The Popes & St Joseph - II

Pope Francis, 19 March 2013 - Caring and protecting demands goodness, it calls for a certain tenderness. In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!

Pope Benedict XVI, 18 March 2009 - Joseph teaches us that it is possible to love without possessing. In contemplating Joseph, all men and women can, by God’s grace, come to experience healing from their emotional wounds, if only they embrace the plan that God has begun to bring about in those close to him, just as Joseph entered into the work of redemption through Mary and as a result of what God had already done in her.

Pope Paul VI, 27 March 1969 - St. Joseph was a "committed" man, as we might say nowadays. And what commitment! He had total commitment to Mary, the elect of all the women of the earth and of history, always his virgin spouse… and total commitment to Jesus, who was his offspring only by legal descendance, not by the flesh. His were the burdens, the responsibilities, the risks and the labors surrounding the Holy Family. His was the service, the work and the sacrifices, in the shadows of that Gospel picture in which we love to meditate on him; and we are certainly not mistaken, for we all know him now and call him blessed.

Blessed Pope John XXIII, 19 March 1961 - As a new spring breaks into view and we stand on the threshold of the Sacred Easter Liturgy, we find ourselves face to face with the kind and gentle St. Joseph, stately spouse of Mary, a figure so dear to the minds and hearts of those who are most responsive to the appeal of Christian asceticism and the forms of religious devotion that are quiet and unobtrusive, but all the sweeter and more pleasing for being so. …For long centuries St Joseph remained in the background that was so typical of him, like a kind of ornamental detail in the overall picture of the Saviour’s life. It took time for devotion to him to go beyond those passing glances and take root in the hearts of the faithful, and then surge forth in the form of special prayers and of a profound sense of trust and confidence. The fervent joy of pouring forth these deepest feelings of the heart in so many impressive ways has been saved for modern times; and it gives Us special pleasure to draw upon these treasures now for something quite pertinent and meaningful.

Pope Leo XIII, 15 August 1889 - St. Joseph set himself to protect, with a mighty love and a daily solicitude, his spouse and the Divine Infant; regularly by his work he earned what was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing; he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch's jealousy, and found for Him a refuge; in the miseries of the journey and in the bitterness of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus.

Blessed Pope Pius IX 8 December 1870 - Him whom countless kings and prophets had desired to see, Joseph not only saw but conversed with, and embraced in paternal affection, and kissed. He most diligently reared Him... Because of this sublime dignity which God conferred on his most faithful servant, the Church has always most highly honored and praised blessed Joseph.