The role model and Saint Patron of people who have to work to earn their living. He knew how to combine his daily work with the care for the Holy Family, whom God placed under his protection.

A miraculous Saint. With no great miracles, no orations, no publicity. The man of a great consistency. Never leaning towards the extremes.

Today in any larger company they would speak of, monitor and be deeply concerned about the work-life balance. Go to Joseph. He’s famous for his know-how. 😉

Fr. Jay

Today we’re traveling in our mind and heart to Nazareth. It’s there where the course of history was changed forever: Jesus was conceived!

I look at Mary with so much admiration. She accepted this unusual and unexpected event in such a calm manner, with her humble and trustful heart, open to God’s plans. She must have been conscious of what her FIAT meant – she might have been stoned to death, among the possible consequences. She must have also wondered how Joseph would react to this situation.

And Joseph – didn’t he suffer, when he found out his beloved wife got pregnant – became a mother to a child that he did not father for sure? I admire Joseph for his ability to defend Mary from accusation in his own heart. He defended her, even though he didn’t understand. And yet he didn’t judge, didn’t condemn, didn’t reproach or resent Mary.

Wasn’t the appearance of Jesus a test of their marital love, in the first moment of coping with the news? A test they passed in such an impressive manner?

Even though it is always a happy event which deserves to be celebrated in most beautiful ways, also for many of us – fathers and mothers – an unexpected conception of a child may sometimes become a test of marital love.

It seems God meant marital life to contain great joy and suffering, hope and anxiety – if He let the holiest married couple, Mary and Joseph, experience them. Let’s entrust our parenthood to them today. Let’s ask them for their assistance in our tests of love. Because they do understand us so well!

Basia

…the faithful will abide with Him in love… (Book of Wisdom 3:9)

Mother of God – present from the beginning to the very end of the way of the cross.

Faithful in love. Courageous and unswerving in suffering. She shows us how important it is to be there for the one in pain – to be there even without saying a word, to offer kindness, to support them with prayer.

Let’s not forget that the Mother is there for us in all our hard times and sorrow. And let’s learn how to support the others in suffering from Her.

Basia

Time seemed to be passing much too fast last Sunday. Our Community had its monthly meeting, but I also had my after-hours call duty. So while the others were adoring our Lord Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, I was stitching up a dog’s paw. Fortunately, the fate was on my side later and I could take part in the Eucharist together with the others. Such is life: you have to fight to secure time for God.

I spent the evening with my wife taking the opportunity to reflect on my life. We watched “Courageous” by Alex Kendrick. The movie was great, we enjoyed it a lot. And I could reconsider, for another time, what kind of father I am. Because the film is addressed to the men called to fatherhood.

In one of the first scenes we’re given data which account for a direct link between the quality of the father-child relationship and the juvenile crime rate. “I know your shift work’s hard (…), but when you clock out, go home and love your families” – one of the characters says.

There is no coincidence – it was the Feast of St Joseph the next day. Being a father is not easy, but the guardian of Jesus sets the example. Just like me, he worked hard to earn his family’s living – but he never forgot he was a husband and a father. And he chose to be obedient to God in whatever he did.

As he was silent on the pages of the Gospel, so does he remain in his support for our family. He is silent, but very effective.

St Joseph, the head of the Holy Family, protect us!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKtO_yAYEQM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Michał

The longer I live, the more I admire St Joseph.

Who was he that God should want to share with him the title of the “Father” to His Beloved Son?

Who was he that the Immaculate Mother of God would choose him among all men to be her closest life’s companion?

Who was he that Jesus would call him “Dad”?

We know Joseph must have pronounced the name of Jesus when asked how to name his SON, as that was the father’s responsibility back then. Apart from this – silence falls over his entire life. No miracles, no great deeds, no revelations. And yet he has come to mean so much in heaven – the Protector of the Holy Church! And its unofficial Minister of Finance. We also venerate him as the Protector of Families.

St Joseph, you lived your earthly life in gentleness and humility; teach me to accept from God’s hand whatever hurts, humiliates and mortifies me, so that I may become gentle and humble in heart like Jesus. And like you.

Fr Jay