Try never to judge

Try never to judge

   Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so complex
that only its Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different,
actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different
circumstances, influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot
know all the influences that have gone to make up a personality.
Therefore, it is impossible for you to judge wholly that personality.
But God knows that person wholly and He can change it. Leave to God
the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to
teach you the proper understanding.
    I pray that I may not judge other people. I pray that I may be
certain that God can set right what is wrong in every personality.
—From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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19 March – The Solemnity of St Joseph

 Spouse of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Patron of
the Universal Church. The name ‘Joseph’ means” whom the Lord adds”.

 Patronages • against doubt and hesitation • accountants • all the
legal professions • bursars • cabinetmakers • carpenters • cemetery
workers • children • civil engineers • confectioners • craftsmen • the
dying • teachers • emigrants • exiles • expectant mothers • families •
fathers • furniture makers • grave diggers • happy death • holy death
• house hunters • immigrants • joiners • labourers • married couples •
orphans • against Communism • pioneers • pregnant women • social
justice • teachers • travellers • the unborn • wheelwrights • workers
• workers • Catholic Church • Oblates of Saint Joseph • for protection
of the Church • Universal Church • Vatican II • Americas • Austria •
Belgium • Bohemia • Canada • China • Croatian people • Korea • Mexico
• New France • New World • Peru • Philippines • Vatican City • VietNam
• Canadian Armed Forces • Papal States • 46 dioceses • 26 cities •
states and regions.

St Joseph is invoked as patron for many causes. He is the patron of
the Universal Church. He is the patron of the dying because Jesus and
Mary were at his death-bed. He is also the patron of fathers, of
carpenters and of social justice. Many religious orders and
communities are placed under his patronage.

St Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster-father
of Jesus, was probably born in Bethlehem and probably died in
Nazareth. His important mission in God’s plan of salvation was “to
legally insert Jesus Christ into the line of David from whom,
according to the prophets, the Messiah would be born, and to act as
his father and guardian” (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy).
Most of our information about St. Joseph comes from the opening two
chapters of St Matthew’s Gospel. No words of his are recorded in the
Gospels;  he was the “silent” man. We find no devotion to St Joseph in
the early Church. It was the will of God that the Virgin Birth of Our
Lord be first firmly impressed upon the minds of the faithful. He was
later venerated by the great saints of the Middle Ages. Pius IX (1870)
declared him patron and protector of the universal family of the
Church.

St Joseph was an ordinary manual labourer although descended from the
royal house of David. In the designs of Providence he was destined to
become the spouse of the Mother of God. His high privilege is
expressed in a single phrase, “Foster-father of Jesus.” About him
Sacred Scripture has little more to say than that he was a just man-an
expression which indicates how faithfully he fulfilled his high trust
of protecting and guarding God’s greatest treasures upon earth, Jesus
and Mary.

The darkest hours of his life may well have been those when he first
learned of Mary’s pregnancy;  but precisely in this time of trial
Joseph showed himself great. His suffering, which likewise formed a
part of the work of the redemption, was not without great providential
import:  Joseph was to be, for all times, the trustworthy witness of
the Messiah’s virgin birth. After this, he modestly retires into the
background of holy Scripture.

Of St Joseph’s death the Bible tells us nothing. There are
indications, however, that he died before the beginning of Christ’s
public life. His was the most beautiful death that one could have, in
the arms of Jesus and Mary. Humbly and unknown, he passed his years at
Nazareth, silent and almost forgotten he remained in the background
through centuries of Church history. Only in more recent times has he
been accorded greater honour. Liturgical veneration of St Joseph began
in the fifteenth century, fostered by Sts Brigid of Sweden and
Bernadine of Siena. St Teresa of Avila, too, did much to further his
cult.

At present there are two major feasts in his honour. Today 19 our
veneration is directed to him personally and to his part in the work
of redemption and is his main Feast and a Solemnity in the Universal
Church, while on 1 May we honour him as the patron of workmen
throughout the world and as our guide in the difficult matter of
establishing equitable norms regarding obligations and rights in the
social order….Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

https://anastpaul.com/2018/03/19/


COLLECT PRAYER
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph’s intercession Your
Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of
human salvation, whose beginnings You entrusted to his faithful care.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.


Prayer to St Joseph for a Happy Death
O Blessed Joseph,
who died in the arms of Jesus and Mary,
obtain for me, I beseech you,
the grace of a happy death.
In that hour of dread and anguish,
assist me by your presence
and protect me by your power,
against the enemies of my salvation.
Into your sacred hands,
living and dying,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
I commend my soul.
Amen

Joseph, wise ruler of God’s earthly household
Joseph, wise ruler of God’s earthly household,
nearest of all men to the heart of Jesus,
be still a father, lovingly providing
for us, His brethren.
Saint strong and manly, chosen by the Father,
as trusted guardian of the Son eternal,
guide us as once you guided Wisdom’s footsteps
with sure direction.
Husband of Mary, loving and beloved,
teach us the joy of love so pure and holy,
warming our hearts with love
for God’s own Mother by your example.
Saint of the dying, blest with Mary’s presence,
in death you rested in the arms of Jesus;
so at our ending, Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
come to assist us!

REFLECTION – Saint Joseph was the just man by his constant fidelity,
an effect of justice; by his perfect discretion, a sister to prudence;
by his upright conduct, a mark of strength and by his inviolable
chastity, a flower of temperance…St Albert the Great (1200-1280)
Doctor of the Church

-- James 5:12 --
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth
or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no,
that you may not fall under condemnation. RSVCE


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Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt
before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain
for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly
power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of
Fathers.
Oh, St. Joseph, I never grow weary of contemplating you, and Jesus
asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your
heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him
to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of
departing souls, pray for us. Amen.