Pope Francis proclaims “Year of St Joseph”.

In a new Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde http://www.vatican.va/.../papa-francesco-lettera-ap...(“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from today, 8 December 2020, to 8 December 2021.

Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.

The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.

09/12/2020
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The Holy Father wrote Patris corde against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

Every day for 40 years, Pope Francis has challenged St Joseph. After saying Morning Prayer, Pope Francis writes in Patris corde, he recites a nineteenth century prayer from a French prayerbook.

Through this prayer, the Pope entrusts both “serious and troubling situations” to St Joseph. The prayer ends thus: “Let it not be said that I invoked you in vain”.

There are no words left by the man for whom Matthew in his Gospel uses the term “just”, the Patron of the Universal Church, of workers and of an infinite number of cities, churches and places. All we have is silence.

His actions, therefore, must be understood as if they were words and thoughts. From that apparent absence, even Pope Benedict XVI extracted the wealth of a complete life, of a man in the background, whose silent example affects the growth of Jesus, the God-man:
It is a silence thanks to which Joseph, in unison with Mary, watches over the Word of God. (…) A silence woven of constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of the adoration of his holy will and of unreserved entrustment to his providence. It is no exaggeration to think that it was precisely from his ‘father’ Joseph that Jesus learned - at the human level - that steadfast interiority which is a presupposition of authentic justice, the "superior justice" which he was one day to teach his disciples.

At the conclusion of his Letter, he adds another prayer to St Joseph, which he encourages all of us to pray together:

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.