While many difficult decisions as well as physically and emotionally challenging acts were achieved by St. Joseph, the earthly foster-father of Jesus, he has not one speaking line in the Bible.
When God needed a man to wed an already pregnant virgin, protect her and her baby through the extremely perilous circumstances surrounding his infancy, and to raise this child who was not of his own biological issue through to adulthood, why did He choose Joseph?
Joseph was uniquely able to set aside his own ego and agendas and become completely receptive to God’s will. And not only that, he possessed the trust required to move – usually immediately – on the messages God sent him through dreams and angels.
This ability of St. Joseph to get the job done has earned him tremendous popularity as a particularly effective intercessor. His aid is invoked by fathers, husbands, women seeking good husbands, carpenters, laborers in general, the dying… And of course, he is usually called upon in an unusually superstitious fashion by homeowners wishing to sell their property.
And no wonder!
Click here for a 9-Day Novena to St. Joseph.
Above: Childhood of Jesus (ca 1620) by Gerrit von Honthorst
