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Novena to
Saint Joseph
1st Day - Foster-Father of Jesus
Saint Joseph, you were privileged to share in the mystery of the
Incarnation as the foster-father of Jesus. Mary alone was directly connected
with the fulfillment of the mystery, in that she gave her consent to
Christ's conception and allowed the Holy Spirit to form the sacred humanity
of Jesus from her blood. You had a part in this mystery in an indirect
manner, by fulfilling the condition necessary for the Incarnation - the
protection of Mary's virginity before and during your married life with her.
You made the virginal marriage possible, and this was a part of God's plan,
forseen, willed, and decreed from all eternity.
In a more direct manner you shared in the support, upbringing, and
protection of the Divine Child as His foster-father. For this purpose the
Heavenly Father gave you a genuine heart of a father - a heart full of love
and self-sacrifice. With the toil of your hands you were obliged to offer
protection to the Divine Child, to procure for Him food, clothing, and a
home. You were truly the saint of the holy childhood of Jesus - the living
created providence which watched over the Christ-Child.
When Herod sought the Child to put Him to death, the Heavenly Father sent an
angel but only as a messenger, giving orders for the flight; the rest He
left entirely in your hands. Then it was that fatherly love was the only
refuge which received and protected the Divine Child. Your fatherly love
carried Him through the desert into Egypt till all enemies were removed.
Then on your arms the Child returned to Nazareth to be nourished and
provided for during many years by the labor of your hands. Whatever a human
son owes to a human father for all the benefits of his up-bringing and
support, Jesus owed to you, because you were to Him a foster-father,
teacher, and protector.
You served the Divine Child with a singular love. God gave you a heart
filled with heavenly, supernatural love - a love far deeper and more
powerful than any natural father's love could be.
You served the Divine Child with great unselfishness, without any regard to
self-interest, but not without sacrifices. You did not toil for yourself,
but you seemed to be an instrument intended for the benefit of others, to be
put aside as soon as it had done its word, for you disappeared from the
scene once the childhood of Jesus had passed.
You were the shadow of the Heavenly Father not only as the earthly
representative of the authority of the Father, but also by means of your
fatherhood - which only appeared to be natural - you were to hide for a
while the divinity of Jesus. What a wonderfully sublime and divine vocation
was yours - the loving Child which you carried in your arms, and loved and
served so faithfully, had God in Heaven as Father and was Himself God!
Yours is a very special rank among the saints of the Kingdom of God, because
you were so much a part of the very life of the Word of God made Man. In
your house at Nazareth and under your care the redemption of mankind was
prepared. What you accomplished, you did for us. You are not only a powerful
and great saint in the Kingdom of God, but a benefactor of the whole of
Christendom and mankind. Your rank in the Kingdom of God, surpassing far in
dignity and honor of all the angels, deserves our very special veneration,
love, and gratitude.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of having been chosen by God to
be the foster-father of His Divine Son. As a token of your own gratitude to
God for this your greatest privilege, obtain for me the grace of a very
devoted love for Jesus Christ, my God and my Savior. Help me to serve Him
with some of the self-sacrificing love and devotedness with which you have
done so. Grant that through your intercession with Jesus, your foster-Son, I
may reach the degree of holiness God has destined for me, and save my soul.
Daily Novena Prayer
2nd Day - Virginal Husband of Mary
Saint Joseph, I honor you as the true husband of Mary. Scripture says:
"Jacob
begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, and of her was born Jesus who is called
Christ" (Matt. 1:16).
Your marriage to Mary was a sacred contract by which
you and Mary gave yourselves to each other. Mary really belonged to you with
all she was and had. You had a right to her love and obedience; and no other
person so won her esteem, obedience, and love.
You were also the protector and witness of Mary's virginity. By your
marriage you gave to each other your virginity, and also the mutual right
over it - a right to safeguard the other's virtue. This mutual virginity
also belonged to the divine plan of the Incarnation, for God sent His angel
to assure you that motherhood and virginity in Mary could be united.
This union of marriage not only brought you into daily familiar association
with Mary, the loveliest of God's creatures, but also enabled you to share
with her a mutual exchange of spiritual goods. And Mary found her
edification in your calm, humble, and deep virtue, purity, and sanctity.
What a great honor comes to you from this close union with her whom the Son
of God calls Mother and whom He declared the Queen of heaven and earth!
Whatever Mary had belonged by right to you also, and this included her Son,
even though He had been given to her by God in a wonderful way. Jesus
belonged to you as His legal father. Your marriage was the way which God
chose to have Jesus introduced into the world, a great divine mystery from
which all benefits have come to us.
God the Son confided the guardianship and the support of His Immaculate
Mother to your care. Mary's life was that of the Mother of the Savior, who
did not come upon earth to enjoy honors and pleasures, but to redeem the
world by hard work, suffering, and the cross. You were the faithful
companion, support, and comforter of the Mother of Sorrows. How loyal you
were to her in poverty, journeying, work, and pain. Your love for Mary was
based upon your esteem for her as Mother of God. After God and the Divine
Child, you loved no one as much as her. Mary responded to this love. She
submitted to your guidance with naturalness and easy grace and childlike
confidence. The Holy Spirit Himself was the bond of the great love which
united your hearts.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being the virginal husband
of Mary. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to
love Jesus with all my heart, as you did, and you love Mary with some of the
tenderness and loyalty with which you loved her.
Daily Novena Prayer
3rd Day - Man Chosen by the Blessed Trinity
Saint Joseph, you were the man chosen by God the Father. He selected you to
be His representative on earth, hence He granted you all the graces and
blessings you needed to be His worthy representative.
You were the man chosen by God the Son. Desirous of a worthy foster-father,
He added His own riches and gifts, and above all, His love. The true measure
of your sanctity is to be judged by your imitation of Jesus. You were
entirely consecrated to Jesus, working always near Him, offering Him your
virtues, your work, your sufferings, your very life. Jesus lived in you
perfectly so that you were transformed into Him. In this lies your special
glory, and the keynote of your sanctity. Hence, after Mary, you are the
holiest of the saints.
You were chosen by the Holy Spirit. He is the mutual Love of the Father and
the Son - the heart of the Holy Trinity. In His wisdom He drew forth all
creatures from nothing, guides them to their end in showing them their
destiny and giving them the means to reach it. Every vocation and every
fulfillment of a vocation proceeds from the Holy Spirit. As a foster-father
of Jesus and head of the Holy Family, you had an exalted and most
responsible vocation - to open the way for the redemption of the world and
to prepare for it by the education and guidance of the youth of the God-Man.
In this work you cooperated as the instrument of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit was the guide; you obeyed and carried out the works. How perfectly
you obeyed the guidance of the God of Love!
The words of the Old Testament which Pharaoh spoke concerning Joseph of
Egypt can well be applied to you:
"Can we
find such another man, that is full of the spirit of God, or a wise man
like to him?" (Genesis 41.38)
No less is your share in the divine work of God than was that of Egypt. You
now reign with your foster-Son and see reflected in the mirror of God's
Wisdom the Divine Will and what is of benefit to our souls.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for having made you the man specially chosen by
Him. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to
imitate your virtues so that I too may be pleasing to the Heart of God. Help
me to give myself entirely to His service and to the accomplishment of His
Holy Will, that one day I may reach heaven and be eternally united to God as
you are.
Daily Novena Prayer
4th Day - Faithful Servant
Saint Joseph, you lived for one purpose - to be the personal servant of
Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Your noble birth and ancestry, the graces
and gifts, so generously poured out on you by God - all this was yours to
serve our Lord better. Every thought, word, and action of yours was a homage
to the love and glory of the Incarnate Word. You fulfilled most faithfully
the role of a good and faithful servant who cared for the House of God.
How perfect was your obedience! Your position in the Holy Family obliged you
to command, but besides being the foster-father of Jesus, you were also His
disciple. For almost thirty years, you watched the God-Man display a simple
and prompt obedience, and you grew to love and practice it very perfectly
yourself. Without exception you submitted to God, to the civil rulers, and
to the voice of your conscience.
When God sent an angel to tell you to care for Mary, you obeyed in spite of
the mystery which surrounded her motherhood. When you were told to flee into
Egypt under painful conditions, you obeyed without the slightest word of
complaint. When God advised you in a dream to return to Nazareth, you
obeyed. In every situation your obedience was as simple as your faith, as
humble as your heart, as prompt as your love. It neglected nothing; it took
in every command.
You had the virtue of perfect devotedness, which marks a good servant. Every
moment of your life was consecrated to the service of our Lord: sleep, rest,
work, pain. Faithful to your duties, you sacrificed everything unselfishly,
even cheerfully. You would have sacrificed even the happiness of being with
Mary. The rest and quiet of Nazareth was sacrificed at the call of duty.
Your entire life was one generous giving, even to the point of being ready
to die in proof of your love for Jesus and Mary. With true unselfish
devotedness you worked without praise or reward.
But God wanted you to be in a certain sense a cooperator in the Redemption
of the world. He confided to you the care of nourishing and defending the
Divine Child. He wanted you to be poor and to suffer because He destined you
to be the foster-father of His Son, who came into the world to save men by
His sufferings and death, and you were to share in His suffering. In all of
these important tasks, the Heavenly Father always found you a faithful
servant!
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being God's faithful
servant. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to
be a faithful servant of God as you were. Help me to share, as you did, the
perfect obedience of Jesus, who came not to do His Will, but the Will of His
Father, to trust in the Providence of God, knowing that if I do His Will, He
will provide for all my needs of soul and body: to be calm in my trials and
to leave it to our Lord to free me from them when it pleases Him to do so.
And help me to imitate your generosity, for there can be no greater reward
here on earth than the joy and honor of being a faithful servant of God.
Daily Novena Prayer
5th Day - Patron of the Church
Saint Joseph, God has appointed you patron of the Catholic Church because
you were the head of the Holy Family, the type and starting-point of the
Church. You were the father, protector, guide and support of the Holy
Family. For that reason you belong in a particular way to the Church, which
was the purpose of the Holy Family's existence.
I believe that the Church is the family of God on earth. Its government is
represented in priestly authority which consists above all in its power over
the true Body of Christ, really present in the Blessed Sacrament of the
Altar, thus continuing Christ's life in the Church. From this power, too,
comes authority over the Mystical Body of Christ, the members of the Church
- the power to teach and govern souls, to reconcile them with God, to bless
them, and to pray for them.
You have a special relationship to the priesthood because you possessed a
wonderful power over our Savior Himself. Your life and office were of a
priestly functions are especially connected with the Blessed Sacrament. To
some extent you were the means of bringing the Redeemer to us - as it is the
priest's function to bring Him to us in the Mass - for you reared Jesus,
supported, nourished, protected and sheltered Him. You were prefigured by
the patriarch Joseph, who kept supplies of wheat for his people. But how
much greater than he were you! Joseph of old gave the Egyptians mere bread
for their bodies. You nourished and with tenderest care preserved for the
Church Him who is the Bread of Heaven and who gives eternal life in Holy
Communion.
God has appointed you patron of the Church because the glorious title of
patriarch also falls by special right to you. The patriarchs were the heads
of families of the Chosen People, and theirs was the honor to prepare for
the Savior's incarnation. You belonged to this line of patriarchs, for you
were one of the last descendants of the family of David and one of the
nearest forebears of Christ according to the flesh. As husband of Mary, the
Mother of God, and as the foster-father of the Savior, you were directly
connected with Christ. Your vocation was especially concerned with the
Person of Jesus; your entire activity centered about Him. You are,
therefore, the closing of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New,
which took its rise with the Holy Family of Nazareth. Because the New
Testament surpasses the Old in every respect, you are the patriarch of
patriarchs, the most venerable, exalted, and amiable of all the patriarchs.
Through Mary, the Church received Christ, and therefore the Church is
indebted to her. But the Church owes her debt of gratitude and veneration to
you also, for you were the chosen one who enabled Christ to enter into the
world according to the laws of order and fitness. It was by you that the
patriarchs and the prophets and the faithful reaped the fruit of God's
promise, Alone among them all, you saw with your won eyes and possessed the
Redeemer promised to the rest of men.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being the Patron of the
Church. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to
live always as a worthy member of this Church, so that through it I may save
my soul. Bless the priests, the religious, and the laity of the Catholic
Church, that they may ever grow in God's love and faithfulness in His
service. Protect the Church from the evils of our day and from the
persecution of her enemies. Through your powerful intercession may the
church successfully accomplish its mission in this world - the glory of God
and the salvation of souls!
Daily Novena Prayer
6th Day - Patron of Families
Saint Joseph, I venerate you as the gentle head of the Holy Family. The Holy
Family was the scene of your life's work in its origin, in its guidance, in
its protection, in your labor for Jesus and Mary, and even in your death in
their arms. You lived, moved, and acted in the loving company of Jesus and
Mary. The inspired writer describes your life at Nazareth in only a few
words:
"And
(Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them"
(Luke, 2:51).
Yet these words tell of your high vocation here on earth, and the abundance
of graces which filled your soul during those years spent in Nazareth.
Your family life at Nazareth was all radiant with the light of divine
charity. There was an intimate union of heart and mind among the members of
your Holy Family. There could not have been a closer bond than that uniting
you to Jesus, your foster-Son and to Mary, your most loving wife. Jesus
chose to fulfill toward you, His foster-father, all the duties of a faithful
son, showing you every mark of honor and affection due to a parent. And Mary
showed you all the signs of respect and love of a devoted wife. You
responded to this love and veneration of both Jesus and Mary for you with
feelings of deepest love and respect. You had for Jesus a true fatherly
love, enkindled and kept aglow in you heart by the Holy Spirit. And you
could not cease to admire the workings of grace in Mary's soul, and this
admiration caused the holy love which you had consecrated to her on the day
of your wedding you grow stronger every day.
God has made you a heavenly patron of family life because you sanctified
yourself as head of the Holy Family and thus by your beautiful example
sanctified family life. How peacefully and happily the Holy Family rested
under the care of your fatherly rule, even in the midst of trials. You were
the protector, counselor, and consolation of the Holy Family in every need.
And just as you were the model of piety, so you gave us by your zeal, your
earnestness and devout trust in God's providence, and especially by your
love, the example of labor according to the Will of God. You cherished all
the experiences common to family life and the sacred memories of the life,
sufferings, and joys in the company of Jesus and Mary. Therefore the family
is dear to you as the work of God, and it is of the highest importance in
your eyes to promote the honor of God and the well-being of man. In your
loving fatherliness and unfailing intercession you are the patron and
intercessor of families, and you deserve a place in every home.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of living in the Holy Family
and being its head. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain God's
blessing upon my own family. Make our home the kingdom of Jesus and Mary - a
kingdom of peace, of joy, and love.
I also pray for all Christian families. Your help is needed in our day when
God's enemy has directed his attack against the family in order to desecrate
and destroy it. In the face of these evils, as patron of families, be
pleased to help; and as of old, you arose to save the Child and His Mother,
so today arise to protect the sanctity of the home. Make our homes
sanctuaries of prayer, of love, of patient sacrifice, and of work. May they
be modeled after your own at Nazareth. Remain with us with Jesus and Mary,
so that by your help we may obey the commandments of God and of the Church,
receive the holy sacraments of God and of the Church, live a life of prayer,
foster religious instruction in our homes. Grant that we may be reunited in
God's Kingdom and eternally live in the company of the Holy Family in
heaven.
Daily Novena Prayer
7th Day - Patron of Workers
Saint Joseph, you devoted your time at Nazareth to the work of a carpenter.
It was the Will of God that you and your foster-Son should spend your days
together in manual labor. What a beautiful example you set for the working
classes!
It was especially for the poor, who compose the greater part of mankind,
that Jesus came upon earth, for in the synagogue of Nazareth He read the
words of Isaiah and referred them to Himself:
"The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed Me; to bring good news to
the poor He has sent Me" (Luke 4:18).
It was God's Will that you should be occupied with work common to poor
people, that in this way Jesus Himself might enoble it by inheriting it from
you, His foster-father, and by freely embracing it. Thus our Lord teaches us
that for the humbler class of workmen, He has in store His richest graces,
provided they live in content in the place God's Providence has assigned
them, and remain poor in spirit for He said,
"Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew
5:3).
The kind of work to which you devoted your time in the workshop of Nazareth
offered you many occasions of practicing humility. You were privileged to
see each day the example of humility which Jesus practiced - a virtue most
pleasing to Him. He chose for His earthly surrounding not the courts of
princes nor the halls of the learned, but a little workshop of Nazareth.
Here you shared for many years the humble and hidden toiling of the God-Man.
What a touching example for the worker of today!
While your hands were occupied with manual work, your mind was turned to God
in prayer. From the Divine Master, who worked along with you, you learned to
work in the presence of God in the spirit of prayer, for as He worked He
adored His Father and recommended the welfare of the world to Him, Jesus
also instructed you in the wonderful truths of grace and virtue, for you
were in close contact with Him who said of Himself, "I am the Way and the
Truth and the Life."
As you were working at your trade, you were reminded of the greatness and
majesty of God, who, as a most wise Architect, formed this vast universe
with wonderful skill and limitless power.
The light of divine faith that filled your mind, did not grow dim when you
saw Jesus working as a carpenter. You firmly believed that the saintly Youth
working beside you was truly God's own Son.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being able to work side by
side with Jesus in the carpenter shop of Nazareth. As a token of your own
gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to respect the dignity of labor
and ever to be content with the position in life, however lowly, in which it
may please Divine Providence to place me. Teach me to work for God and with
God in the spirit of humility and prayer, as you did, so that I may offer my
toil in union with the sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass as a reparation for my
sins, and gain rich merit for heaven.
Daily Novena Prayer
8th Day - Friend of Suffering
Saint Joseph, your share of suffering was very great because of your close
union with the Divine Savior. All the mysteries of His life were more or
less mysteries of suffering. Poverty pressed upon you, and the cross of
labor followed you everywhere. Nor were you spared domestic crosses, owing
to misunderstandings in regard to the holiest and most cherished of all
beings, Jesus and Mary, who were all to you. Keen must have been the
suffering caused by the uncertainty regarding Mary's virginity; by the
bestowal of the name of Jesus, which pointed to future misfortune. Deeply
painful must have been the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the
disappearance of Jesus at the Paschal feast. To these sufferings were surely
added interior sorrow at the sight of the sins of your own people.
You bore all this suffering in a truly Christ-like manner, and in this you
are our example. No sound of complaint or impatience escaped you - you were,
indeed, the silent saint! You submitted to all in the spirit of faith,
humility, confidence, and love; and cheerfully bore all in union with and
for the Savior and His Mother, knowing well that true love is a crucified
love. But God never forsook you in your trials. The trials, too, disappeared
and were changed at last into consolation and joy.
It seems that God had purposely intended your life to be filled with
suffering as well as consolation to keep before my eyes the truth that my
life on earth is but a succession of joys and sorrows, and that I must
gratefully accept whatever God sends me, and during the time of consolation
prepare for suffering. Teach me to bear my cross in the spirit of faith, of
confidence, and of gratitude toward God. In a happy eternity, I shall thank
God fervently for the sufferings which He deigned to send me during my
pilgrimage on earth, and which after your example I endured with patience
and heartfelt love for Jesus and Mary.
You were truly the martyr of the hidden life. This was God's Will, for the
holier a person is, the more he is tried for the love and glory of God. If
suffering is the flowering of God's grace in a soul and the triumph of the
soul's love for God, being the greatest of saints after Mary, you suffered
more than any of the martyrs.
Because you have experienced the sufferings of this valley of tears, you are
most kind and sympathetic toward those in need. Down through the ages souls
have turned to you in distress and have always found you a faithful friend
in suffering. You have graciously heard their prayers in their needs even
though it demanded a miracle. Having been so intimately united with Jesus
and Mary in life, your intercession with Them is most powerful.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being able to suffer for
Jesus and Mary. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the
grace to bear my suffering patiently for love of Jesus and Mary. Grant that
I may unite the sufferings, works and disappointments of life with the
sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass, and share like you in Mary's spirit of
sacrifice.
Daily Novena Prayer
9th Day - Patron of a Happy Death
Saint Joseph, how fitting it was that at the hour of your death Jesus should
stand at your bedside with Mary, the sweetness and hope of all mankind. You
gave your entire life to the service of Jesus and Mary; at death you enjoyed
the consolation of dying in Their loving arms. You accepted death in the
spirit of loving submission to the Will of God, and this acceptance crowned
your hidden life of virtue. Yours was a merciful judgement, for your
foster-Son, for whom you had cared so lovingly, was your Judge, and Mary was
your advocate. The verdict of the Judge was a word of encouragement to wait
for His coming to Limbo, where He would shower you with the choicest fruits
of the Redemption, and an embrace of grateful affection before you breathed
forth your soul into eternity.
You looked into eternity and to your everlasting reward with confidence. If
our Savior blessed the shepherds, the Magi, Simeon, John the Baptist, and
others, because they greeted His presence with devoted hearts for a brief
passing hour, how much more did He bless you who have sanctified yourself
for so many years in His company and that of His Mother? If Jesus regards
every corporal and spiritual work of mercy, performed in behalf of our
fellow men our of love for Him, as done to Himself, and promises heaven as a
reward, what must have been the extent of His gratitude to you who in the
truest sense of the word have received Him, given Him shelter, clothed,
nourished, and consoled Him at the sacrifice of your strength and rest, and
even your life, with a love which surpassed the love of all fathers.
God really and personally made Himself your debtor. Our Divine Savior paid
that debt of gratitude by granting you many graces in your lifetime,
especially the grace of growing in love, which is the best and most perfect
of all gifts. Thus at the end of your life your heart became filled with
love, the fervor and longing of which your frail body could not resist. Your
soul followed the triumphant impulse of your love and winged its flight from
earth to bear the prophets and patriarchs in Limbo the glad tidings of the
advent of the Redeemer.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being able to die in the
arms of Jesus and Mary. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for
me the grace of a happy death. Help me to spend each day in preparation for
death. May I, too, accept death in the spirit of resignation to God's Holy
Will, and die, as you did, in the arms of Jesus, strengthened by Holy
Viaticum, and in the arms of Mary, with her rosary in my hand and her name
on my lips!
NOVENA PRAYER
Saint Joseph, I, your unworthy child, greet
you. You are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and
venerate you. You know that I have special confidence in you and that, after
Jesus and Mary, I place all my hope of salvation in you, for you are
specially powerful with God and will never abandon your faithful servants.
Therefore I humbly invoke you and commend myself, with all who are dear to
me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your
love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at
the hour of my death.
Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a
pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will.
Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as
you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
Loving Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus
Christ, I raise my heart to you to implore your powerful intercession in
obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my
spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and
the special grace I now implore:
(Mention your request).
Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel confident that your prayers in my
behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. Amen.
MEMORARE
Remember, most pure spouse of Mary, ever
Virgin, my loving protector, Saint Joseph, that no one ever had recourse to
your protection or asked for your aid without obtaining relief. Confiding,
therefore, in your goodness, I come before you and humbly implore you.
Despise not my petitions, foster-father of the Redeemer, but graciously
receive them. Amen.
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