READING 1
Luke 2:1-7
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
READING 2
From a Sermon on St. Joseph by St. Francis de Sales
It is certainly with very good reason that St. Joseph is said to resemble the palm tree, for he was always strong, courageous, constant, and persevering. There is a great difference between constancy and perseverance, and between strength and courage. We call those constant who stand firm and prepared to suffer the assaults of their enemies, without weakening or losing courage during the combat; but perseverance chiefly concerns a certain interior weariness that comes upon us amidst the lengthy duration of our sufferings, which is as powerful an enemy as can be encountered. Now perseverance makes us despise this enemy in such a way that we remain victorious by a continual evenness and submission to the will of God. Strength is what makes us powerfully resist the attacks of our enemies; but courage is a virtue that makes one not only hold oneself in readiness to fight or to resist when the occasion presents itself, but also to attack the enemy at the moment when it is least expected. Now our glorious St. Joseph was endowed with all these virtues, and he practiced them marvelously well.
You understand, then, how exalted was the dignity of St. Joseph, and how full he was of all sorts of virtues; nevertheless, he was more abject and humble than one can say or imagine. One example alone suffices to make it well understood. He goes into his own country and to his own town of Bethlehem, and no one was turned away from all the inns but himself, at least as far as we know; thus he was forced to retire and to take his chaste Spouse into a stable, among the oxen and asses [Luke 2:4-7]. Oh, to what extremity was his abjection and his humility reduced! His humility was the reason, thus St. Bernard explains it, that he wanted to leave Our Lady when he saw that she was with child; for St. Bernard says that he held this conversation with himself: “And what is this? I know that she is a virgin, for we have made a vow together to keep virginity and purity, which she would not on any account break; yet I see that she is with child and that she is a mother: how can it be that maternity is found in virginity and that virginity does not prevent maternity? O God!, he said to himself, must she not be that glorious ‘Virgin,’ of whom the prophets declare that ‘shall conceive’ and be the Mother of the Messiah [Isaiah 7:14]? Oh, if it be so, God forbid that I should remain with her, I who am so unworthy. It is better that I leave her secretly on account of my unworthiness, and that I do not remain any longer in her company.” An admirable feeling of humility, making St. Peter cry out in the boat in which he was with Our Lord, when Peter saw His almighty power manifested in the great draught of fishes on His only commanding that they cast their nets into the sea: “O Lord,” he said, completely overwhelmed by a feeling of humility like St. Joseph, “depart from me, for I am a sinful man” [Luke 5:8], and hence I am not worthy to be with You. I know well, he meant to say, that if I throw myself into the sea, I shall perish; but, You, who are all powerful, will walk upon the waters without danger; therefore, I entreat You to depart from me, and not that I should depart from You.
REFLECTION
St. Francis de Sales was a great lover and admirer of St. Joseph. He held St. Joseph in very high esteem and presented him unhesitatingly as a great example for our imitation. Here he lauds St. Joseph’s constancy, perseverance, courage and strength. He distinguishes those four qualities, but together they provide a picture of stability and trustworthiness in the face of any kind of adversity. St. Joseph can teach us that kind of stability as well in the midst of the trials we are subjected to in this world. As the prevailing philosophies and political ideologies drift farther away from Christianity, our faith is threatened. We know there were more martyrs in the twentieth century than all previous centuries combined. It takes constancy, perseverance, strength and courage to be a follower of Christ.
Even more importantly, though, it takes humility. Joseph found himself in a lofty place, to be the man closest to Jesus at His Incarnation and for the majority of His earthly life. Aware that this honor was not one he could choose for himself, St. Francis de Sales (following St. Bernard) explains Joseph’s decision to release Mary from him, to give her leave to depart from him. But it is the same humility that accepts the calling when it is presented to him clearly by the angel in the dream: “You shall name him Jesus,” telling him in this way that he was to be the earthly father who would foster Jesus’s earthly life. How is your heart? Constant? Persevering? Strong? Courageous? Humble? Do you refuse to grasp at honors and yet are ready to accept them if it is God’s will? Are you ready to answer God’s call for you?
Litany of St. Joseph or
Ancient Prayer of St. Joseph or
Ad te beate Ioseph
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