Saint Michael the Archangel Parish

21 Manning St

Hudson, MA 01749

Saint Michael the Archangel

Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Boston.  Hudson, Massachusetts

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary is March 19th.  Mass is celebrated on Wednesday, March 19th at 9:00am.  All are welcome to join us.

Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Everything we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture and that has seemed too little for those who made up legends about him.



We know he was a carpenter, a working man, for the skeptical Nazarenes ask about Jesus, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55). He wasn't rich for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Luke 2:24).


Despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage. The writers of the Gospels, Luke and Matthew disagree some about the details of Joseph's genealogy but they both mark his descent from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). Indeed the angel who first tells Joseph about Jesus greets him as "son of David," a royal title used also for Jesus.

...behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins"...When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

Matthew 1: 20-21,24

Why Do We Celebrate a Solemnity for Saint Joseph?

After the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph is the greatest of the saints. He is the one “into whose custody God entrusted his most precious treasures,” Jesus and Mary.

In his Apostolic Exhortation Custodian of the Redeemer, Pope St. John Paul II elaborates on this statement of Pope Leo XIII, as it touches upon Mary and Joseph’s vocation with respect to the Incarnation of the Eternal Word,

[This is] the mystery in which Joseph of Nazareth “shared” like no other human being except Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word. He shared in it with her; he was involved in the same salvific event; he was the guardian of the same love, through the power of which the eternal Father “destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5).

[If] Mary is the Lord’s humble servant, prepared from eternity for the task of being the Mother of God. Joseph is the one whom God chose to be the “overseer of the Lord’s birth,” the one who has the responsibility to look after the Son of God’s “ordained” entry into the world, in accordance with divine dispositions and human laws (Custodian of the Redeemer, 8).

The Church therefore honors Saint Joseph on March 19 for his faithfulness to God and to his vocation as Custodian of the Redeemer.

Patron Saint

Saint Joseph is the patron saint of the Universal Church, unborn babies, families, fathers, immigrants, social justice, carpenters, those seeking employment, realtors, and a happy death.


Greatest Patronage

His greatest patronage, however, is that of the Universal Church, an office that can be said to have begun with the “domestic church” of the Holy Family of Nazareth.  Just as he diligently watched over the Christ Child, he continues to protect the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

Why is Saint Joseph the patron saint of a happy death?


When he died, St. Joseph was presumably in the presence of both Jesus and the Blessed Virgin. There is no greater gift than to have Our Lord and Our Lady near at the hour of death. Saint Alphonsus Liguori said, “Since we all must die, we should cherish a special devotion to Saint Joseph that he may obtain for us a happy death.”

The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: “From everlasting death, Lord, deliver us, we pray”; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us “at the hour of our death” in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to Saint Joseph, the patron of a happy death.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1041

Who was Jesus’ Father?


God the Father is the Father of the Eternal Word, who became Flesh and dwelt among us (see John 1:14). However, Saint Joseph was the earthly father, or “foster father,” or father according to the law of Israel.


In Scripture, Jesus is simply called the son of the carpenter, or Joseph is called His father, as that is what Saint Joseph was in every human sense save biologically. This father-son relationship is what made Jesus the legal heir to the Kingship of David. 


As his earthly father, Saint Joseph provided for Him, protected Him, and eventually taught the trade of carpentry to Him.

Saint Joseph’s Story


The Bible pays Joseph the highest compliment: he was a “just” man. This quality meant a lot more than faithfulness in paying debts.

When the Bible speaks of God “justifying” someone, it means that God, the all-holy or “righteous” one, so transforms a person that the individual shares somehow in God’s own holiness, and hence it is really “right” for God to love him or her. In other words, God is not playing games, acting as if we were lovable when we are not.


By saying Joseph was “just,” the Bible means that he was one who was completely open to all that God wanted to do for him. He became holy by opening himself totally to God.  The rest we can easily surmise. Think of the kind of love with which he wooed and won Mary, and the depth of the love they shared during their marriage.


It is no contradiction of Joseph’s manly holiness that he decided to divorce Mary when she was found to be with child. The important words of the Bible are that he planned to do this “quietly” because he was “a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame” (Matthew 1:19).


The just man was simply, joyfully, wholeheartedly obedient to God—in marrying Mary, in naming Jesus, in shepherding the precious pair to Egypt, in bringing them to Nazareth, in the undetermined number of years of quiet faith and courage.


-Catholic.org

Compassionate Man



We know Joseph was a compassionate man. When he discovered Mary was pregnant after they had been betrothed, he knew the child was not his but was as yet unaware that she was carrying the Son of God.  He knew women accused of adultery could be stoned to death, so he resolved to send her away quietly to not expose her to shame or cruelty. However, when an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him, 


"Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins," he did as the angel told him and took Mary as his wife. (Matthew 1:19-25).

Caring Spouse


When the angel came again to tell him that his family was in danger, he immediately left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled to a strange country with his young wife and the baby. He waited in Egypt without question until the angel told him it was safe to go back (Matthew 2:13-23).

Loving Father


We know Joseph loved Jesus. His one concern was for the safety of this child entrusted to him. Not only did he leave his home to protect Jesus, but upon his return settled in the obscure town of Nazareth out of fear for his life. When Jesus stayed in the Temple we are told Joseph (along with Mary) searched with great anxiety for three days for him (Luke 2:48). We also know that Joseph treated Jesus as his own son for over and over the people of Nazareth say of Jesus, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" (Luke 4:22)

Obedient to God


We know Joseph respected God. He followed God's commands in handling the situation with Mary and going to Jerusalem to have Jesus circumcised and Mary purified after Jesus' birth. We are told that he took his family to Jerusalem every year for Passover, something that could not have been easy for a working man.


-Catholic.org

Prayer


This prayer to Saint Joseph—spouse of the Virgin Mary, foster father of Jesus, and patron saint of the universal Church—was composed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical, Quamquam pluries. He asked that it be added to the end of the Rosary, especially during the month of October, which is dedicated to the Rosary.
It may be said after the customary Salve Regina and concluding prayer, and may also be used to conclude other Marian devotions.

To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you
to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance
which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.


O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father, ward off from us
every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector, be kind to us
and from heaven assist us in our struggle
with the power of darkness.

As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God's Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.


Amen.

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