The Universal Church celebrates today the feast day of St. Joseph, foster father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Patron of the Families. Other than the Blessed Mother and our Carmelite saints, St. Joseph is the unofficial patron of the Carmelite Order.
Let us recall the devotion of St. Teresa of Avila to this illustrious saint in her Autobiography:
“I
took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph and commended myself
earnestly to him; and I found that this my father and lord delivered me both
from this trouble and also from other and greater troubles concerning my honor
and the loss of my soul, and that he gave me greater blessings than I could ask
of him. I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which
he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors which God has
bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which He has
freed me, both in body and in soul. To other saints the Lord seems to have
given grace to succor us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint
my experience is that he succors us in them all and that the Lord wishes to
teach us that as He was Himself subject to him on earth (for, being His
guardian and being called His father, he could command Him) just so in Heaven
He still does all that he asks. This has also been the experience of other
persons whom I have advised to commend themselves to him; and even to-day there
are many who have great devotion to him through having newly experienced this
truth.” “I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to this glorious saint,
for I have great experience of the blessings which he can obtain from God. I
have never known anyone to be truly devoted to him and render him particular
services who did not notably advance in virtue, for he gives very real help to
souls who commend themselves to him. For some years now, I think, I have made
some request of him every year on his festival and I have always had it
granted. If my petition is in any way ill directed, he directs it aright for my
greater good.”
In very much the same way, way we find the powerful protection of St. Joseph in our community and in our lives.
St. Joseph, Principal Protector of the Venerable Order of Carmel, pray for us!
Source: Catholic Spiritual Direction
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