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Saint Joseph

Resources for study and growth in devotion to Saint Joseph
 
Encyclical on devotion to Saint Joseph by Pope Leo XIII, Quamquam Pluries.

 

The greatest work on Saint Joseph in the English language and you can read it here and download it in digital form for FREE!  It is written by a famous convert to the Catholic Faith from Anglicanism in the 19th century: Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.
 

 

 

 

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“I took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph and commended myself earnestly to him; and I found that this my father and lord delivered me both from this trouble [a temporary paralysis] and also from other and greater troubles concerning my honor and the loss of my soul, and that he gave me greater blessings than I could ask of him. I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which He has freed me, both in body and in soul. To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succor us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint my experience is that he succors us in them all and that the Lord wishes to teach us that as He was Himself subject to him on earth (for, being His guardian and being called His father, he could command Him) just so in Heaven He still does all that he asks. This has also been the experience of other persons whom I have advised to commend themselves to him; and even to-day there are many who have great devotion to him through having newly experienced this truth…

I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to this glorious saint, for I have great experience of the blessings which he can obtain from God. I have never known anyone to be truly devoted to him and render him particular services who did not notably advance in virtue, for he gives very real help to souls who commend themselves to him. For some years now, I think, I have made some request of him every year on his festival and I have always had it granted. If my petition is in any way ill directed, he directs it aright for my greater good…

I only beg, for the love of God, that anyone who does not believe me will put what I say to the test, and he will see by experience what great advantages come from his commending himself to this glorious patriarch and having devotion to him. Those who practice prayer should have a special affection for him always. I do not know how anyone can think of the Queen of the Angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Child Jesus, without giving thanks to Saint Joseph for the way he helped them. If anyone cannot find a master to teach him how to pray, let him take this glorious saint as his master and he will not go astray.”  -Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, an extract from her Autobiography
Joseph, the praise and glory of the heavens,
Sure pledge of life, and safety of the wide world,
As in our joy we sing to thee, in kindness
List to our praises.Thou by the world’s Creator wert appointed
Spouse of the Virgin: thee he willed to honour
Naming thee father of the Word, and guardian
Of our salvation.
Thou thy Redeemer, lying in a stable,
Whom long ago foretold the choir of prophets,
Sawest rejoicing, and thy God adoredst
Humble in childhood.God, King of kings, and Governor of the ages,
He at whose word the powers of hell do tremble,
He whom the adoring heavens ever worship
Called the protector.Grant us, great Trinity, for Joseph’s holy sake,
In highest bliss and love, above the stars to reign,
That we in joy with him may praise our loving God,
And sing our glad eternal strain.
Amen.

-Hymn from Matins of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (March 19th)

Let angels chant thy praise, pure spouse of purest bride,
While Christendom’s sweet choirs the gladsome strains repeat,
To tell thy wondrous fame, to raise the pealing hymn,
Wherewith we all thy glory greet.

When doubts and bitter fears thy heavy heart oppressed,
And filled thy righteous soul with sorrow and dismay,
An angel quickly came, the wondrous secret told,
And drove thy anxious griefs away.

Thy arms thy new-born Lord, with tender joy embrace;
Him then to Egypt’s land thy watchful care doth bring;
Him in the temple’s courts once lost thou dost regain,
And ‘mid thy tears dost greet thy King.

Not till death’s pangs are o’er do others gain their crown,
But, Joseph, unto thee the blessed lot was given
While life did yet endure, thy God to see and know,
As do the saints above in heaven.

Grant us, great Trinity, for Joseph’s holy sake,
In highest bliss and love, above the stars to reign,
That we in joy with him may praise our loving God,
And sing our glad eternal strain. Amen.

-Hymn from First Vespers of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph the Worker (May 1st)

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