For seven Sundays we will accompany Saint Joseph on a spiritual journey that will allow us to contemplate, step by step, his sorrows and joys, and learn from his silent and faithful obedience in the mystery of the Incarnation.
By Mons. Alberto José González Chaves
INITIAL PRAYER TO THE HEART OF JESUS
Heart of Jesus, eternal Word of the Father, Supreme and eternal Priest, who not only wished to dwell among men, but to learn from a man in the daily obedience of the house of Nazareth. You, who looked upon Joseph not only as a protector, but as a true father, placed by the heavenly Father to introduce you to the Law, to work, to prayer, and to the silence of Israel.
He guarded your most holy Body and defended your fragile life, with the visible example of what it means to live entirely for God. Grant us, Lord, to be in these seven Sundays like disciples admitted into the royal intimacy of your home. Make us learn from Joseph what you yourself learned: silent obedience, holy manhood, fidelity without noise, love that serves without taking center stage.
Heart of Jesus, introduce your Church into the hidden school of Nazareth, and deliver us, as you yourself wished to deliver yourself, to the faithful custody of the just Joseph. Amen.
FIRST SUNDAY
Sorrow: the trial of the mystery – Joy: obedience born of light (Mt 1,18-25)
Joseph, most just man and full of light, the Gospel shows you in silence, but Tradition reveals you in depth. When you discover that Mary is with child, suspicion does not assail you, but reverential fear before a work that you recognize as divine. Your sorrow does not arise from distrust, but from humility: you judge yourself small before so lofty a mystery.
Your silence is not bewilderment: it is contained adoration. You withdraw, pray, and await confirmation, because you know that God’s designs are not forced or invaded. Here the Church learns that the mystery of God is received, guarded, obeyed.
When the angel speaks, he does not reveal something foreign, but confirms what your soul, illuminated by grace, had already sensed. Then you obey promptly, without words, with profound peace: Joseph did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him.
Teach us, Joseph, that obedience born of interior light, that humility which does not appropriate the gift received, but serves it trembling before God.
FINAL PRAYER TO MARY, WIFE OF THE CARPENTER
Most Holy Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and Wife of the just Joseph crowned in heaven, you know the end of the journey because you have passed first through faith, the cross, and glory. You know that the life of Nazareth is silence that flows into vision, obedience that opens to eternal light, hidden life that blooms in glory.
Teach us to live thus, Mother: with the heart set on heaven while our feet tread the earth; serving, working, guarding the mystery, knowing that everything is passage and everything is sowing for eternity.
Entrust us to Joseph, who lives with you forever in God; deliver to him our final hour, when the body fades and the soul is called to present itself before the Father. May Joseph then await us as a vigilant father and sure guide; may he take us by the hand in the decisive passage and introduce us, without fear, into the House where there is no night or fatigue.
Mary, allow us to live as Joseph lived in Nazareth: in faith, in obedience, in confident abandonment. And to die as Joseph died in Nazareth: in your arms and those of your Jesus.
And make it so that, accompanied by you and your most chaste Spouse, we may hear the voice of the Son who calls us by name and makes us enter forever into the joy of the Father and the endless delight of the Spirit. Amen.