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St Joseph - Confidence in him
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon the confidence which we ought to have in St Joseph; and we shall see that this saint unites eminently in his person two qualities which command confidence; that is to say: first, power, or sufficient credit to obtain what we ask of him; second, goodness, or a heart benevolent enough to charge himself with our requests. We will then make the resolution: first, to have recourse to Joseph in all our troubles and difficulties; second, to have a special devotion to him, loving his altars, his pictures, his feasts, the prayers composed in his honour, and cherishing his memory. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the same as yesterday: “Go to Joseph.”
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the goodness of God, who has established St Joseph in His Church, there to be the hope of Christians, the consolation of the afflicted, the saint to whom all who have graces to solicit may have recourse. Let us thank Him for His divine goodness, and let us congratulate St Joseph on the glorious mission confided to him by Heaven.
The power of St Joseph to obtain all that we ask of him
The power of St Joseph greatly surpasses the power of all the saints and angels put together. For at one and the same time he has power over the heart of God, power over the heart of Jesus, power over the heart of Mary. What could God refuse to a saint whom He has chosen in preference to all the princes of heaven and earth, whom He has associated with His divine paternity, whom He has constituted the visible providence of His Son, and who so worthily fulfilled that divine mission? What could the Incarnate Word refuse to him from whom He had received everything on earth; who had provided Him at the cost of his sweat with all things necessary to life; who had laboured and lived for Him alone; to him who had loved Him so much, served Him so well, who had watched over Him so carefully and vigilantly? What could He refuse to him whom He had so loved when He was on earth that He obeyed his slightest desires, as though they had been express orders? Could it be that in heaven His feeling should have undergone a change with regard to His adopted father? Would it be possible for Him to be no longer grateful for his kindness or sensible to his wishes? It is a thing not to be supposed; and even if Joseph could not of himself obtain a favourable answer to his requests, has he not over the heart of Mary, in order to make her support his requests, the most undeniable of rights, the rights of legitimate authority, the rights of gratitude and those of friendship? Oh, how Mary would cast herself at the feet of Jesus rather than see her holy spouse refused! Now if Mary and Joseph are for us, who shall be against us? We can therefore say of Joseph what the Fathers have said of Mary: that her prayer is all-powerful to obtain what she asks for.
The goodness of St Joseph, or his kind readiness to employ his credit in our favour
How good must he be, he whom the hand of God and the grace of the Holy Ghost have formed to be the father of Jesus and the spouse of Mary; he who so often bore in his arms and laid to rest on his bosom the charity of the Incarnate God! Oh, how measureless in degree and how overflowing must have been the charity which filled the one heart and the other! If, through having reposed during a few moments upon the bosom of Jesus, St John became the apostle and the evangelist of charity, what must St Joseph have been after living for so many years in intimate intercourse with Jesus and Mary? What love, what tenderness, what a disposition to render services, to accept all the requests made to him and to obtain a favourable answer to them, must he not have derived from this double source of goodness! Let us conclude from all this how good St Joseph is. His goodness equals his power, and experience proves it. “I do not remember,” says St Teresa, “ever to have asked anything from God through the intercession of St Joseph that I have not obtained it; and I do not know anyone,” she adds, “who has assiduously invoked him without making notable progress in virtue.” Several other saints attest the same thing by their own experience, as well as by the experience of others, and thence infer that the devotion to St Joseph is one of the surest marks of predestination. Let us ourselves hence conclude how much we ought to love St Joseph, to cherish his remembrance, and to pray to him with confidence.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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