Prayer to the Father
Eternal Father, source of all light and of all fatherhood 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 fatherhood
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 the 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,
the purity of the soul and the fidelity that does not tire.
You who inspired in Teresa of Jesus 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 up to now having asked him for anything that he has not granted.»
Amen.
Meditation of the Day
Blessed Joseph, the Church has invoked you for centuries as the patron of a happy death; and this confidence does not arise solely from a pious devotion, but from the profound spiritual logic that is discovered by contemplating your life. Because if your existence unfolded in the silent fidelity of Nazareth, your death must also have been a death full of peace: a death illuminated by the presence of Jesus and by the tenderness of Mary, those whom you had served with constant love throughout your life.
The Christian tradition contemplates with emotion that final moment. After so many years of humble work, silent vigilance and daily fidelity, the hour had come to rest in God. And there they were beside you, Those whom you had cared for with such solicitude: the Son of God, who had wanted to call you father on earth, and the most holy Virgin, your all-pure spouse, who had shared with you the hidden mission of Nazareth. It is not difficult to imagine the serenity of that instant.
You had always lived in the will of God; you had accepted every event with trusting obedience; you had walked the path of your life with that discreet fidelity that does not seek applause, but that is precious in the eyes of heaven. That is why your death appears to Christians as a luminous image of what it means to die in the friendship of God.
Because death, for one who has lived in grace, is not a failure or a defeat; it is the definitive passage to the Father’s house, the moment when the soul leaves behind the fatigues of the earth and enters into eternal peace.
However, blessed Joseph, we know well that the human heart trembles before that passage. Illness, the weakness of the body, the uncertainty of the last moments, can fill the spirit with unease; and often loneliness accompanies the last days of life. That is why the Church turns to you with such confidence.
You know the way to the Father; you know how to accompany the soul when fear approaches; you can sustain the heart when hope seems to darken because of suffering.
Accompany, you, Joseph, father and lord, those who suffer from illness; console those who pass through the night of pain; sustain those who feel that their life is approaching its end; remain close to the elderly who await with patience the moment of encounter with God; visit the sick who spend their days in the silence of a room or in the uncertainty of a hospital; give serenity to those who feel fear before the mystery of death.
And when the definitive hour also arrives for me, when the path of this life reaches its end and the soul has to present itself before the Lord, do not leave me alone: stay by my side in that moment; take my hand with the same firmness with which you guided the Child Jesus through the streets of Nazareth, and lead me gently to the encounter with God.
Because I know that whoever has lived under your protection cannot be lost, and that whoever dies trusting in your patronage enters with hope into the mercy of the Father.
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:
a 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 through your hand.
That is why we come to you today with filial confidence:
teach us to go to Joseph with love;
help us to learn to take refuge under his patronage,
to trust in his powerful intercession and to imitate the fidelity of his life.
What a sweet rivalry!:
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 throughout the world.
Make it so, Mary, that 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.