An Irish Pastoral on Saint Joseph, by Bishop Thomas Furlong

Saint Joseph acted an important part in that scheme of redemption by which grace was purchased for us. It was Joseph who received into his arms the new born Saviour; it was he who watched over His infancy, with more than the affectionate solicitude of a parent; it was he who laboured with his own hands for His subsistence; it was he, in fine, who, along with Mary, reared up the Victim destined for sacrifice. The Holy Ghost replenished the heart of this great Saint with an inconceivable tenderness of devotion to the Child of Benediction intrusted to his care and who can tell the joys and griefs that mingled in that heart, as the sufferings and humiliations, or glories and triumphs, that awaited this thrice - beloved Child, presented themselves to his mind? And now that he beholds, face to face, the Saviour whom he loved so devotedly on earth, now that the happy union with Him which commenced here below is perfected in heaven, who can conceive the glowing ardours of that love, that fed during life at the very fountain of Divine love, in the cottage of Nazareth, and has now received its proportionate consummation in God's own tabernacles? We may well rest satisfied, my dearly beloved people, that our Saint harbours a similar tender affection towards us who are the brethren of Christ, members of the mystical body of which He is the Head. Yes, he is a father, a loving father to us all, as well as to Jesus; and if we fly to him for succour we shall soon experience the effects of his fatherly love. Let us bear in mind, too, the surpassing dignity conferred on Joseph here on earth. God the Father shared with him, as it were, His own paternity, and made His own consubstantial Son subject to him. How powerful, then, must his intercession be with Him who acknowledged and bowed submissively to his authority on earth! Is it wonderful that a learned and pious writer says that in heaven "Saint Joseph does not supplicate, but command"?

In all your trials and difficulties, therefore, go to Joseph. When the land of Egypt was afflicted of old with a direful famine, the sovereign of that country referred all his subjects who came to him for relief to Joseph, whom he made governor over ail his dominions. Have you been visited with any temporal or spiritual affliction? Go to the minister of the great King, go to Joseph. It is he who, after Mary, has the largest share in the distribution of the favours of Heaven. Are you poor and destitute, burdened with a numerous family looking to you for that nourishment which you cannot supply to them? Go to Joseph. He will find for you, in the granary of Divine Providence, aid and succour you little expected. Are you afflicted with a severe and tedious illness, and do you find your patience almost exhausted under this long and painful trial? Go to Joseph. His paternal heart will overflow with compassion for you, and he will obtain for you the restoration of health, or the patient resignation to the Divine will, which you desire. Parents, have you a child, the object of your fond solicitude, who, far from realising the fair promise of earlier years, has wandered away from the path of virtue and holiness he trod in happier days? Go, I repeat it, to the minister of the great King, and he will send forth His messengers, His heavenly graces, those harbingers of peace and reconciliation, that will invite the poor prodigal, nay, compel him, to return to his father's house. And, afflicted mother, have you a husband who, instead of being a fond partner to you, a kind father and guardian to his children, is the calamity and scandal of his household? Do you desire a powerful grace that will penetrate that obdurate heart and expel the demons that have taken possession of it? Fly to Joseph. Oh! the devoted Spouse of Mary, the fond guardian of the Infant God, will cast an eye of tenderest pity on you he will ask, and not in vain, his own dear Jesus to impart to that hardened heart the devotion of conjugal affection and the tenderness of paternal love, to convert the outcast from heaven into a Christian, sober, industrious, and gentle; to make your humble home, in some degree, represent the peace and purity of the cottage of Nazareth.

Unhappy sinner, are you overwhelmed by the consciousness of your own guilt, afraid to raise your eyes to Heaven to ask for mercy, and ready to sink into the abyss of despair? Go to Joseph and he who, during his daily converse with the Redeemer of the world, learned so well "the length and breadth, and height and depth," of that charity that glowed in His breast, will become your mediator with Him; compunction, love, confidence, will succeed to fear and despondency, and the peace of God, which seemed irrecoverably lost, will again cheer and gladden your heart. But above all, my dear people, by constant devotion to Saint Joseph, engage him to become your guardian and protector at the hour of death. Ask him, who was so singularly blessed as to expire in the very bosom and embraces of his God, ask him, with his holy Spouse and her Divine Son, to be near you at that last awful hour, and to conduct you securely through the gates of death into the mansions of eternal bliss. In all your wants and necessities, therefore, have recourse to him whom God has set over the treasury of His graces in heaven, as He made him, on earth, the master of the house that enshrined the fountain of all grace, the Redeemer of the world. Offer up each day your prayers to Saint Joseph for the favours you stand in need of, but offer them up with great earnestness, and at the same time great confidence in his inter cession. Bear in mind the remarkable words of Saint Teresa, the devout client of Saint Joseph: "I never remember to have asked anything of him which I did not obtain." She at the same time addresses to all this earnest request: "I shall now implore of all those who may, perhaps, find it difficult to believe what I have asserted, to make a trial of it themselves for the love of God; and their own experience will teach them how advantageous it is to solicit the Patronage of the glorious Patriarch." I earnestly entreat each one amongst you, in offering up his supplications to Heaven, through the intercession of Saint Joseph, not to forget the clergy and people of this diocese to ask, for the clergy, the Spirit of the Prince of Pastors Himself, the spirit of humility and meekness, of charity, self-sacrifice, and zeal, that, in the language of the Church, "their doctrine may be the spiritual medicine of the people of God, and the sweet odour of their virtues may be the delight of the Church of Christ;" for the people, the spirit of obedience and docility, of sobriety and temperance, the uncompromising faith, the unwavering hope, the generous chanty, that warmed the breasts of their forefathers. Be, my dear brethren, assiduous and confiding clients of Saint Joseph during life, and you will experience the benefit of his Patronage, especially at the critical moment of death.