2020-2021 Year of St Joseph

The Vatican announced that this year (December 8, 2020 – December 8, 2021) would be a year dedicated to St. Joseph, husband of Mary and earthly father of Jesus Christ.

With the Apostolic Letter “Patris corde” (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. In the letter (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.

The Holy Father wrote Patris corde against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

At the beginning of this year a dear friend sent me a Novena to Saint Joseph the Worker which reminds me to work in a spirit of humility.

NOVENA TO SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER

O Glorious Saint Joseph, patron and model of all who labour, obtain for me the grace:

to work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of my sins and the sins of mankind;

to work conscientiously, putting the demands of my work before my ever-changing feelings;

to work with gratitude and joy, considering it an honour to develop, by means of my work, the gifts God has given me;

to work in a orderly manner, with patience and perseverance, without too easily giving in to weariness or difficulties;

to work above all, with the purity of intention and with detachment from self, keeping death in mindand the account i will have to give God of time lost, talents and material wasted, of good omitted, of complacency in success- all so fatal to the work of God.

” All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after your example, Blessed Joseph”; such shall be my motto at my daily work, in life and in death.

Amen.