“Joseph was a ‘protector’ because………. 
……………….Prayer to St Joseph.
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil.  Amen.)

                    Being a ‘protector’ consists of being human, excluding none but including everyone in the circle of our relationships. It means protecting all creation, respecting each of God’s creatures, protecting all God’s people by giving each one his/ her due.

God found in St Joseph a worthy man to entrust His only Son Jesus and His Church under his protection. He simply followed the will of God revealed in his dreams in silence and became the greatest saints of all. He leaves behind an example to hearken to the Divine voice in the daily realities of our life. May we learn from our Patron St Joseph to love silence because Divine voice is heard in it, to accept the plan of God in Faith and to be just in the sight of God.

The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To celebrate the anniversary, Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St Joseph,” beginning on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2020 and extending to the same feast in 2021.

Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

A beloved, tender, obedient father: In him, “Jesus saw the tender love of God,” the one that helps us accept our weakness, because “it is through” and despite “our fears, our frailties, and our weakness” that most divine designs are realized. “Only tender love will save us from the snares of the accuser,” emphasizes the Pontiff, and it is by encountering God’s mercy especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we “experience His truth and tenderness,” – because “we know that God’s truth does not condemn us, but instead welcomes, embraces, sustains and forgives us”

Joseph is also a father in obedience to God: with his ‘fiat’ he protects Mary and Jesus and teaches his Son to “do the will of the Father.” Called by God to serve the mission of Jesus, he “cooperated… in the great mystery of Redemption,” as St John Paul II said, “and is truly a minister of salvation” 

Welcoming the will of God: Joseph is “an accepting Father,” because he “accepted Mary unconditionally” — an important gesture even today, says Pope Francis, “in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident.” Joseph’s spiritual path “is not one that explains, but accepts” — which does not mean that he is “resigned.” Instead, he is “courageously and firmly proactive,” because with “Holy Spirit’s gift of fortitude,” and full of hope, he is able “to accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.”

A creatively courageous father, example of love: “the creative courage” of St. Joseph, which “emerges especially in the way we deal with difficulties.” “The carpenter of Nazareth,” explains the Pope, was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting in divine providence.” 

A father who teaches the value, dignity and joy of work: “A carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family,” St Joseph also teaches us “the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour.”

A father “in the shadows,” centered on Mary and Jesus: “Fathers are not born, but made,” says Pope Francis. “A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child.”

Prayer to St Joseph

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil.  Amen.

Centeary Souvenir

“The month of St. Joseph must be for you a month of joy because it brings to our well beloved Father a new halo of glory and love from all his children, and promises us a new abundance of graces “ (MMI).

“St. Joseph a perfect model of religious: absolute detachment from the goods of this world, heroic obedience, angelic purity, passionate love of silence and of recollection, intimate union with Jesus and Mary..” (MMI).

“Let us love to meditate on the life of our illustrious patron (St. Joseph). Let us be penetrated more and more by his spirit, so that we become religious, religious according to heart of God “(MMI).

“St. Joseph was always united to Jesus, and rarely left him. It was near Him that He prayed, that he worked, that he rested” (MMI).