Prayer to Saint Joseph for the Church
by VP
Posted on Sunday May 01, 2022 at 01:50AM in Prayers
Saint Joseph, God has appointed you
patron of the Catholic Church because you were the head of the Holy
Family,
the starting-point of the Church. You were the father, protector, guide
and support of the Holy Family. For that reason you
belong in a particular way to the Church, which was the purpose of the
Holy Family's existence.
I believe that the Church is the family of God on earth. Its government
is represented in priestly authority which consists above
all in its power over the true Body of Christ, really present in the
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, thus continuing Christ's life in the
Church. From this power, too, comes authority over the Mystical Body of
Christ, the members of the Church -- the power to teach
and govern souls, to reconcile them with God, to bless them, and to
pray for them.
You have a special relationship to the
priesthood because you possessed a wonderful power over our Savior
Himself. Your life and office were of a priestly function and
are especially connected with the Blessed Sacrament. To some extent you
were the means of bringing the Redeemer to us -- as it is
the priest's function to bring Him to us in the Mass -- for you reared
Jesus, supported, nourished, protected and sheltered Him.
You were prefigured by the patriarch Joseph, who kept supplies of wheat
for his people. But how much greater than he were you! Joseph
of old gave the Egyptians mere bread for their bodies. You nourished,
and with the most tender care, preserved for the Church Him who
is the Bread of Heaven and who gives eternal life in Holy Communion.
God
has appointed you patron of the Church because
the glorious title of patriarch also falls by special right to you. The
patriarchs were the heads of families of the Chosen People, and theirs
was the honor to prepare for the Savior's incarnation. You belonged to
this line of patriarchs, for you were one of the last descendants of
the family of David and one of the nearest forebears of Christ according
to the flesh. As husband of Mary, the Mother of God, and as the
foster-father of the Savior, you were directly connected with Christ.
Your vocation was especially concerned with the Person of Jesus;
your entire activity centered about Him. You are, therefore, the
closing of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, which took
its rise with the Holy Family of Nazareth. Because the New Testament
surpasses the Old in every respect, you are the patriarch of patriarchs
, the most venerable, exalted, and amiable of all the patriarchs.
Through
Mary, the Church received Christ, and therefore the Church
is indebted to her. But the Church owes her debt of gratitude and
veneration to you also, for you were the chosen one who enabled Christ
to enter into the world according to the laws of order and fitness. It
was by you that the patriarchs and the prophets and the faithful reaped
the fruit of God's promise. Alone among them all, you saw with your own
eyes and possessed the Redeemer promised to the rest of men.
Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being the Patron of the
Church. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the
grace to
live always as a worthy member of this Church, so that through it I may
save my soul. Bless the priests, the religious, and the laity of the
Catholic Church,
that they may ever grow in God's love and faithfulness in His service.
Protect the Church from the evils of our day and from the persecution of
her enemies.
Through your powerful intercession may the church successfully
accomplish its mission in this world -- the glory of God and the
salvation of souls! Amen.
Source: Saint Joseph: The Family Saint, by Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, 1956