Honoring St. Joseph and his qualities

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Joseph was looking for angels. Where were they?
He got his answer by listening.
That’s what author April Oursler Armstrong imagined happened on the first Christmas. She tells about it in her book “Stories from the Life of Jesus.”
Father Laurence V. Brault, pastor of St. Gabriel, the Archangel Parish in Upton, read the story from his childhood at the Lenten mission at St. Cecilia Parish in Leominster on March 4. The “Journeying with St. Joseph” mission has its final segment at 6 p.m., March 25, after the 5:30 p.m. Mass.
Listening, obeying, walking in faith and being faithful were among qualities of St. Joseph held up for imitation at local parishes during this year in his honor.
The year began on Dec. 8 and concludes on Dec. 8, 2021, and celebrates the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as patron of the universal Church.
Preparing to read his Christmas story, Father Brault said, “It is very revealing to me about Joseph and how he listens.”
“Here’s the Baby; where are the angels?” Joseph wonders. He listens for wings, then hears knocking.
“This is no time to make noise,” he tells the shepherds gathered outside. But before he can close the door on them, they ask if there’s a new baby there and tell Joseph to listen to them. Doing so, he learns that the angels came to the shepherds this time, and Joseph lets them in.
In this story God speaks through strangers, and Joseph hears the message, which fills him with joy, Father Brault said.
He told his listeners, “Take the time to listen like Joseph and … you will be filled with great joy.”
In the infancy narratives in Scripture, Joseph doesn’t say anything, he said, and quipped that he’s “every wife’s dream husband.”
“Joseph is attentive to the word that God speaks to him,” Father Brault said. “Not only is he open … he lets it take root in his life and he acts upon it.”
Listening is key to communication, he said. By listening, one learns about others and about oneself.
He gave examples of poor listening: trying to hear two conversations at once, pondering how to respond while someone is saying something you disagree with, ceasing to listen when called to change, pitying yourself and assuming others should listen to you, and rushing to assure others that things will be OK instead of listening to how they feel.
Ways to listen include reflecting on Scripture and on one’s experiences, he said.
In conversations with family and those we serve, and in prayer, “how often do we find ourselves … doing all the talking?” Father Brault asked.
“God is speaking all the time,” he said. He wants to give us messages to fill us with hope, but we’ll miss those messages if we don’t listen.
 After listening comes obedience, Father Sagar Gundiga, St. Gabriel’s associate pastor, told St. Cecilia’s mission attendees on March 11.
“St. Joseph, he received a message in his dream … ‘Take Mary as your wife … she has conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,’” Father Gundiga said, adding, “It was not OK with the culture. … They are going to accuse him. … He just listened to God and he took Mother Mary as his wife.”
Joseph obeyed when told to flee to Egypt, despite uncertain dangers and no public transportation, Father Gundiga noted. Mary and Jesus obeyed God too, despite the suffering it entailed.
Father Gundiga asked, “During this Lent how should we obey” and take Joseph as an example? He suggested obeying the 10 Commandments, and gave examples of ways to do that: Use God’s holy name in proper places to proclaim him meaningfully, come to church on the Sabbath, call your parents, pray for those who want to participate in abortion and euthanasia, don’t take your marriage for granted and “rather than judging, rather than gossiping, let us pray for each other.”
“If you want to live a life that is most pleasing to God, live like St. Joseph,” Father Gundiga said.
At the mission at St. Denis Parish in Douglas on March 12, Father Dennis J. O’Brien, diocesan minister to priests, talked about St. Joseph’s faith.
When things are difficult, we might ask where God is, he said. Wondering where God was, the Israelites in captivity in Babylon found hope in Isaiah’s words that God would never forget them.
“Where is God?” is the wrong question, Father O’Brien said. The question is, “Where are you right now in your relationship with God?” Look back to when you felt his presence and know he was faithful.
The Israelites’ memory of being freed from slavery in Egypt “enabled them to move from fear to faith.” They walked out of fear in Babylon and into faith in their own land, when they were unexpectedly enabled to return, Father O’Brien said.
He said St. Joseph shows us how to walk in faith, not fear; “this ordinary man has shaped salvation history.”
Mary and Joseph were most influential in Jesus’ life, he said. In the Gospels, Mary speaks four times, and the silent Joseph listens to God’s messages, trusts and acts, he said.
“He chose faith and not fear, and, because of that, we have been saved,” Father O’Brien said. Are we living in faith or fear?
St. Joseph’s faithfulness was held up at the novena at St. Joseph Parish in Charlton. It ends tonight with Mass at 6 p.m. and the presentation of the 14-minute film “Joseph,” by Alex Diaz, a parishioner and novena organizer.
There were prayers to St. Joseph and Mr. Diaz illustrated his titles using a robed mannequin as Joseph. For example, to represent the “Man Chosen by the Blessed Trinity,” the mannequin faced an ascending white cloth with its “wings” flowing on the floor, reminiscent of the Holy Spirit. To represent the “Faithful Servant,” the mannequin stood by a Bible, which Mr. Diaz called a “tool to help us become better servants.”