Saint Study Podcast

Podcast # 116

 

• Hello everyone and welcome to Saint Study Episode #116 – “St. Joseph - Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
  • Thank you for joining us – maybe we can all learn enough today that by the end of the program we will say, “I didn’t know that” (But now I do!)
  • What is a saint? A Canonized Saint is someone recognized by the Church as having led a life of great charity & heroic virtue. Their example of how to conquer any sin imaginable is so important that it was worth recognizing these men & women in a significant way. Anyone (canonized or not) whose soul was cleansed in Purgatory and now resides in Heaven is a Saint. It is every Christian’s goal to become a saint.
• We always begin our learning by inviting the Holy Spirit to be with us…
  • In the Name Of The Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
  • Dear Heavenly Father we ask you to be with us as we learn about the lives of your Saints. We ask that our minds be open and that you may fill us with the knowledge that was so loved by the men and women who lived lives of heroic virtue and great charity. Allow us to understand and emulate these Saints who we now know are in your company. In your name we pray, Amen.
• Let’s look at The Saint for this weeks study - St. Joseph…
  • The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are St. Luke & St. Matthew’s Gospels
  • Much of St. Joseph’s life (Like others in early church history) is unknown
  • St. Matthew (1:16) calls St. Joseph the son of Jacob
  • St. Luke (3:23), Tells us that Heli was St. Joseph’s father.
  • Bethlehem appears to have been the birth-place of Joseph.
  • Gospel history opens shortly before the Annunciation where Joseph was settled at Nazareth
  • Joseph was a tekton, The word means both mechanic in general and carpenter in particular
  • see Matthew 13:55, and Mark 6:3.
  • It is in all probability at Nazareth that Joseph betrothed and married her who was to become the Mother of God.
  • When the marriage took place either before or after the Incarnation is unclear
  • I suspect if it was that important The Lord would have revealed it to us.
  • When Joseph was forty years of age he married a woman called Melcha or Escha or Salome
  • They lived forty-nine years together and had six children, two daughters and four sons
  • A year after his wife's death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age
  • Joseph was at the time ninety years old
  • He went up to Jerusalem amid the candidates for Mary’s hand
  • Many artistic works and oral traditions from the time support the belief that St. Joseph was an old man at the time of marriage with the Mother of God
  • …From (Matthew 1:19, 20, 24).
  • But the faith of Joseph in his soon to be spouse was severely tried: she was with child.
  • However painful the finding must have been for Joseph, his gentle approaches forbade him to defame Mary and he resolved "to put her away privately”
  • While he thought on all these things the angel of the Lord appeared to him while he slept
  • “Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost”
  • Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife
  • The Nativity and the Flight to Egypt
    • The time came for Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem to be enrolled, according to the decree issued by Caesar Augustus
    • Travelling was a new source of concern for Joseph
    • "Her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered"
    • "There was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:1-7).
    • St. Joseph had to be wondering what more could happen
    • Travelling  with a very pregnant wife
    • The Birth of our Savior in a small stable
    • Having the Three Kings arrive
    • The news of His birth spread rapidly
    • Now St. Joseph had to flee with his family to Egypt (Thanks to another Angels advice)
    • (Matthew 2: 13-14) When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."
  • Returning To Nazareth

§         After a few years & the death of Herod, The Holy Family settled finally back in Nazareth.

§          St. Joseph's life was that of a simple and humble Jew

§         He supported himself and his family by his work as a carpenter

§          St. Joseph remained faithful to the Jewish religious customs decreed by the Law.

§         The only significant incident documented by the Gospel is the temporary loss of Jesus, then twelve years of old, when Jesus had strayed during the annual pilgrimage to the Holy City (Luke 2:42-51).

• No more is recorded in the Gospel about the life or death of St. Joseph.
• Jesus is well on his way now to being a man
• St. Joseph likely died around the year 18 or 19 A.D. but that is all speculation
• It is also speculated that he was 111 years old when he died.
• St. Joseph has (2) Feast days
  • March 20 his royalty is observed
  • May 1 his recognition as a humble worker is observed
• Patronage

Against doubt

Against hesitation

Americas

Austria;

Cabinetmakers

Canada;

Canadian Armed Forces (in 1941)

Carinthia

Carpenters

China

Confectioners

Craftsmen

Croatian people (in 1687 by decree of the Croatian parliament)

Dying people

Emigrants

Engineers

Expectant mothers

Families

Fathers

Happy death

Holy death

House hunters

Immigrants

Interior souls

Laborers

Married people

New France

Oblates of Saint Joseph

People in doubt

People who fight Communism

Pioneers

Pregnant women

Protection of the Church

Apostolic vicariate of San Jose, Mindoro, Philippines

Social justice

Spadafora, Sicily

Styria, Austria

Travellers

Turin, Italy

Tyrol, Austria

Unborn children

Universal Church

Vatican II

Viet Nam

Wheelwrights

Workers

Working people