Prayer to the Father
Eternal Father, source of all light and all paternity in heaven and on earth:
your Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord, wanted to learn to obey and love
in the silence of the home of Nazareth,
under the watchful and humble gaze of Joseph, your faithful servant.
You wanted to entrust to this just man the two greatest wonders of your love:
Jesus, your beloved Son, and Mary, the one full of grace.
May we, by contemplating his quiet faith, his prompt obedience,
his hidden strength and his clean and faithful heart,
also learn to live the Gospel in the simplicity of each day,
to safeguard the grace received
and to persevere in goodness even when the night seems long.
Your Son wanted to live subject to Joseph on earth,
because in this holy Patriarch you placed a mystery of spiritual paternity
for your entire Church.
Grant us, therefore, that by approaching him with filial confidence
we may learn the hidden fidelity of Nazareth,
the prompt obedience to your will
and the silent love that sustains Christian life.
Through Jesus Christ, your Son,
who wanted to live subject to the earthly authority of the carpenter of Nazareth
and to love him with filial love.
Amen.
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, gentle light that filled the house of Nazareth with grace.
Form in us the Heart of Christ according to the strong and faithful model of Saint Joseph,
so that we may learn from him silent obedience,
purity of soul and fidelity that does not tire.
You who inspired Teresa of Jesus with such great love for this glorious Patriarch, kindle in us too that same filial affection,
so that we may experience what she herself affirmed with such simplicity and firmness:
«I took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph, and commended myself much to him…
I do not remember until now having asked him for something that he has not done.»
Amen.
Blessed Joseph, when the soul pauses to consider your life, it does not know well where to begin, because everything in it speaks of a greatness so hidden that it is only discovered when looked at slowly in the light of God. Your greatness, Joseph, was not that of men who make noise in the world, nor that of those who seek to be seen: your greatness lay in the mission that the Eternal Father wanted to entrust to you. Because no man was ever entrusted with such a treasure. The Father delivered his own Son to you. You carried in your arms the Word made flesh; you watched over the sleep of the Child who had created the stars; you taught to walk the one who had traced the paths of the earth; you gave bread to the one who is Bread of life. And you did it with the humble naturalness of your soul united to the God of Israel.
Saint Teresa, who dealt so much with you and spoke so much of your favors, marveled deeply at this: that the Lord had trusted a man to that extent. And she said with the simplicity born of experience: «I do not remember until now —she writes— having asked him for something that he has not done.» It is no wonder, Joseph, because he who was the custodian of Christ on earth cannot fail to care now for those who belong to Christ.
You defended the Child when Herod sought him to kill him; you heard in the night the voice of God commanding you to flee, and without delay you took the Child and his Mother and set out on uncertain paths to Egypt. You watched over them in exile, and led them back to the hidden peace of Nazareth. You did all that in silence. It was enough for you to know that God wanted it.
And so the years of Nazareth passed, between the work of the workshop, the care of the house and the simple life of each day. There you taught the Child Jesus the trade of hands, and the Creator of the world himself wanted to learn human work from you. When I think about this, I understand that God delights in hiding his greatest wonders in humility. But I also understand something else that touches me very closely: that Christ has also been entrusted to me. I have received him in faith, in grace; I receive him in the Eucharist. He dwells in my soul like in a small interior Nazareth. And yet, how many times I live as if I did not carry that treasure!
That is why I turn to you, Joseph, my father and lord: teach me to safeguard Jesus as you safeguarded him; teach me your loving vigilance that does not tire, your strong silence that protects the sacred, your humble fidelity that seeks no applause. And if the world, like another Herod, wants to tear Christ from my life, give me your quiet courage to defend him.
Guard, Joseph, what God has placed in my hands; I know well that if you watch over me as you watched over Jesus, I will never lack the shelter of heaven.
Concluding Prayer to the Most Holy Virgin
Most holy Mary, faithful Spouse of the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph
and blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ:
your life was inseparably united to that of that just man
to whom God entrusted the care of your days and the custody of the eternal Son made Child.
You knew better than anyone the silent nobility of Joseph:
his quiet faith, his prompt obedience, his clean heart,
his humble work in the workshop of Nazareth,
his loving vigilance over the Child who slept under your roof.
You saw how, day after day,
he sustained the life of the Holy Family with the effort of his hands;
how he watched over you in the uncertain nights;
how he obeyed the voice of God
even when the path opened amid shadows.
And beside him you yourself lived that hidden life that the world scarcely knows,
but that heaven contemplates with admiration:
life of deep prayer and humble work,
of silent mortification and constant fidelity to God’s plan.
Teach us, Immaculate Mother, to love that hidden life of Nazareth;
to discover the greatness of the small,
the fruitfulness of silent sacrifice
and the peace that comes from living entirely for God.
Oh, Mary, how much Joseph loved you and how his heart rejoiced in serving you;
that is why today, with humble delicacy, he leads us to you.
Because Joseph’s heart, so strong and so noble,
knows that no one approaches Jesus with greater security than by your hand.
That is why we turn to you today with filial confidence:
teach us to go to Joseph with love;
make us learn to take refuge under his patronage,
to trust in his powerful intercession and to imitate the fidelity of his life.
What sweet contention!:
Joseph, with elegant chivalry, leads us to you;
you, with spousal wisdom, lead us to Joseph;
and both, with the tenderness of parents, always place us with Jesus.
May we, taken by your united hands,
learn to love the Lord more and more
and to desire with all our soul that his reign extend in the world.
Make, Mary, the Heart of your Son reign in our lives,
in our families and in the entire Church.
And may we, sustained by your maternal love and by the protection of the glorious Saint Joseph, always live in the fidelity of Nazareth,
until the day when we can contemplate Jesus forever in the glory of heaven.
Amen.