Devotion to St. Joseph: the prayer of March 3rd

The more you know San Giuseppe, the more you are led to love him. Let us meditate on its life and virtues.

The Gospel often has synthetic sentences which, studied thoroughly, are poems. Wanting, for example, St. Luke to pass on the story of Jesus from twelve to thirty years of age, he simply says: «He grew in wisdom, in age and in grace before God and men. (Luke: II-VII).

The Gospel says little about Our Lady, but in that little the whole greatness of the Mother of God shines. - Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with You - (Luke: I - 28) - From this moment on all generations will call me Blessed! (Luke I - 48).

San Matteo says of San Giuseppe a word that reveals all its beauty and perfection. He calls him "just man". In the language of Sacred Scripture "Just" means: adorned with all virtues, greatly perfect, Holy.

Saint Joseph could not fail to be very virtuous, having to live with the Queen of Angels and to deal intimately with the Son of God. Destined from eternity to an exceptional mission, he had from God all the gifts and virtues inherent in his state.

The Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII affirms that, just as the Mother of God excels above all for her very high dignity, so no one better than Saint Joseph approached the excellence of the Madonna.

Sacred Scripture says: The way of the righteous is similar to the light of the sun, which begins to shine and then advances and grows until the perfect day. (Prov. IV-18). This image suits Saint Joseph, the giant of holiness, a sublime model of perfection and justice.

It cannot be said which virtue was most eminent in St. Joseph, since in this luminous star all the rays shine with the same intensity. As in a concert all the voices merge into a delightful "whole", so in the physiognomy of the Grand Patriarch all the virtues merge into an "ensemble" of spiritual beauty.

This beauty of virtue befits the one with whom the Eternal Father wanted to share the privilege of his fatherhood.

Example
In Turin there is the "Little House of Providence", where at present there are about ten thousand suffering, blind, deaf-dumb, paralyzed, handicapped people ... They are kept free of charge. There are no funds, nor accounting records. Every day about thirty quintals of bread are dispensed. And then ... how many expenses! For more than a hundred years the inpatients have never been missing. In 1917 there was a shortage of bread in Italy, being a critical period of war. Bread was also scarce among the wealthy and the military; but in the "Little House of Providence" wagons loaded with bread entered every day.

Turin's Gazzetta del Popolo commented: Where did those wagons come from? Who sent them? Nobody, not even the drivers, have ever been able to know and reveal the name of the generous donor. -

In difficult moments, faced with very serious commitments, when it seemed that inpatients should lack the necessary, an unknown gentleman presented himself to the "Little House", who left what he needed and then disappeared, leaving no traces of himself. Nobody ever knew who this gentleman was.

Here is the secret of Providence in the "Little House": the founder of this work was Santo Cottolengo. This bore the name of Joseph; from the beginning he constituted St. Joseph Procurator General of the "Little House", so that he would punctually provide for the hospitalized, as on earth he provided the necessary for the Holy Family; and St. Joseph continued and continues to make his office of Attorney General.

Fioretto - Deprive yourself of something unnecessary and give it to the needy.

Giaculatoria - Saint Joseph, Father of Providence, help the poor!