For seven Sundays, we will accompany St. 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.
Initial Prayer to the Heart of Jesus
Heart of Jesus, Eternal Word of the Father, Supreme and Eternal Priest,
who not only wanted 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 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 on 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 fanfare,
the 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 wanted to deliver yourself, to the faithful custody of the just Joseph.
Amen.
Sorrow: having nothing to offer – Joy: to guard the Incarnate Word (Lk 2:1-20)
Joseph, guardian of the Redeemer and minister of the mystery, we contemplate you in Bethlehem,
inwardly recollected, vigilant before every movement of God.
You suffer the sorrow of poverty, not complaining,
but accepting that God has wanted to begin his work in destitution.
You would like to offer the eternal Son a worthy place, and you find only a stable.
But when Mary hands you the Child, you understand that the treasure of heaven is entrusted to you.
The Word made flesh rests in your arms.
He who sustains the universe allows himself to be guarded by you.
Your soul, accustomed to contemplation, adores in silence.
The greatness of the mystery does not trouble you, because you always live in God.
Here the Church learns that Christ is not guarded with power, but with interior purity;
not with human means, but with fidelity.
Teach us, Joseph, to guard Christ in the real poverty of the Church,
with deep interior life and faithful obedience.
***
Final Prayer to Mary, Spouse of the Carpenter
Most Holy Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and Spouse 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 this way, Mother:
with our hearts set on heaven while our feet tread the earth;
serving, working, guarding the mystery,
knowing that everything is a passage and everything is sowing for eternity.
Entrust us to Joseph, who lives with you forever in God; deliver our final hour to him,
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.