If you don’t have a devotion to Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, I would highly recommend asking for the grace of receiving this devotion. St. Peter Julian Eymard said, “Devotion to St. Joseph is one of the choicest graces that God can give to a soul, for it is tantamount to revealing the entire treasury of our Lord’s graces. When God wishes to raise a soul to greater heights, he unites it to St. Joseph by giving it a strong love for the good saint.”
In the same way that many of the great saints have had a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so too have many saints had a devotion to St. Joseph who so often works unnoticed and behind the scenes. He has no recorded words in scripture and very little is said of him in the inspired texts. However, in the divine wisdom of God, this most holy of men was given the lofty responsibility of caring for and protecting Jesus and his mother, Mary.
His prayerful intercession is efficacious and powerful. St. Teresa of Avila is known to have said that she has never known St. Joseph’s intercession to fail her. She states, “The Lord wants us to understand that just as he was subject to St. Joseph on earth—for since bearing the title of father, being the Lord’s tutor, Joseph could give the child commands—so in heaven God does whatever he commands.”
I can personally attest to the life-changing help he has provided me in my own life. For years, as I was longing for some movement in my career path in the Church, my wife had been suggesting that I pray a novena to St. Joseph. And, for years I never got around to it. However, when I finally did, my life’s course took a beautiful new direction, one for which I will forever be grateful.
Additionally, I have grown to rely more and more on St. Joseph’s heavenly intercession as a father and husband who is beset with trials and difficulties in life. St. Joseph himself knew such challenges as when, for example, an angel told him to pack up and make the long journey to Egypt because of Herod’s evil designs to murder the one who “was born king of the Jews.” We read in Matthew 2: 14 – 16:
“And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son.’ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.”
Each of us has our own struggles and trials in life. I for myself have learned that I can’t manage life without the help of the saints, who are truly our friends. If you already have a favorite heavenly friend whose help you seek when in need, that is great. I, too, have several. However, I cannot deny the great help that St. Joseph has given me in so many areas in my life.
On this, the feast of St. Joseph, I encourage you to seek out his help in whatever concern you may be encountering. You will not be disappointed.
St. Joseph, pray for us!