A Novena to St Joseph : Preliminary

The following series of posts is the result of an accumulation of considerations all prompting me towards a more explicit veneration of St Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin and foster-father of Jesus of Nazareth. These considerations include the following, listed not in importance but chronologically as they appeared in my life:

• When I was a boy, the local secondary school for Catholics was called St. Joseph's R.C High School, Nuneaton. My siblings attended this school but I went to King Edward VI Grammar School in Nuneaton. The latter was founded thanks to a bequest by a Catholic benefactor but traces its official history to the Protestant King Edward, 1552.
• My own children attended Our Lady and St Joseph's RC Primary School, Hackney. After a relocation of the family, my sons attended St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Hendon. They then moved up to the Salvatorian College, next to St Joseph’s Church, Wealdstone and Harrow Weald.
• In the early 1980’s, I read Fatima, the Great Sign, by Francis Johnston. I discovered that Lucia reported that, among the scenes she witnessed on the 13th of October, she saw St. Joseph carrying the child Jesus:

“After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands.” [Fatima in Lucia’s own words. 2007]

• Quite recently, I discovered St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a devotion to St. Joseph. Here are the words she wrote concerning a trip planned to Rome:  

“I was well aware that during this journey I might come across things that would disturb me; knowing nothing of evil, I feared I might discover it. As yet I had not experienced that "to the pure all things are pure,"1 that a simple and upright soul does not see evil in anything, because evil exists only in impure hearts and not in inanimate objects. I prayed specially to St. Joseph to watch over me; from my childhood, devotion to him has been interwoven with my love for our Blessed Lady. Every day I said the prayer beginning: St. Joseph, Father and Protector of Virgins. . . so I felt I was well protected and quite safe from danger.” [Chapter VI of her Histoire d’une Âme]

• She also wrote a poem to St Joseph in which she refers to the Foundress of her Carmelite Order, St Teresa of Ávila. St Teresa herself had a strong devotion to St Joseph.

Reflections on St Joseph in the Rosarium Aureum

The Rosarium Aureum, or Golden Rosary, is a form of the Rosary dating from the Middle Ages. This Rosary presents the drama of Salvation History, focussing on Our Lord’s life from the moment of the Annunciation to His Second Coming. The drama is divided into five Acts, each Act containing ten scenes. Each scene is accompanied by a verse of four lines. When praying the Golden Rosary, it is customary to say one Pater at the beginning of each Act and one Ave Maria after each verse. For those who wish to pray this Rosary as a Marian Psalter, three Ave Maria’s are recited with each scene, making a total of 150 (+3) for the completed Rosary.

In this booklet, I have selected those scenes in the Rosarium where Joseph is present, finishing with his death, on which the Gospel is silent but which by tradition occurred before the Miracle at Cana.

Prayer asking St Joseph to be one's companion and guide in this life

Oratio, ut S. Ioseph in via vitae huius ducem et comitem impetremus.  

O SAINT JOSEPH, just as thou as father and mentor didst most faithfully guide Jesus Christ during His boyhood and adolescence through His journeys in this life, I beseech thee to assist me in the wanderings of my life as just such a companion and guide. Never permit me to turn aside from the path of God's commandments. Be for me a protection in adversity, and a solace in hardship, until I finally arrive in the land of the living, where I may rejoice forever with thee, with the most holy spouse Mary, and with all the saints in my God Jesus. Amen.

O S. IOSEPH! qui tanquam pater et manuductor Christum Iesum in pueritia et iuventute per omnes peregrinationis humanæ vias fidelissime deduxisti: et mihi obsecro in vitae meæ peregrinatione tanquam comes et ductor assiste, nec unquam permitte me a via mandatorum Dei declinare; sis in adversis præsidium, in ærumnis solatium, donec tandem ad terram viventium perveniam, ubi tecum et sanctissima sponsa tua Maria, omnibusque Sanctis æternum in Deo Iesu meo exultem. Amen.

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.