March 19, Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Joseph, our protector
But that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Should you build me a house to dwell in? And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And if he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with human chastisements; Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'” 2Sm 7,4-5.12-14.16
Today is the feast of st. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Mary and, as far as we are concerned, the protector of our family and the unanimously elected managing director. His
statue, which stands up in the dining room where we keep a light always lit on day and night, was donated to us by don Luigi, our parish priest when we lived in Castellanza. Don Luigi, who had decided to replace the statue with another, always of st. Joseph, but of most recent making, disliked to stockpile it in the storage cellar together with the old wastes and one day told us: “You who are so much receptive, may you find a place for my st. Joseph in your house?”. We immediately felt that this was a blessing offered to us and consequently we responded enthusiastically, “Sure, give it to us, don Luigi, we will place it by the middle of the house”. So, he became the saint protector of the family, the guard of the house and our managing director. We must recognize that st. Joseph has done his job very well, even if we forced him to a lot of overtime. We never missed work, we always had the right well-being in our family and when the thieves, during our absence, entered the house, they saw him and they always went out without taking anything, often leaving the door wide open. st. Joseph descends from the house of David, he is of royal origin and the Lord refers to him today when talking to the prophet Natan. He is the man that the Holy Spirit has chosen to protect Mary and Jesus all the time when they needed it and because he assured their daily bread by his work. The Lord was used to send him the angels, by dreams while he was sleeping, to suggest where he should go and what to do in every circumstance of his life. We must say that from the moment we welcomed him into our home, many good suggestions via mysterious ways of the Spirit came also to us and when we stay out of the house for many days, the fact of leaving st. Joseph there, with the lamp on, makes us relaxed.