Mass @ 6:00 pm Friday, March 19th
Pope Francis has declared this to be a year of St. Joseph for the universal Church. St. Joseph, foster-father to our Lord is a powerful intercessor and the special patron saint of Canada. His major feast day is this Friday (March 19th) and we will be celebrating Mass in his honour at 6:00 pm on that day in our Church (just prior to Stations of the Cross at 7:00 pm).
In scripture, Joseph makes brief but important appearances in the story of our Lord’s conception, birth, and childhood. Scripture does not record his death, but we know it must have happened by the time Jesus entered his public ministry.
Just as the Church exhorts parents today at their children’s baptism, we can trust that, together with Mary, Joseph would have been Jesus’s first and best human teacher of life and faith during what we call the hidden years – the years of his childhood and young adulthood in Nazareth.
In the words of spiritual writer Father James Martin, S.J.,
“The hiddenness of Joseph’s life can also speak to those overwhelmed by the pandemic, who wonder if God is with them, if God sees. Appearing only briefly in the Gospels, given no words at all to speak, Joseph leads a life of quiet service to God, a life that remains almost totally unknown to us. And yet his life—filled with countless hidden, unseen, unrecorded acts of love—was of infinite value. Joseph’s life says to all of us, “God sees.” “
St. Joseph, pray for us!