Joys and Sufferings of St Joseph

„St Joseph, I remem­ber Your inde­scrib­able pain and help­less­ness of hav­ing to leave Your most holy Bride. Pon­der­ing and depressed by heartache, you went about these days. The Angel of the LORD left you speech­less when stand­ing before You. His mes­sage that the longed-for Mes­si­ah was under Your Spouse’s heart – under Your roof – was a joy beyond descrip­tion! Your thoughts were over­flow­ing. How did Your lov­ing heart cope with all this? First the dif­fi­cult tri­al – then the over­whelm­ing joy!

In Beth­le­hem, You were again accom­pa­nied by wor­ry. Hav­ing arrived, there was no more accom­mo­da­tion because of the many trav­ellers. Almost exhaust­ed by cold, all You had left was a draughty, cold cave out­side Bethlehem.

It griev­ed You very much to see JESUS and Mary in such great pover­ty. You knew from Mary that this Child was about to be born and You endeav­oured to pre­pare a bed for Mary and to warm the cave with a small fire.

When You heard the Angels praise and glo-rify the bliss­ful birth and the shep­herds arrived at night, You were extreme­ly com-
fort­ed and delighted.

At the cir­cum­ci­sion of the divine Child, You shared in the suf­fer­ing and Your joy was so great when You were … more