Tuesday, March 19th is the feast of St. Joseph. We only have limited information about St. Joseph as provided by the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Matthew (13:55) implies that Joseph pursued the trade of a carpenter, although the Greek word used in the text could apply equally to a wealthy builder or a poor craftsman. Matthew describes him as a “righteous man,” meaning a man of obedience to the Jewish law. But Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus suggests that Joseph like his namesake in the Old Testament, the patriarch Joseph, was also a man subject to vivid dreams that dictated his conduct toward Mary and her child. Later, tradition made Joseph an elderly man who was betrothed to the youthful Mary after a heavenly sign singled him out as her predestined spouse; a staff of cherry wood that he carried on a visit to the Jewish temple miraculously blossomed. For this reason, in Christian art, Joseph is often shown carrying a flowering branch. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of the universal church, of workers, of the dying and the patron saint of Canada.
OUR LENTEN SCHEDULE:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday – Mass at 7:30a.m.; Tuesday and Thursday Mass at 12:10p.m.; Friday Stations of the Cross at 7p.m. followed by Mass except Friday, March 22nd when we welcome back John Miller and Friends for a Lenten reflection in song and prayer.