www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall St. Joseph the Worker

Today in the Western calendar, it is the feast day of St. Joseph: the foster father of Jesus, the husband of the Theotokos, and the patron of the Church and of all workers. God be praised in all of His saints, including St. Joseph. May St. Joseph intercede for us, especially as we undertake our labors.

-- John

St Joseph the Worker should be a Byzantine Catholic feast as well . . .

"The Unia makes us strong . . ."



Alex

Dear John,

Isn't there another day on the Western calendar set aside to commemorate St. Joseph in March?

St. Joseph is such an awesome saint..Just think about how this man was chosen to support and take care of Jesus Christ our Lord and His most holy mother. He is truly a role model and intercessor for men, both the single ones (for his chastity) and married men (for his sense of responsibility and labor on behalf of his family).

St. Joseph, pray unto God for us!

In Christ,
Alice

Thirty day prayer to St. Joseph for any intention:

Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and loving father, and helpful friend of all in sorrow! You are the good father and protector of orphans, the defender of the defenseless, the patron of those in need and sorrow. Look kindly on my request. My sins have drawn down on me the just displeasure of my God, and so I am surrounded with unhappiness. To you, loving guardian of the Family of Nazareth, do I go for help and protection.

Listen, then, I beg you, with fatherly concern, to my earnest prayers, and obtain for me the favors I ask.

I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God, which moved Him to take our nature and to be born into this world of sorrow.

I ask it by the weariness and suffering you endured when you found no shelter at the inn of Bethlehem for the holy Virgin, nor a house where the Son of God could be born. Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world's Redeemer in a cave.

I ask it by that painful torture you felt at the prophecy of holy Simeon, which declared the Child Jesus and His holy Mother future victims of our sins and of their great love for us.

I ask it through your sorrow and pain of soul when the angel declared to you that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies. From their evil plan you had to flee with Him and His Blessed Mother to Egypt. I ask it by all the suffering, weariness, and labors of that long and dangerous journey.

I ask it by all your care to protect the Sacred Child and His Immaculate Mother during your second journey, when you were ordered to return to your own country. I ask it by your peaceful life in Nazareth where you met with so many joys and sorrows.

I ask it by your great distress when the adorable Child was lost to you and His Mother for three days. I ask it by your joy at finding Him in the Temple, and by the comfort you found at Nazareth, while living in the company of the Child Jesus. I ask it by the wonderful submission He showed in His obedience to you.

I ask it by the perfect love and conformity you showed in accepting the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary. I ask it by the joy which filled your soul, when the Redeemer of the world, triumphant over death and hell, entered into the possession of His kingdom and led you into it with special honors.

I ask it through Mary's glorious Assumption, and through that endless happiness you have with her in the presence of God.

O good father! I beg you, by all your sufferings, sorrows, and joys, to hear me and obtain for me what I ask.

(make your request)

Obtain for all those who have asked my prayers everything that is useful to them in the plan of God. Finally, my dear patron and father, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

www.ewtn.com [ewtn.com]

I find this topic fascinating. Fr Louis Bouyer in one of his books (I forget which one) hints at the western development in liturgical piety which seems to have substituted Joseph the Betrothed for John the Baptist (at least on the popular level of veneration) as the image of masculine piety.

Dear Alice:

Yes, there are 2 days devoted to St. Joseph in the Latin calendar.

We celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, as the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on March 19, which usually falls during Lent. If it falls on a Sunday (other than Palm Sunday), the celebration is moved to the following day, Monday.

May 1st is for St. Joseph the Worker, synchronized in 1955 with the celebration of International Labor Day (or May Day) by Pope Pius XII as the patronal saint of all workers and laborers. However, the Latin Church does not celebrate May 1st as a Solemnity nor as a Feast Day. It is celebrated only as an Optional Memorial.

I never thought of it that way ! Interesting ! They are both saints worthy of emulation: one for single men and householders and workers, the other for monks and ascetics.

-- John

Dear Friends,

March 19th is observed by the Melkites and some other EC Churches as St Joseph's Day - the Syriac tradition observes his day on July 29 (?).

The East's veneration of St Joseph is based on the deuterocanonical book of "Joseph the Carpenter" where Joseph is portrayed as an elderly widower. The name of his first wife is given and the names of his four sons and two daughters. His sons all became missionaries for Christ. St James of Jerusalem, the Brother of God, as the East calls him, went to Egypt with the Mother of God and Christ during the persecution of Herod. These were the siblings of Christ mentioned in the Gospel.

To emphasize Christ being the Son of God, St Joseph is called the "Betrothed" and the guardian of the Mother of God. He is never officially portrayed holding the Baby Jesus as in some icons today.

During the period of the Kyivan Baroque, however, the cult of St Joseph in Orthodoxy developed and St George Konissky, Archbishop of Belarus, had a cathedral built in his honour. Western devotions to St Joseph, along with others, were adopted by Orthodox Christians at that time.

It is clear, I think, that St Joseph is to the West what John the Baptist is to the East.

In the West, the purity and holiness of St Joseph within "Josephology" led to devotion to the Pure Heart of St Joseph and a private devotion to the "Immaculate Conception of St Joseph" developed (especially in Spain).

In the East, John the Baptist is the first Saint below the Angelic Choirs. There are seven formal feast-days in his honour throughout the year, including that of the "Conception of John the Baptist" suggesting that he was conceived in holiness, just as the Mother of God was. (Other traditions say that St Nicholas was likewise conceived in holiness and was born already a saint - the feast of his Nativity is August 11 in the Eastern Church).

John the Baptist is also commemorated each and every Tuesday in the Byzantine Horologion and the icon of the "Deisis" depicting Christ flanked by the "Two individuals who were least unworthy of Him" the Mother of God and John the Baptist adorns most, if not all, iconostases.

There are also miraculous icons of John the Baptist and he is the patron saint of the Administrator here.

Alex