt”.
Artist: Giotto.
Date: 14th-Century.
Source: Own work.
Attribution:
© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /
Author: José Luiz.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The happiness of such a life, in that cottage where his companions were The Queen of the Angels and the Eternal Son of God, both of Whom honoured and tenderly loved him as the head of the family — yes, Joseph was beloved and honoured by the uncreated Word, the Wisdom of The Father, and by The Virgin, the masterpiece of God’s power and holiness.
From Heaven, he exercises a powerful protection over those that invoke him. In a few weeks from this time, The Church will show us the whole magnificence of this protection; a Solemn Feast will be kept in his honour in the Third Week after Easter.
Today, the Liturgy sets before us his glories and privileges. Let us unite with the Faithful throughout the World, and offer to the Spouse of Mary the Hymns which are this day sung in his praise.
“Litaniæ Sancti Joseph”.
Litany of Saint Joseph.
Gregorian Chant.
Sung by:
Available on YouTube
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