Introduction to the Week of Consecration to the Heart of St. Joseph
We make our way to consecrated our hearts to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus by first going through the path that Jesus Himself went through. The first step was actually creating the Immaculate Conception and still finding in her many years later the pure Heart and readiness to say Yes, but first God entrusted her to the Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph. St. Joseph’s marriage to the Virgin Mary was a necessary precursor to the Annunciation. God did not create the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the womb of Mary until her Immaculate Heart had first been entrusted to St. Joseph. We can muse over the reasons for this, but one seems to be that God started the work of redemption not just with an individual dropped from the sky, but rather with a family. There was one cell of perfect love from which the grace of redemption could pour forth. And in that little Holy Family there was already a taste of heaven.
For this reason, by conforming and even consecrating our hearts to the heart of Joseph, we prepare our hearts for consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What then are the qualities of his heart? We meditate first on its purity. Although there have been discussions about the sinlessness of Joseph, the great Josephologist, Fr. Francis Filas wrote in his monumental work The Man Closest to Jesus: “All authorities agree that St. Joseph must have been confirmed in grace. This is a minimum opinion, generally accepted. It means that God’s providence surrounded the Saint with such helps that he did not sin grievously nor, in general, did he commit fully deliberate sin. The reason usually given for holding this opinion rests on Joseph’s vocation and on his intimacy with mary and with Jesus.”1 St. John Henry Newman makes the same claim in our first meditation.
St. Francis de Sales was a great lover and preacher about St. Joseph and he invites us to meditate on St. Joseph’s great virtues such as courage, perseverance, constancy, and above all humility. He further emphasizes the connection between St. Joseph’s humility and his chastity. As one of his great virtues, chastity is so beautiful and so little understood. To reflect on the most chaste heart of St. Joseph we consider some passages from the Catechism on Chastity.
The Popes have seen St. Joseph as a great lover of Jesus and Mary and their protector. By extension, he continues to love and protect the mystical Body of Jesus, the Church, which has Mary as its heart and perfection in heaven. For that reason he is our guardian and protector as well. By learning to place ourselves under his protection, we will conform our hearts more and more to his.
- Francis Lad Filas, Joseph: The Man Closest to Jesus: The Complete Life, Theology and
Devotional History of St. Joseph (St. Paul Editions, 1962), 413. ↩︎
Day 13: The Pure Heart of St. Joseph
READING 1
Psalm 15
Lord, who may abide in your tent, and dwell on your holy mountain? Whoever walks without fault; who does what is upright, and speaks the truth from his heart. Whoever does not slander with his tongue; who does no wrong to a neighbor, who casts no slur on a friend, who looks with scorn on the wicked, but honors those who fear the Lord. Who keeps an oath, whatever the cost, who lends no money at interest, and accepts no bribes against the innocent. Such a one shall never be shaken.
READING 2
From a meditation on St. Joseph prepared by St. John Henry Newman
(1) Joseph was pure and innocent in a way unlike any other man who ever lived, our Lord excepted. His soul was as white as snow. He had nothing whatever within his heart to make him ashamed, and he would have found it most difficult to find matter for confession. O Joseph, make me so blameless and irreproachable that I should not care though friends saw into my heart as perfectly as Jesus and Mary saw into thine. O gain me the grace of holy simplicity and affectionateness, so that I may love thee, Mary, and, above all, Jesus, as thou didst love Jesus and Mary.
(2) Joseph was as humble as he was sinless. He never thought of himself, but always of the Infant Saviour, whom he carried in his arms. O holy Joseph, make me like thee in purity, simplicity, innocence and devotion.
(From Tuesday of his Meditations for Eight Days)
REFLECTION
We begin our week of St. Joseph guided by St. John Henry Newman, reflecting on Joseph’s purity of heart, his holy simplicity, his innocence and his devotion. Purity, simplicity and innocence include an integrity and transparency that means one is the same, consistent—all the way through. Like pure spring water, it is not discolored and has no debris. It is pure and clear. Joseph’s yes meant yes and his no meant no.
Newman invites us into a meditation on our own hearts, in how it would feel to be totally seen, the way that Jesus and Mary could totally see Joseph. Do we have the taint of the world or the duplicity of sin? How integrated is my heart? Is there anything that would cause me to feel shame, standing totally exposed before Jesus and Mary? The Sacrament of Confession is the place where we can expose everything to Jesus and He heals it with His mercy so we never need to be ashamed before Him.
Newman also gives the true motive of this purity of heart—so that I can love Jesus and Mary like St. Joseph did. That’s the goal of this week. Throughout the week we have a choice of prayers. Feel free to pray all of them, or to choose a different one each day, as you feel led by the Holy Spirit.
Litany of St. Joseph or
Ancient Prayer of St. Joseph or
Ad te beate Ioseph
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