Overlooked and Undervalued

(from this month's parish magazine)

Mothering Sunday and Lady Day fall this month and will rightly be celebrated.

Often overlooked and undervalued is St Joseph's Day. He is a rather neglected figure in the contemporary church but his virtues - particularly his manliness - are urgently needed in a Western Church undermined by 'gender issues' and feminism.

The Feast of St Joseph on 19th March is his principal day in Western Christianity. It is a Solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church and a Feast Day in the Anglican Communion. It is the Patronal Day for those named Joseph or Josephine, for religious orders, schools, and parishes bearing his name and for carpenters. It is also fathers day in Spain, Poprtugal, Belgium and Italy. He was also declared the Patron Saint and Protector of the Universal Church (along with St Peter) by Pope Pius IX in 1870, and he is Patron of several countries and regions.

Matthew and Luke are the chief biblical sources of his life. They tell us about him becoming the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus. They tell us that he was a respectable

and righteosu man who worked as a carpenter. They tell us how he travelled to Bethlehem with Mary, where Jesus was born. How together they fled from Herod into Egypt and later returned to establish home in Nazareth. He shared the parenting of Jesus with Mary.

Joseph is an excellent model of manhood and fatherhood. Recognising this, Pope John Paul II issue an apostolic exhortation on St Joseph and the understanding of fatherhood on 15th August 1989 called 'Redemptoris Custos' (Guardian of the Redeemer: On the Person and Mission of St Joseph in the life of Christ and the Church). As he was the head of the humble home in Nazareth and guardian of the Holy Family, so he is the protector of the Church on earth.

St Joseph is also patron of a holy death because he died with Jesus and Mary close to him, the way we all would like to leave this earth.

St Joseph, patron of the universal church, watch over the Church as carefully as you watched over Jesus, help protect it and guide it as you did with your adopted son.

St Joseph, pray for us.