Last year I did an Advent retreat for my parish. I wrote about it in By Grace You Have Been Saved. I chose scripture readings that emphasized Mary’s contribution to our salvation. She was not a co-redeemer. However, her cooperation with the will of God enabled Christ to be born and complete our salvation. I have prepared a Lenten retreat and an Easter retreat focusing on Mary’s cooperation. But what about Joseph’s part in all of this?
Matthew 1:16-21, 24a
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
This is the gospel for the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary on March 19, 2026.
It is interesting that there are no direct quotes in the gospels of St. Joseph. The closest thing to a direct quote is:
Luke 2:21 When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
The father of the child pronounces the name at this ritual. Therefore, Joseph gave the name but it was not directly attributed to him.
All of the gospels would have been written after Joseph had died. Would Joseph have been insulted by not being quoted? I don’t think so.
In many ways we have become super sensitive to making sure we receive credit for everything we do and being offended for not receiving credit we think we are due. We need to get over that.
We don’t know when Joseph died. We know it had to be before Jesus’ public ministry started and after Jesus was found in the temple. Other than that we do not know. And that is not important.
What is important?
St. Joseph was a good and righteous man. Scripture tells us he was unwilling to put Mary to shame when he found out she was with child.
He was a man of faith. He accepted the message God sent him via an angel.
Matthew 1:24
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
He was a man of courage.
Matthew 2:13-15
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.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
He was a man of responsibility and patience.
Luke 2:41-51
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
We know Jesus had more interaction with Joseph than is written in scripture. We know Joseph was a carpenter and Jesus was one as well.
Mark 6:3
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary
He would have learned his craft from Joseph.
Matthew 13:55
Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary
Joseph was not perfect as Mary was perfect. He was a man born into sin. Mary was protected from Original Sin. Joseph was not. Yet God entrusted His son to this man.
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptoris Custos, Pope St. John Paul II wrote:
… it is in the Holy Family, the original “Church in miniature (Ecclesia domestica),”(19) that every Christian family must be reflected. “Through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families.”(20)
St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church’s Liturgy teaches, he “cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation” and is truly a “minister of salvation.”(21)
The lowly, humble St. Joseph became the protector of the Holy Family and has been recognized as, and proclaimed, the Protector of the Church. Not just protector of the Holy Family but protector of Christ’s Church.
Prayer to Saint Joseph
To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you
to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance
which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father, ward off from us
every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector, be kind to us
and from heaven assist us in our struggle
with the power of darkness.
As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God’s Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.
Greg Gillen
January 5, 2026
© 2026 Greg Gillen
Image Credit/www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-holy-family-with-a-little-bird/8008380e-fef5-48b4-8caf-d78b810fb62c
Scripture/New American Bible: Revised Edition
This prayer to Saint Joseph—spouse of the Virgin Mary, foster father of Jesus, and patron saint of the universal Church—was composed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical, Quamquam pluries./w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15081889_quamquam-pluries.html
/Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church/www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_15081989_redemptoris-custos.html
