St. Joseph: Perpetual Adorer

Aside from the Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph was the first and most perfect adorer of our Lord.In profound adoration he [St. Joseph] united himself to the special grace of each one of the events in the life of Jesus. He adored our Lord in His hidden life and in His Passion and Death; he adored in advance the Eucharistic Christ in His tabernacles: there was nothing that our Lord could hide from Saint Joseph.

How greatly the Word Incarnate was glorified by the adoration of Mary and Joseph as they atoned for the indifference and ingratitude of His creatures!

Saint Joseph joined with Mary in adoration and united himself to Christ, Whose heart surged with sentiments of adoration, love and praise for the Father and of charity for men.

Saint Joseph’s adoration kept pace with every stage of our Lord’s life, drawing upon the grace, the spirit, and the virtue of each mystery. In the Incarnation he adored the self-annihilation of the Son of God; at Bethlehem, the poverty; at Nazareth, the silence, the apparent weakness, the obedience, and all the other virtues of Christ. He knew them well and he grasped clearly the reason why Christ practiced them—for the love and glory of His Heavenly Father.

Faith, humility, purity, and love—these were the keynotes of his adoration. No saint ever vibrated with a more ardent faith or bowed down in deeper humility; no angel ever glistened with brighter purity; and as for his love, neither saint nor angel ever has or ever will come within range of his burning charity which expressed itself so fully in devotedness.

Because his faith was so strong, Joseph's mind and heart bowed in perfect adoration. Imitate his faith as you kneel before the humble Christ annihilated in the Eucharist. Pierce the veil which covers this furnace of love and adore the hidden God. At the same time respect the veil of love and make the immolation of your mind and heart your most beautiful homage of faith. Among the graces which Jesus gave to His foster-father—and He flooded him with the graces attached to every one of His mysteries—is that special to an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament. That is the one we must ask of St. Joseph. Have confidence, strong confidence in him. Take him as the patron and the model of your life of adoration.

From close union with this holy adorer I shall learn to adore our Lord and to live in intimacy with Him. I shall then be the Joseph of the Eucharist as he was the Joseph of Nazareth. (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

St. Joseph worshiped Jesus as no saint before had done. From his deep, calm soul he poured out a very ocean of love—tenderest love, humblest love, love shrinking from being like the Father's love, yet also daring to be like it as Mary's had been like the conjoined loves of Father and of Spirit, as she was Mother and Spouse conjoined. No angel might love Jesus as Joseph loved Him, as Joseph was bound to love Him. No temporal love but Mary's could be more like an eternal love than the love of Joseph for the Child, because of its likeness to the love of the everlasting Father. (Fr. Faber)

Saint Joseph served the Incarnate Word with perfect fidelity. Think of the lively faith which inspired his uninterrupted contemplation of the Divinity of the Christ Child; think of the love and faith with which he adored his God hidden in this little Child Whom he held in his arms and carried about always with the respect due to God. And when the Child had grown a little, notice how Joseph follows attentively everyone of His movements, His gestures, His acts, and His works. (St. Bernardine)

...“In speaking of Our Savior's Mother, we had included her august and chaste spouse; for what God has united should never be separated. Near the Sacred Host and, as it were, in the halo of light that surrounds It, appears this dearly beloved father, this great patriarch of the New Alliance. It is in this role that we want you to consider him today, at the same time keeping in mind the spirit and motto of our coat of arms— The Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph. Behold our hope in these perilous times!” (Peter Anastasius Pichenot, Bishop of Tarbes)

“Of old the Patriarch Joseph stored up food not only for himself but for all the people. (Gen. 42): Saint Joseph received the living bread come down from heaven and guarded it, both for himself and for the whole world.” (St. Bernard)

“In the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Church venerates the memory of Mary the ever Virgin Mother of God and the memory of Saint Joseph, because he fed him whom the faithful must eat as the bread of eternal life.” (Pope John Paul II)

St. Joseph please pray for the spread of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration throughout the Universal Church.

Contact us to schedule a Missionary, obtain information, and materials in starting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration:

Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament PO Box 1701, Plattsburgh, NY 12901

Phone: (518) 561-8193 Fax: (518) 566-7103

E-mail: ACFP2000@aol.com Website: http://www.ACFP2000.com

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