Joseph’s angelic salutation

Wednesdays for many Catholics are dedicated to devotion to St Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of our Lord, Jesus. I’ve been trying to grow my devotion to Joseph by asking for his intercession throughout the day, but a lot of the St Joseph prayers I’ve found are longer, not easily memorized, and often a bit … effusive.

Looking for something more like the Angelic Salutation of Mary, aka the “Hail Mary,” I turned to Scripture (what little there is about Joseph) to compose something comparable without sounding totally derivative (it’s admittedly a little derivative…).

Joseph has his own Angelic Salutation “Joseph, son of David” (Matthew 1:20) during a dream and in later dreams he is repeatedly called to “Rise” (Mt 2:13, 20) which I made part of the petition. That Joseph names Jesus (Mt 1:21, 25), the name above all other names (Phil 2:9) strikes me as key to Joseph’s identity in addition to his betrothal to Mary. “Shadow of the Father” applied to Joseph, I first encountered with Stratford Caldecott (“The Chivalry of Saint Joseph” https://archive.secondspring.co.uk/articles/scaldecott26.htm).

Hail Joseph, son of David,
just and chaste husband of Mary,
Foster father of the son you named, Jesus.

Holy Joseph, shadow of the Father,
As you protected Mother and Son,
Rise and watch over us sinners,
Now and until our happy death.

I’m going to give this a try on Wednesdays and see how it goes. Thursdays, dedicated to Eucharistic Devotion, I start working on memorizing the Spiritual Communion prayer.

Comments

Crux Fidelis: The Tree of Life

Edward Burne-Jones, "Tree of Life" Faithful Cross! Above all other, one and only noble Tree! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be; sweetest wood and sweetest iron! Sweetest Weight is hung on thee! —Crux Fidelis In which the pilgrim, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, meditates on the Crucified Christ as the Tree of Life.

Tolkien on "The Secret Fire"

The Secret Fire of Middle-earth "You cannot pass," he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass." —Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings , The Fellowship of the Ring "Therefore Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Eä." —Valaquenta, The Silmarillion . The following is quoted from Tolkien and the Silmarillion , by Clyde S. Kilby [ via here ] Responding to a letter from Father Robert Murray suggesting Tolkien’s story impressed him as entirely about grace, Tolkien wrote: “I know exactly what you mean by the order of grace; and of course by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded. The Lord of

in persona christi | on priestly celibacy

[Christ] is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of he heavenly sanctuary. — Heb 8:1-5 In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. — Mat 22:30 There seems to me a powerful link here between the reading from Hebrews in today's Office of Readings and Matthew 22 that speaks to priestly celibacy, and I offer a few off the cuff reflections.

Our Lady of Ashes

Search This Blog