{"id":6109,"date":"2021-03-19T08:56:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T12:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=6109"},"modified":"2021-03-19T08:56:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T12:56:48","slug":"solemnity-of-st-joseph-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/solemnity-of-st-joseph-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Solemnity of St. Joseph &#8211; Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bible.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/031921.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/bible.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/031921.cfm\">Virgin Mary<\/a><br>1 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16<br>Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29<br>Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22<br>Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a<br>March 19, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">Today we celebrate this <em>Solemnity <\/em>of St. Joseph.&nbsp; I emphasize \u201csolemnity\u201d because it is the highest rank of saint days that we have.&nbsp; We don\u2019t know a lot about Joseph.&nbsp; Yet, what we do know is from Scripture itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">We know he was of the house of David from the genealogy provided in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew+1%3A1-17&amp;version=NABRE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matthew 1:1-17<\/a>.&nbsp; We know he was betrothed to Mary when she was \u201c<em>found with child through the Holy Spirit<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp; Knowing he could not be the father, Joseph assumed she had committed adultery.&nbsp; Being a righteous man, he decided to divorce her quietly.&nbsp; Then, \u201c<em>the angel of the Lord<\/em>\u201d told him to take Mary as his wife for she had conceived by the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; <strong><em><u>Perhaps the most important thing we should know about Joseph is that he always did as the Lord directed.<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; Thus, he became the father of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">St. Joseph is the patron of several causes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of the universal church.&nbsp; His wife, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the Mother of the Church.&nbsp; It is fitting that he be the patron saint of the universal church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of unborn children.&nbsp; He knew Jesus was not his biological son but he accepted Jesus in the womb as a gift.&nbsp; We pray for all unborn children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of fathers.&nbsp; He accepted the role given to him to be the father of Jesus.&nbsp; He serves as an example to all fathers to raise their children according to the Lord\u2019s ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of workers.&nbsp; <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew+13%3A55&amp;version=NABRE\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 13:55<\/a> identifies Jesus as the carpenter\u2019s son.&nbsp; As a righteous man, Joseph would have been a dedicated man to his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of travelers.&nbsp; Here we remember the flight to Egypt when Joseph did as the angel directed and took Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+2%3A13-15&amp;version=NABRE\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 2:13-15<\/a>) and their return, again as directed through the angel of the Lord (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+2%3A19-23&amp;version=NABRE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matthew 2:19-23<\/a>).&nbsp; In their travels to and from Egypt, St. Joseph is also the patron saint of immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">He is the patron saint of a happy death.&nbsp; While scripture does not tell us, tradition says Mary and Jesus were there when Joseph died.&nbsp; We seek the same from our loved ones when we die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">St. Joseph is an example to us.&nbsp; An example of listening to God, to being a good spouse, a good father, and a dedicated worker.&nbsp; May we always follow his example and do as the Lord ask of us in all things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary1 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24aMarch 19, 2021 Today we celebrate this Solemnity of St. Joseph.&nbsp; I emphasize \u201csolemnity\u201d because it is the highest rank of saint days that we have.&nbsp; We don\u2019t know a lot &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/solemnity-of-st-joseph-homily\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Solemnity of St. Joseph &#8211; Homily&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,55],"tags":[928,926,927],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-1Ax","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6109"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6114,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109\/revisions\/6114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}