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 “Joseph, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from the sins” (Mt 1:20-21)
In these words we find the core of biblical truth about St. Joseph. If the Family of Nazareth is an example and model for human families, in the order of salvation and holiness, so to, by analogy, is Jesus’ work at the side of Joseph the Carpenter. In our own day, the Church has emphasized this by instituting the liturgical memorial of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1.
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 Pope John XXIII, who had a great devotion to St. Joseph, directed that Joseph’s name be inserted in the Roman Canon of the Mass, after the name of Mary and before the apostles and martyrs.
At a difficult time in the Church’s history, Pope Pius IX, wishing to place her under the powerful patronage of the holy patriarch, Joseph, declared him “Patron of the Universal Church”. Our prayers and the very person of Joseph have renewed signif icance for the Church in light of the Third Christian Millennium.
May St. Joseph obtain for the Church and for the world, as well as for each of us, the blessing of the Father, Son and Holly Spirit.
Given at Rome in St. Peter’s, on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 1989, the eleventh of my Pontificate.
“Extract from the Apostolic Exhortation, ‘Redemporis Custos’ of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, on the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Jesus Christ and of the Church”. |
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Baptism
