#may1stjosephtheworker

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Memorial of St Joseph the Worker – 1 May

“May Day” has long been dedicated as a special day for labour and working people.  The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 to Christianise labour and give all workers a model and a protector.

By the daily labour in his shop, St. Joseph provided for the necessities of his holy spouse and of the Incarnate Son of God and thus became a role model for labourers.   The liturgy for this feast celebrates the right to work and this is a message that needs to be heard and heeded in our modern society.   How did this connection with St Joseph the Worker, which is nearly as old as Christianity, get made?

In an effort to keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary life, the Church has from the beginning proudly emphasised that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously trained by Joseph in the satisfaction and the drudgery of that vocation.

Humanity is like God, not only in thinking and loving but also in creating.   Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.   In addition to this, there is a special dignity and value to the work of caring for the family.

An excerpt from the Vatican II document on the modern world said, “Where men and women, in the course of gaining a livelihood for themselves and their families, offer appropriate service to society, they can be confident that their personal efforts promote the work of the Creator, confer benefits on their fellowmen, and help to realise God’s plan in history.”

St Pope Pius X (1835-1914) composed this prayer to St Joseph, patron of working people, that expresses concisely the Christian attitude toward labour.   It summarises also for us the lessons of the Holy Family’s work at Nazareth.

Let us Pray:

Glorious St Joseph, model of all who devote their lives to labour, obtain for me the grace to work, in the spirit of penance, in order thereby, to atone for my many sins; to work conscientiously, setting devotion to duty in preference to my own whims; to work with thankfulness and joy, deeming it an honour to employ and to develop, by my labour, the gifts I have received from God; to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties; to work above all with a pure intention and with detachment from self, having always before my eyes, the hour of death and the accounting which I must then render of time ill spent, of talents wasted, of good omitted and of vain complacency in success, which is so fatal to the work of God.

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all in imitation of you, O Patriarch Joseph! This shall be my motto in life and in death, Amen.

(via Memorial of St Joseph the Worker - 1 May)

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Saint of the Day – 1 May – St Joseph the Worker

Additional Memorials

• 19 March • 1 May (Joseph the Worker) • 3rd Wednesday after Easter (patronage of Saint Joseph of the Universal Church) • 3 January on some local calendars • 29 October (Armenian) • 20 July (Coptic)

Patronage:  against doubt, against hesitation, accountants, attornies, barristers, bursars, cabinetmakers, carpenters, cemetery workers, children, civil engineers, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, educators, emigrants, exiles, expectant mothers, families, fathers, furniture makers, grave diggers, happy death, holy death, house hunters, immigrants, interior souls, joiners, laborers, lawyers, married people, orphans, people in doubt, people who fight Communism, pioneers, pregnant women, social justice, solicitors, teachers, travellers, unborn children, wheelwrights, workers, working people, Catholic Church, Oblates of Saint Joseph, for protection of the Church, Universal Church, Vatican II, Americas, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, China, Croatian people, Korea, Mexico, New France, New World, Peru, Philippines, Vatican City, Viet Nam, Canadian Armed Forces, Papal States, 46 dioceses, 26 cities, states and regionsRepresentation:• bible

Attributes:  branch, carpenter’s square. carpenter’s tools, chalice, cross, hand tools, infant Jesus, ladder, lamb, lily, monstrance, old man holding a lily and a carpenter’s tool such as a square, old man holding the infant Jesus, plane, rod

St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar.    The first is March 19—Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1—Joseph, the Worker.

“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God.   He listens in silence.  And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God,”   Pope John Paul II had once said.

There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and  a man who was not wealthy.    We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.

We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man and obedient to the will of God.    He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.

Since Joseph does not appear in Jesus’ public life, at his death, or resurrection, many historians believe Joseph had probably died before Jesus entered public ministry.

Joseph is the patron of many things, including the universal Church, fathers, the dying and social justice

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Thought for the Day – 1 May

The Foreshadowing of Saint Joseph

As the Church of Christ is prefigured in the rites and ceremonies of the Old Law, so the chief personages who centre round Our Lord in the redemption of the world are foreshadowed in the Old Testament.    We trace the outlines of Our Lady’s graces in Esther, Jahel, Bethsabee, Judith.    So, too, Saint Joseph’s place in the new dispensation is anticipated in the place of the patriarch Joseph at the court of Pharao.    Thus it is that God in His love for His chosen ones paves the way for them centuries before.    From the beginning He has prepared their work, and the throne they are to earn in heaven by their labors and sufferings for Him.

In the life of the patriarch Joseph there was throughout a correspondence to the life of the foster-father of Jesus Christ.    The troubles and persecutions of his early life; his long time of servitude and obscurity; his wondrous purity, his time of patient expectation; his glorious exaltation; his omnipotence with the king; his power to save all who came to him – all these were repeated, or rather were fulfilled, in Saint Joseph.    Reflect on each of these, and consider how Saint Joseph is a model to us.

We read of the patriarch, Joseph, that the king of Egypt made him lord of his house.    So God made Saint Joseph lord of that earthly tabernacle of flesh in which He dwelt on earth.    Joseph ruled Our Lord in His sacred humanity.    He made him lord, too, of another house in which He sojourned, of the sacred house that Wisdom built for Himself in the form of His holy Mother.    If Saint Joseph was thus lord of Jesus and Mary, what may we not expect from Him?   In our lives on the ‘narrow road’, on our way home, in our difficulties, in our labour and our toil!?

To capture the devotion to Saint Joseph within the Catholic liturgy, in 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Saint Joseph the patron of the universal Church. In 1955, Pope Pius XII added the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker.    This silent saint, who was given the noble task of caring and watching over the Virgin Mary and Jesus, now cares for and watches over the Church and models for all the dignity of human work.

“What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith.    Joseph of Nazareth is a “just man” because he totally “lives by faith.”     He is holy because his faith is truly heroic. Sacred Scripture says little of him.    It does not record even one word spoken by Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth.    And yet, even without words, he shows the depth of his faith, his greatness.    Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit.    He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God.    He listens in silence.    And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God.    We see how the word of the Living God penetrates deeply into the soul of that man, that just man.    And we, do we know how to listen to the word of God?    Do we know how to absorb it into the depths of our human personalities? Do we open our conscience in the presence of this word?”

– Pope John Paul II from Daily Meditations

St Joseph the Worker, Pray for us!

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

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1 May – The Memorial of St Joseph the Worker

Let us Pray:

Prayer to St Joseph the Worker By St Pope John XXIII

Saint Joseph, guardian of Jesus and chaste husband of Mary, you passed your life in loving fulfillment of duty. You supported the holy family of Nazareth with the work of your hands. Kindly protect those who trustingly come to you. You know their aspirations, their hardships, their hopes. They look to you because they know you will understand and protect them. You too knew trial, labour and weariness. But amid the worries of material life, your soul was full of deep peace and sang out in true joy through intimacy with God’s Son entrusted to you and with Mary, His tender Mother. Assure those you protect that they do not labour alone. Teach them to find Jesus near them and to watch over Him faithfully as you have done. Amen

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Saint of the Day – 1 May – St Joseph the Worker

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Happy Feast Day of St Joseph the Worker – May 1 

The relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers has a much longer history than following the institution of this Feast in 1955. In a constantly necessary effort to keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has from the beginning proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously trained by Joseph in both the satisfactions and the drudgery of that vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also in creating. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.