St. Joseph’s Day

My Dear Parishioners,

As we observe this Fourth Sunday of Lent, we also prepare to celebrate St. Joseph’s Day.

St. Joseph’s Day is always a big day for bakeries, especially South Philly Italian bakeries. That is because St. Joseph’s Day is a major Feast, and so it is a day to enjoy, if one wishes, those things that one has given up for Lent. So, for those who have given up sweets for Lent, it is a day that one is allowed to make a trip to the bakery—without any guilt!

St. Joseph has many titles and roles in the Church. He is the Righteous Man who is the Patron Saint of the Universal Church, the Patron Saint of Fathers, the Patron Saint of Husbands, the Patron Saint of the Unborn, the Patron Saint of Carpenters, the Patron Saint of a Happy Death, the Patron Saint of our humble parish in Warrington.

I always found “the Patron Saint of a Happy Death” to be very interesting. He received this title and this role because it has always been assumed that our Blessed Mother and Our Blessed Savior were at his bedside and that he passed away knowing that the salvation of Israel and the world was at hand. Thus, he had a very happy and peaceful death, and now intercedes on our behalf that we too will be in God’s Good Graces at the moment of death, and so enjoy a happy death.

His most important title is the Foster Father of Our Blessed Savior. As the Sacred Scriptures relate, he was a righteous man. In other words, he was a true believer in the God of Israel and who then lived his life as a true believer. I have also always pictured St. Joseph as a young, strong, vigorous, dignified, and intelligent man. So together, his righteousness, along with his youth, intelligence, and vigor, would have made him the perfect choice for a chaste husband for the Holy Virgin and also the perfect choice for a foster father for Jesus. St. Joseph not only protected the Holy Family and provided for the Holy Family but was good role model and provided good example to the Child Jesus.

The saints themselves testify to the power of devotion to St. Joseph. Among the long list of saints who had a special devotion to him is the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila. I have included some quotes St. Teresa and from other saints on St. Joseph in this letter.

Through the Intercession of St. Joseph, may our families always be open to where God wishes to lead us, and may we also live, and die, in God’s Good Graces.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church, and our Patron, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor