"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9)"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9)
Fidelity to Grace
In the seventh Beatitude, Christ declares the peace-makers blessed. But one cannot be a peacemaker unless peace first reigns in his own heart. Peace is the possession of those who have established in their lives, in their desires, a proper order - an order which is a reflection of the divine order. To achieve this, one must regard all creatures, all events, from God's point of view. In each situation of life one must accept God's will and trust in His providence. One must become, as Christ Himself recommended, a little child - confident in his Father's goodness and love, secure, docile, and carefree.
Only by the power of grace can one attain this blessed condition of mind and heart. Saint Joseph's correspondence with grace was so complete, so constant, so perfect that he acquired this precious peace as a consequence of the gift of wisdom which the Holy Spirit poured into his heart. By this gift he was able to grasp in each event the divinely intended order.
Consider, for example, the scene in the Temple of Jerusalem when the distraught parents found their lost Child holding a conference with the Doctors of the Law. Mary said to the Boy, "Son, in sorrow Thy father and I have been seeking Thee." The Child's answer gently but firmly corrected her point of view and established the God-appointed order: "How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:48-49) In perfect simplicity Saint Joseph, as well as Mary, acquiesced, even though the words suggested that the hour had come when Christ would leave His home at Nazareth to begin His Messianic mission. Saint Joseph effectively teaches us how to be simple, how to be a peacemaker, how to be worthy to be called a child of God.
Prayer
Dear Saint Joseph, each day at Mass I join the priest in saying, "Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace!" Obtain for me the grace to say this prayer with fervor and help me to establish firmly peace in my own heart that I may aid in its spread to the lives of others.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty Father, from whom all graces come: I praise and bless and thank Thee for Saint Joseph's fidelity to grace. Grant that, through his loving intercession, I, too, may be faithful to grace. O my powerful patron Saint Joseph, obtain for me the favor I now ask.
Fidelity to the Interior Life
In the Mass of Corpus Christi, the Church prays for the gifts of unity and peace which are mystically signified by the offerings of bread and wine. The Holy Eucharist is, indeed, the Sacrament of peace. In this Blessed Sacrament there are present the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the glorified Saviour; and the constant message of the glorified Christ when He appeared to His Apostles after the resurrection was "Peace be to you!" Each time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, the liturgy recalls, at the Communion of the Mass, Christ's words before His Passion: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you," and from the earliest days of the Church the kiss of peace was exchanged before participation in the Eucharistic banquet.
Saint Thomas has called the Eucharist the "pledge of future glory" wherein the peace of heaven shall be unending. And in that heavenly peace Saint Augustine says that the union of members of the Mystical Body with each other and with Christ, the Head, will be so intimate that "there will be only one Christ loving Himself." Such is the sublime significance of the finely blended grains of wheat and the crushed grapes that constitute the host and wine which veil the Sacramental Presence.
A profound mystery here presents itself. Christ is sacramentally present in the Holy Eucharist, truly and completely present; but His presence is not limited by the shape and the dimensions of the host. And to Christ the Head, all members of His Mystical Body are united. Through this Blessed Sacrament, therefore, we are all mystically united not only to Christ, but to one another and to Saint Joseph, to Mary, the Apostles, and all the saints - present, past and future. The Blessed Sacrament is indeed the bond of unity. With Saint Paul one must exclaim: "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!" (Rom. 11:33). The wonder of the mystery invites meditation, and the meditation nurtures our interior life. One who, like Saint Paul or Saint Thomas, penetrates the depths of the mysteries associated with the Holy Eucharist approaches closer to that point where he may be enabled "to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Such contemplation establishes in our interior life that admirable tranquillity of order which is peace.
Prayer
Dear Saint Joseph, help me to make fruitful meditation upon the sublime mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Teach me to recognize in this Sacrament the perfect example of every virtue: charity, obedience, humility, poverty, silence, generosity, meekness, patience. When persons or situations cause me distress, direct me to confide the matter as quickly as possible to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to seek there restoration of peace of soul.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty Father, from whom all graces come: I praise and bless and thank Thee for Saint Joseph's fidelity to the interior life. Grant that, through his loving intercession, I, too, may be faithful to the interior life. O my powerful patron Saint Joseph, obtain for me the favor I now ask.
Devotion to Our Lady
The present era has often been called the Age of Mary. Those who know and love Our Lady salute her under many titles, but they particularly invoke her in these troubled times as Queen of Peace. As a matter of fact, Our Lady herself gave a striking indication of her concern for the peace of the world in the apparitions at Fatima. In predicting to the three children the great miracle which would take place during her visit in October, the Immaculate Virgin promised: "Saint Joseph will come with the Holy Child, and soon afterwards peace will be granted to the world." And while the spectacular miracle of the "dancing sun" gripped the pilgrims in awe and terror, the children witnessed a series of visions, in one of which Saint Joseph, holding the Infant Christ in his arm, made the sign of the cross over the world three times.
From this event three significant conclusions can be drawn: first, Our Lady points to her beloved spouse, Saint Joseph, as a peacemaker. Secondly, Our Lady indicates that devotion to Saint Joseph is inseparable from devotion to herself and that neither of them can be separated from devotion to the Incarnate Son of God. Thirdly, men must learn that, if they would establish peace in the world, they must look to the Holy Family and study the lessons taught therein. Man's first duty is to set things in order within the family circle. Parents and children must be united, must share common interests, must live in mutual love and harmony. Charity, which Saint Paul calls "the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14), must prevail within this circle and must then move out into ever-widening circles to affect society. At the root of most family strife there lies, undoubtedly, the ugly trait of selfishness. No trace of this ever dimmed the happiness of the Holy Family at Nazareth. Consideration, sympathy, generosity, self-control, cheerfulness - amid such virtues the days at Nazareth passed blissfully, in peace and love, for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Prayer
Dear Saint Joseph, in imitation of your blessed life I will strive to preserve peace with those with whom I live in closest contact, and I shall try to practice the virtues so attractively exemplified in the Holy Family. Help me to develop a living faith that will enable me to recognize in others the image of Christ, that I may show them the courtesy, generosity, and amiability that I would show to Him.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty Father, from whom all graces come: I praise and bless and thank Thee for Saint Joseph's devotion to Our Lady. Grant that, through his loving intercession, I, too, may be truly devoted to Our Lady. O my powerful patron Saint Joseph, obtain for me the favor I now ask.
Devotion to the Divine Child
The interior life of Saint Joseph was deepened and beautified by his constant contact with the Person of the Incarnate Word. During those blessed years which we call the hidden life of Christ, Saint Joseph enjoyed the physical presence of God's own Son, whose divinity, though concealed beneath the veil of human flesh, he nevertheless perceived with the eyes of faith. The inevitable result of this close contact with Christ was peace. As Saint Paul proclaims: "He Himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14). Hence, Saint Joseph, living in the blessed peace of Nazareth, diffused that peace among his fellow men and became united with them through his foster Son, who would later make to His Father that prayer of all-surpassing charity: "That all may be one" (John 17:21).
The peace of Nazareth was, then, for Saint Joseph, the prelude to that peace of heaven which is essentially union through Christ with the Father. For Saint Joseph, the physical presence of Christ was the efficacious cause of that peace. For those, however, who were not to experience His physical presence on this earth, Christ made provision through a miracle of love. On the altar, under the sacramental species, Christ is as truly present as He was in the carpenter shop at Nazareth. But, as Saint Thomas points out, in Nazareth only His divinity lay concealed; in the Eucharist, both humanity and divinity are hidden.
Because of his unique role of shadow of the Eternal Father, Saint Joseph was united with the Father, through Christ, and thus lived in continual anticipation of the face-to-face vision of God in heaven. This same consciousness of the Father, this desire for union with Him in heaven, Christ intends His presence among us in the Blessed Sacrament to effect. This is the emphatic message which He repeated so insistently the night before His Passion. Not only is the Holy Eucharist a Sacrament which engenders faith and love; it is the basis of our hope. It prompts us to view all things sub specie aeternitatis - in the light of eternity - and thereby to establish a proper order and peace in our lives. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." Saint Joseph, in his devotion to the Divine Child at Nazareth, sets the example for our devotion to the same Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
Prayer
Dear Saint Joseph, help me to realize that each time I receive Holy Communion I am preparing myself for union with God in heaven. Obtain for me an increase of the virtue of hope, and inspire me to make frequent acts of this virtue that, amid the distractions of earthly joys and sorrows, my thoughts may often dwell upon the eternal bliss of heaven.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty Father, from whom all graces come: I praise and bless and thank Thee for Saint Joseph's devotion to the Divine Child. Grant that, through his loving intercession, I, too, may be truly devoted to Jesus. O my powerful patron Saint Joseph, obtain for me the favor I now ask.
- taken from Reflecting on Saint Joseph: A Nine-Day Devotion, by Sister Emily Joseph Daly, C.S.J.