"It is in the simplicity of your ordinary work, in the monotonous details of each day, that you have to find the secret, which is hidden from so many, of something great and new: Love.”
(Saint Josemaría)
During this Year of Saint Joseph proclaimed by Pope Francis, we offer some resources from Saint Josemaria's writings and homilies that can help us grow in devotion to the Holy Patriarch.
With the Apostolic Letter "Patris corde," on December 8th, Pope Francis convoked a Year of Saint Joseph to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
"Joseph’s work was not self‑centred, even though his active life made him a strong and forceful personality." A homily by Saint Josemaria given on the feast of Saint Joseph, on 19 March 1963 and published in "Christ is Passing By."
On the feast of Saint Joseph, the Prelate of Opus Dei advises us to foster "the certainty of the impossible" that we see in the Holy Patriarch: "a man with a permanent smile who shrugged his shoulders."
In preparation for the upcoming solemnity of Saint Joseph, Monsignor Ocáriz suggests that we have recourse to his intercession as “God’s faithful servant in continual contact with Jesus.”
A long-standing tradition in the Church is to prepare for the feast of Saint Joseph by dedicating the seven Sundays before March 19 to Saint Joseph, in memory of his seven sorrows and joys.
The feast of Saint Joseph highlights for us the beauty of a faithful life. "Saint Joseph was a faithful and just man because of the love that filled his soul and made him love the paths that God’s Providence had marked out for him."
The Founder of Opus Dei saw in St. Joseph the strong and affectionate father that Christ wanted on earth. He asked St. Joseph to teach him how to stay close to Mary and to Jesus: “How he would have embraced the Child, and kissed him!.”
