NOVENA
TO ST. JOSEPH
SEVENTH DAY
Favours
granted to St. Joseph
1. He was singularly favoured, assisted, and honoured
by the angels; he received consolation from them in his anguish, light in his
perplexities, relief in his fatigues. He was truly an angelical man; his office
was to serve as a guardian angel to Jesus and to Mary.
2. No saint has ever enjoyed Jesus as much as Joseph,
who had the happiness of caressing Him, and carrying Him a thousand times in
his arms. Also, no saint has received from Jesus as many caresses and favours.
3. The life he led with Jesus and Mary was more
heavenly than terrestrial, more divine than Human; it was full of simplicity,
innocence, and fervor; it was a foretaste of the life of the blessed in Heaven.
Virtues to
imitate in St. Joseph
1. His respect for the ministers of God.
2. The peace and tranquillity of his soul.
3. The sincerity of his words and the modesty of his
manners.
Prayer
I am not astonished, glorious Joseph, that the angels
favoured thee singularly, since thou didst resemble them so well by thy
angelical purity. I do not wonder, either, that they had a kind of ambition to
serve thee, since they saw thee superior to them in dignity. Ah! if envy could
have entered into their hearts, doubtless they would have envied the happiness
thou didst enjoy, that of living so familiarly with the Divine Infant, prodigy
of love, centre of all joy, source of all sweetness. I bless, happy saint, that
mouth, which has praised and glorified Him so often; I bless those hands, which
have so lovingly caressed Him; I bless that heart, upon which He has reposed so
sweetly a thousand times. In conversing day and night with the Infant God, thou
hast learnt to become little and childlike as he was; thou hast learnt to
imitate the innocence, simplicity, the purity, and all the amiable virtues of
the Incarnate Word. Ah! thou didst know the desire he had even then to see
every Christian become children again, to pass the narrow gate to enter the
Kingdom of Heaven. And I also desire to become like the Child Jesus. Obtain for
me, then, the virtues suitable to Christian infancy; may my heart be exempt
from malice, my thoughts pure, my intentions upright, my words innocent, all my
conduct conformable to simplicity and humility. In fine, grant that by penance
I may return to that happy state of Christian infancy in which the sacrament of
regeneration had placed me, and whence my iniquities made me fall. Amen.
V. Pray
for us, St. Joseph.
R. That
we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray
Grant, we beseech Thee, Lord, that we may be assisted
by the merits of the spouse of Thy most holy Virgin Mother, and that what we
cannot obtain through our own weakness, may be granted to us by his prayers. Who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Devotions during
the Day
1. Weep for your past sins with pure contrition before
the image of the Child Jesus, and offer Him the innocence, simplicity, and
purity of St. Joseph.
2. Visit the Blessed Sacrament, with the desire of
conversing with Jesus, and offer Him the caresses of St. Joseph.
3. Give alms to some poor child, considering in him the
image of the Child Jesus.
ITE AD SANCTE JOSEPH! GO TO ST JOSEPH!
Sentences
relative to St. Joseph
Among the heavenly spirits there is not one who can call
Jesus by the name of Son. - St. Cyprian
Joseph is as much raised above the angels as he
possesses a name different from theirs. - St. Paul, ad Heb.
Jesus needed the paternal assistance of Joseph and his
pious attention, in carrying Him in his arms. - Rupert
Oh, how sweet it was for Joseph to hear the Child Jesus
give him the name of father! - St. Bernardine
The house of Nazareth was truly heaven. – Rupert
The other saints enter after death in possession of
glory; thou, Joseph, even in this life art equal to the inhabitants of Heaven, for
thou enjoyest God already. - Hymn, St. Joseph
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