Displaying items by tag: St Joseph

19 March Solemnity

Death is a mystery. For a Christian, according to Pope Francis, the good death is an experience of the mercy of God, who comes close to us even in that last moment of our life. According to Catholic tradition Joseph is considered the model of the pious believer who received grace at the moment of death.

During the early months of 2022, Pope Francis reflected on the person of St Joseph during his weekly General Audiences. During his audience on February 9, the pope spoke about this traditional devotion to St Joseph as the patron of a good death and the meaning of death in light of the Resurrection.

Although lacking any historical data, this tradition grew out of the idea that Joseph had died, “in the arms of Jesus and Mary,” before leaving Nazareth. After all, there is no mention of Joseph in Scripture after the Infancy Narratives, particularly the story of finding Jesus in the temple. So conventional wisdom holds that he died. In contrast, some eastern traditions made Joseph out to be 90 years old.

In the motu proprio, Bonum sane [July 1920], Pope Benedict XV wrote that that Joseph “is deservedly considered to be the most effective protector of the dying, having expired in the presence of Jesus and Mary” and then he pushed for pastors to support the pious associations established to implore Joseph on behalf of the dying. Associations at the time were “Of the Good Death,” “Of the Transit of St Joseph,” and “for the Dying.”

Referring to the 95-year-old Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Francis quotes him as saying “I am before the obscurity of death, at the dark door of death.” While our culture attempts to remove the reality of death and sanitize its aftermath, our Christian faith helps us to face it. It is through the Resurrection that our deaths take on meaning because “the light that awaits us behind the dark door of death” is Christ Resurrected.

To read more on St. Joseph, Principal Protector of the Order ...

A Letter from the Prior General, O.Carm. and Superior General, O.C.D. to the Carmelite Family on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.

This year, 2020, we celebrated the feast of St. Joseph in the full throws of a pandemic, that forced us to remain in our own homes. Because of that, we felt the need even more to turn to that just and faithful man who knew the meaning of hardship, exile, and worries about tomorrow, but did not lose heart, but continued to believe and hope God, from whom he had received a very unique mission: he was to take care of Mary and the child Jesus, the family of Nazareth, the embryo of the new family that God was giving to the world. Pope Francis, preaching in Santa Marta, reminded us of some of the qualities of St. Joseph: the man of clear and practical vision, capable of doing his work with precision and professional skill, and one who at the same time penetrated the mystery of God, beyond all that was familiar to him or was under his control, and in the presence of which he kneels and adores.

Download below:

• pdf St Joseph, Patron of Carmel [EN] (459 KB)
• pdf El Patrocinio de san José Sobre El Carmelo [ES] (457 KB)
• pdf Il Patrocinio di San Giuseppe sul Carmelo [IT] (455 KB)
• pdf O Patrocínio de São José no Carmelo [PT] (450 KB)
• pdf Saint Joseph, Patron du Carmel [FR] (466 KB)
• pdf El Patrocini de Sant Josep Sobre el Carmel [CAT] (449 KB)

In a lovely little booklet on St Joseph, Cardinal Suenens wrote:

“It has been said that the worst thing we can do to the saints is to put them on pedestals. In Joseph’s case, we might criticise not only the pedestal, but also the image of him with which we are all too often presented.”

19 March Solemnity

This celebration has profound Biblical roots; Joseph is the last Patriarch who receives the communications of the Lord through the humble way of dreams (cf. Gn 28, 12-14; Mt 1, 20-24).