TE IOSEPH CELEBRENT AGMINA CAELITUM - JOSEPH! TO THEE BY HOSTS ON HIGH

♔         HYMNUM SANCTE IOSEPH         ♔

TE IOSEPH CELEBRENT AGMINA CAELITUM

TE, Ioseph, celebrent agmina caelitum,
te cuncti resonent Christiadum chori,
qui, clarus meritis, iunctus es inclitae,
casto foedere Virgini.

Almo cum tumidam germine coniugem
admirans dubio tangeris anxius,
afflatu superi Flaminis, Angelus
conceptum puerum docet.

Tu natum Dominum stringis, ad exteras
Aegypti profugum tu sequeris plagas;
amissum Solymis quaeris et invenis,
miscens gaudia fletibus.

Electos reliquos mors pia consecrat1
palmamque emeritos gloria suscipit;
tu vivens, Superis par, frueris Deo,
mira sorte beatior.

Nobis, summa Trias, parce precantibus;
da Ioseph meritis sidera scandere,
ut tandem liceat nos tibi perpetim
gratum promere canticum.
Amen.

♔           HYMN TO ST JOSEPH        ♔
JOSEPH! TO THEE BY HOSTS ON HIGH

JOSEPH! to thee by hosts on high
and choirs of Christians, laud be paid!
saintly of life, -by purest tie
joined unto her, the glorious Maid.

When thou didst doubt thy wife's repute,
and mark her great with motherhood,
the angel taught thee that her fruit
came from the Holy Ghost of God.

To clasp the Son, the Lord, was thine,
to share His flight to Egypt's shore,
with tears, to seek in Salem's shrine
Him lost, - with joy, to find once more.

Death brings to other Saints their rest;
through toil they win the victor's place;
thou happier, like the Angels blest,
alive, hast seen God face to face.

Spare us, O Trinity most High!
grant that, with Joseph, we may gain
Thy starry realm, and ceaselessly
there raise to Thee our thankful strain.
Amen. 

 

ST JOSEPH: A TREASURY

Hello everyone, just a reminder that the book "St Joseph: A Treasury" is available from myself at the Apostolate of St Joseph Prince of the Church at the low cost of $15.00 Let's recap this book for those who do not know of it:

This fittingly titled book is indeed a treasury, featuring works of art from around the world, accompanied by the holy words of saints and pontiffs through the ages. Also included in this work is the pious Holy Cloak devotion, the beautiful Akathist Hymn, as well as a series of Papal prayers in honor of St Joseph.

This book includes quotes from Pope Francis, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope St John Paul II, St Bernardine of Siena, St Francis de Sales, St Alphonsus Liguori, St Pater Julian Eymard, St Josemaria Escriva, St Teresa de Avila, Blessed Pius IX, Pope St John XXIII, Venerable Maria de Agreda and many more!

This book is 316 pages and includes over 100 color images! And it is offered at the low cost of $15 dollars. No profit is made from this book - it all goes toward the printing and shipping of this book. (for me to mail one book via airmail averages around $25 North America, $40 overseas.)  

I have already sent many copies of this book to people in Canada, USA, Cuba, Spain, Philippines, Indonesia, Malta, Italy and Uganda. Those of you who wish to make a donation to the Apostolate to help with our costs, please click here.

Please click HERE for more information.

ST JOSEPH: FATHER & TEACHER OF CHRIST

And they kept saying, “Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph?”  — St. John 6:42

The Holy Bible does not give us a full account of the life of the Holy Family except for a brief mention in the Gospel of St. Luke, when Jesus is already twelve years of age. These hidden years were no doubt filled with the everyday joys and sorrows that families experience all the time.

According to Venerable Maria de Agreda, upon arriving at their home in Nazareth, St. Joseph straightaway set out to re-establish himself as a carpenter, opening up his shop to earn a living for his family: 

The holy Joseph also ordered his occupations and his work so as most worthily to earn sustenance for the divine Child and his Mother as well as for himself. That, which in other sons of Adam is considered a punishment and a hardship, was to this holy Patriarch a great happiness. For while others were condemned to sustain their natural life by the labour of their hands in the sweat of their brows, saint Joseph was blessed and consoled beyond measure to know, that he had been chosen by his labour and sweat to support God Himself and his Mother.

— Ven. Maria de Agreda,

Mystical City of God: Book 4, Chapter 9

As time went by, Joseph, having now established his family and his work in Nazareth, would go on to teach his son in the ways of life. No doubt that he could learn a lot from his son, but Jesus chooses to respect his intelligence, his hard work, his human nature. In renaissance art, Joseph is often depicted in the background, not playing an active part in the life of Christ when the exact opposite would be true. Who would have spent the most time with Christ besides the Blessed Mother? It would be Joseph, his father. For the first few years of life, the Child Jesus would have been reared mostly by his mother while his father went off to work. Once the Child Jesus grew to suitable age, St. Joseph would take over and instruct him in the ways of life through work and schooling.

FATHER AND TEACHER

If princes of this world are most careful in choosing tutors for their sons, taking pains to secure the best that can be found, do you think that God did not select the man who was the most perfectly qualified to be the guardian of his eternal Son, the Lord of heaven and earth?

— St. Francis de Sales

Complete Works: Discourse 19

 Joseph would most certainly have taught Christ how to read, how to pray, and how to work just like any other father would. This scholastic view of Joseph as teacher is rarely thought of among the theologians or painted in the arts. However, during the seventeenth century, many artists began to portray him as somewhat of a scholar, with an open book in front of him. In some of these paintings, he is actually pointing to a verse in the book, which we assume is our Holy Scripture, as he gazes at the Child Jesus. What does this mean to us? What is Joseph telling us? He was well aware of the prophecies that spoke of a future Messiah and the depiction of him with the book while looking at Jesus is telling us that Jesus is in fact the Promised One and his father is showing this to us. 

Let us not assume that just because he worked with his hands, he was illiterate and did not take the time to read the words of the prophets. We are told in Scripture that when Jesus came to this earth, he emptied himself and did not cling to his divinity, so as to be like one of us (Philippians 2:5-9). Jesus genuinely willed himself to learn from his father on earth and to grow as any other Jewish boy would. Joseph was a father, guardian, and teacher to his son. This Joseph of ours is both worker and intellectual, and no doubt he passed these ideals on to Christ our Lord.

My son, conduct your affairs with humility and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more . . . and you will find favour with God. For great is the power of God; by the humble he is glorified. — Sirach 3:17-20

Hear, O children, a father’s instruction, be attentive, that you may gain understanding! . . . When I was my father’s child, frail, yet the darling of my mother, he taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart hold fast my words! Keep my commands, do not forget; go not astray from the words of my mouth.” — Proverbs 4:1-7

Excerpts from BONUM SANE by POPE BENEDICT XV

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This was written in 1920  - how relevant this still is today, if not more so. Click here for full text.

POPE BENEDICT XV, BONUM SANE:  We now see, with true sorrow, that society is now much more depraved and corrupt than before, and that the so-called "social question" has been aggravating to such an extent as to create the threat of irreparable ruin. … World Government will no longer acknowledge the authority of the father over his children, or of the public power over the citizens, or of God over human society. All things which, if implemented, would lead to terrible social convulsions, like those which are already happening… We, therefore, concerned most of all by the course of these events … remind those on Our side, who earn their bread by their work, to save them from socialism, the sworn enemy of Christian principles, with great solicitude recommend them in particular to St. Joseph, to follow him as their guide and to receive the special honor of his heavenly patronage.

St Joseph Patron of the Church

 

Blessed Pope Pius IX, Inclytum Patriarcham: The Catholic Church rightly honors and venerates, with a feeling of deep reverence, the illustrious patriarch blessed Joseph, now crowned with glory and honor in heaven. On earth Almighty God, in preference to all His saints, willed him to be the chaste and true spouse of the Immaculate Virgin Mary as well as the putative father of His only-begotten Son. He indeed enriched him and filled him to overflowing with entirely unique graces, enabling him to execute more faithfully the duties of so sublime a state.

Pope Benedict XVI, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 19 March 2009:  Dear brothers and sisters, our meditation on the human and spiritual journey of Saint Joseph invites us to ponder his vocation in all its richness, and to see him as a constant model for all those who have devoted their lives to Christ in the priesthood, in the consecrated life or in the different forms of lay engagement. Joseph was caught up at every moment by the mystery of the Incarnation. Not only physically, but in his heart as well, Joseph reveals to us the secret of a humanity which dwells in the presence of mystery and is open to that mystery at every moment of everyday life.

Pope Leo XIII, Quamquam Pluries:  The Blessed Patriarch Joseph looks upon the multitude of Christians who make up the Church as confided especially to his trust - this limitless family spread over the earth, over which, because he is the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus Christ he holds, as it were, a paternal authority. It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.

Venerable Pope Paul VI, Homily, 19 March 1969:  The Church invokes St. Joseph as her Patron and Protector through her unshakable trust that he to whom Christ willed to confide the care and protection of His own frail human childhood, will continue from heaven to perform his protective task in order to guide and defend the Mystical Body of Christ Himself, which is always weak, always under attack, always in a state of peril. We call upon St. Joseph for the world, trusting that the heart of the humble working man of Nazareth, now overflowing with immeasurable wisdom and power, still harbors and will always harbor a singular and precious fellow-feeling for the whole of mankind. So may it be.

Pope Benedict XV, Bonum Sane:  We, full of confidence in the patronage of the one to whose provident supervision God was pleased to entrust the custody of his only-begotten Incarnate Son, and the Virgin Mother of God, we earnestly exhort all the Bishops of the Catholic world that, in times so turbulent for Christianity, to induce the faithful to pray with greater commitment for valuable help of St. Joseph. And since there are several ways approved by the Apostolic See with whom you can venerate the Holy Patriarch, especially every Wednesday throughout the year and month consecrated to Him, We want, for every Bishop to heed these requests - that all these devotions, as much as possible, are practiced in every diocese. 

The Return from Egypt: St Joseph Leads His Family to Nazareth

St. Matthew 2:19-22:  Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, and take the child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” So he arose and took the child and his mother, and went into the land of Israel.

Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos: And so Jesus' way back to Nazareth from Bethlehem passed through Egypt. Just as Israel had followed the path of the exodus "from the condition of slavery" in order to begin the Old Covenant, so Joseph, guardian and cooperator in the providential mystery of God, even in exile watched over the one who brings about the New Covenant.

St. Matthew 2:22-23: But hearing that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there; and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.  And he went to a town called Nazareth. 

j. rodrigues: This passage from Matthew (2:22-23) is often passed over quickly without a word or thought, but I believe that even this scene merits mention. In it we find that Joseph is afraid to return to Judea with his family, fearing that Herod’s successor would seek to destroy his Son. Though St. Joseph has faith he still has a temporal fear which is a part of the human condition and the Heavenly Father understands this. So once again He sends His messenger to instruct Joseph on what he is to do. 

This mention of Joseph’s fear speaks volumes not only about our human frailties but also of God’s compassion. The Heavenly Father allows Joseph to have, to a certain extent, self reliance even if it allows for him to fear. But the Lord is merciful, and so He sends his messenger to advise Joseph on the course he should take, to bring his family safely out of exile.