A Novena to St Joseph : Day 8 - The Flight into Egypt and Return to Nazareth

 

8) The Flight into Egypt and Return to Nazareth

The flight into Egypt. J-J Tissot

Whom safe to Egypt thou didst bear

Whilst Herod's rage was swelling;

But bring back with maternal care,

To Nazareth thy dwelling.

Quem Herodem fugiens

Aegypto adduxisti:

tandem inde rediens

ad Nazareth venisti. Ave Maria.

Fleeing from Herod, thou didst take Him to Egypt; returning thence after a time, thou didst come to Nazareth.

Gospel account

The return to Nazareth. J-J Tissot.

Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: ‘Arise, and take the child and His mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.’ [14] Joseph arose, and took the child and His mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod, so that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son.’

‘Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: ‘A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.’ But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: ‘Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child.’

Joseph arose, and took the child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel; but hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee,  and coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by prophets: ‘That he shall be called a Nazarene.’ [Matthew ii 13-23]

Adoremus in æternum Sanctissimum Infantem!

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.