ST JOSEPH DEVOTIONAL
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I once knew a priest who made a habit of including St. Joseph's name at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer. She would pray that we would enter the everlasting heritage of God's children, "with the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, Joseph, Guardian of the Incarnate Word, and all [God's] saints." I don't know where she got the phrase "Guardian of the Incarnate Word," but it has stuck with me all these years.
There's something of an irony to this title for Joseph, who himself never speaks a word anywhere in the Bible. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew Joseph is spoken to ("don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife") and spoken about ("Joseph was a righteous man"), but he, for his part, is silent.
What he does do, unfailingly, is act to guard others. He takes action to protect the vulnerable. Even before God sends a messenger to confirm that Mary's pregnancy is of the Holy Spirit, Joseph was "unwilling to expose her to public disgrace." He is more concerned with protecting her than with the prosecution of his legal rights, even when he has every reason to believe that she's betrayed him. And when he learns that the baby is not a sign that Mary has rejected him, but a sign that God has chosen them both, he acts again - he marries her and willingly takes on the task of serving as the human father to God's own child. He acts again, after Jesus is born, to protect him from the soldiers sent to follow King Herod's murderous orders. He leaves his home and becomes a stranger in a foreign country because that is what it takes to protect his son, Mary's son, God's Son.
This Lent I am spending time reflecting on how I might be quicker to listen and slower to speak. I'm thinking about how I might be less ready to demand my own rights, and readier to act for the sake of protecting the wellbeing of others, especially those more vulnerable than I. I'm praying for some small piece of Joseph's quiet, righteous, unfailing courage, and of his love for Jesus.
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O Blessed Joseph, unto whose faithful guardianship was committed Christ Jesus, whom I have now received in this mighty Sacrament: pray for me that I may guard, cherish, and love him who now abides in all intimacy in my heart. Amen. - A post-communion intercession to St. Joseph, taken from St. Augustine's Prayerbook
