My Saint Joseph

by Joyce Farrell

St. Joseph has always held a special place in my prayers for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that since we know so little about him we are free to form our own picture in our mind of this great saint. 

There are many theories put forth about him as recounted in the Catholic Encyclopedia.  The theory that Joseph was an old man when he married Mary has persisted.  I have trouble believing that.  For one thing, God wouldn’t have entrusted his only Son to a man who was so advanced in years that he would not have been able to protect Jesus.  And protect Him he did.  Would an old man have been able to make his way to Bethlehem or to Egypt and back to Nazareth on what must have been harrowing trips? 

Whoever he was St. Joseph has been a part of my family’s life for many years.  When my mother worked at St. Margaret’s Hospital in the 1950’s, she met a nun who had a special devotion to “Mike and Joe” (St. Michael the Archangel and St. Joseph).  My mother took roses and placed them by their statues all during the growing season.

One of my favorite books is 365 Mary – A daily guide to Mary’s Wisdom and Comfort by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker.  I am drawn to this book because it brings the Holy Family into my life in a way that I can relate to.  "We know St. Joseph as a carpenter but it is more likely that he was a tekton which conveys “the idea of a person with a wide range of building skills and would have been a supervisor and leader of other less skilled workers.”  It is possible and even likely that he and Jesus traveled to other locations for work on some of the many building projects that the Roman’s had commissioned. 

The Holy Family is said to have lived in poverty.  But there was no middle class and so you either were rich or poor.  They weren’t rich so they qualified as poor. but they were really average, ordinary folks.  God put his only Son into the hands of two very competent people.  Mary and Joseph must have been in love with each other if for no other reason than God wouldn’t have chosen to have his Son grow up in a household void of love. 

So, the picture I carry in my mind, and talk to in my prayers, is a loving, strong and sensible man who was mature and confident in his abilities to provide.  He is the man I ask to watch over my family and help us in all our needs.  I pray he will be with me when it is time for my life on Earth to end.