Today being the external solemnity of the Feast of St. Joseph, I suppose I am required to say a few words. Thankfully, P. Francis has saved me from my writer's block with a new radio address (link courtesy of the ever-irascible Frank "Barnhardt Was Right" Walker):
Today I want to ask, grant to all of us the ability to dream, that when we dream great things, beautiful things, we might draw near to the dream of God, the things God dreams about us. [I ask] that he might give to young people – because he was young – the capacity to dream, to risk, to undertake the difficult tasks they have seen in dreams. And [I ask] him to give to all of us the faithfulness that tends to grow when we have a just attitude – Joseph was just – [the faithfulness that] grows in silence, with few words; that grows in tenderness that guards our own weaknesses and those of others.Actually, I do like to imagine Joseph dreaming prophetically, when he was young, of his future bride and her Divine Son. Perhaps he, too, dreamed of the sun and moon bowing down before him, a figure of his eventual role as the head of the Holy Family.
Or perhaps Francis should re-read the ancient words of Sirach before encouraging the young to follow their dreams: "For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them." Food for thought.
So what exactly constitutes a "True Devotion" to St. Joseph?
ReplyDeletePerhaps wait for the nearby Catholic Bookstore to stock up Images of "Joseph the Just Man of Old"?
There are in fact many popular images of St. Joseph (some of them Renaissance-era) that show him as an old man, and can be easily purchased. Probably harder to find him as elderly in small statuary.
DeleteP. Francis is pushing for devotion to Joseph as the patron of the Church, but also as perpetually asleep—unintentionally prophetic, perhaps?
Very Prophetic. The Other Day(It's now 01:20 A.M from where I am now)the Communion Hymn I Heard in the Pauline Mass was about Trust in God. One line went: "Your Young Men will see Visions". It is more of a Nightmare for us Traditional Catholics who are rediscovering Traditional Josephology.
DeleteAlso the Directory on Popular Piety(Private Devotions as they say a Century ago) and the Liturgy published by CDW does not Help in this regard on "True Devotion" to the Widowed Stepfather.
Delete"[the faithfulness that] grows in silence, with few words; that grows in tenderness that guards our own weaknesses and those of others."
ReplyDeletePerhaps His Holiness might meditate on these profound thoughts?
I don't know if it would have cured your writer's block, J., but I was delighted that the 3rd Sun. of Lent (I Noct. of Joseph and his dreams) preceded the (transferred) feast of St. Joseph, with its I Noct. typology of the patriarch Joseph, almost picking up exactly where the Lessons from Sunday left off. Nothing profound, just a happy coincidence this year.
ReplyDeleteFr Zed the other day posted photos of a quite moving French 15th century painted limestone relief of the Nativity (it's currently hosted at the Met), depicting a fairly obviously aged St Joseph off to the side, warming the little Lord’s coverlet before the fire. A food-fight over old-versus-young St. Joseph immediately ensued in the combox.
ReplyDeleteI saw that. The exchange went about the way these things usually go. Why do people constantly point to Joseph's age as a major detriment to their flight into Egypt? Was not the patriarch Abraham over 75 years old when he went to war against the enemies of Sodom? Was he not over 99 when he emigrated from Canaan to Gerara, and even older when he climbed the mountain to put his son to the knife? Why wouldn't a carpenter remain in good physical shape, even in his elder years?
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