Seventh Sunday of St. Joseph (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The Church has taught on any number of occasions that the saints in heaven offer to God, for the benefit of the faithful, the merits which they won while on earth. The Church has also recommended that people pray to the saints to make intercession before the Lord.

St. Thomas explained that the mediation of the saints is an appropriate way for God to share his mercy. In this way, he says, God respects the natural order of things, since his saints are, in fact, the people closest to him. This is why the intercession of the saints is by no means a sign of imperfection in God. The saints, he says, partake in God’s glory by helping those in need. They are collaborators with God, above whom there is nothing more divine.

Even though the saints do not actually deserve divine attention, they are able to win divine favor because of the merit gained by their holy lives. They ask for God’s mercy by offering up their own past works and our good works also. The saints are able to help others because their prayers were heard by God during their lifetime. The degree to which a saint can be of help to us depends on the degree of his or her sanctity. It also depends on how great a devotion we have to that saint, and whether God wants to make manifest that person’s sanctity.

Certain saints are known to be powerful intercessors for particular intentions. To get someone who has gone astray to come back to God through the sacrament of penance; to attend to family needs; to help in problems concerning work or in sickness.

According to St. Thomas, the intercession of the saints depends a great deal on the accidental merits which they obtained during their lives. The saint who acquired extraordinary merits, said one writer, in sickness or in the execution of some particular task, should have a special ability to help those who suffer from the same sickness or have to perform a similar task.

With regard to the intercession of St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila has written: “To other saints, our Lord seems to have given graces to help men in some special necessity. But to this glorious saint, as I know by experience, he has given graces to help us in all. Our Lord would have us understand that as he was himself subject to him on earth—for St. Joseph, having the title of father and being his guardian, could command him—so now in heaven he performs all his petitions.” We shouldn’t fail to go to St. Joseph for his help in everything that concerns us.

With the exception of Our Lady, St. Joseph is the most powerful intercessor in heaven by reason of his personal holiness and taking care of the Holy Family. His intercession has a universal character, which applies to every problem, be it material or spiritual, and to every person without distinction.

St. Paul VI said a house lamp gives off a familiar and tranquil glow, which is also intimate and confidential. He gives comfort in times of worry and separation. So does the light of St. Joseph diffuse its rays on the house of God, which is the Church. It fills the house with the wonderful memories of the days when God became man for our sake. God lived under the protection of a simple craftsman from Nazareth.

St. Joseph is an incomparable example for us. He is the most blessed of saints because of his communion with Christ and Our Lady in service and in love. By the example of their life in Nazareth, Jesus and Mary teach us to seek Joseph’s assistance. They frequently would have gone to Joseph for his help in all kinds of needs.

One writer says their attitude and behavior is a wonderful model for us to imitate. When we go to Joseph for help, we should have no fear at all. We ought to have a steadfast faith that what we are doing is most pleasing to God Almighty and the Queen of Angels.

With the exception of God himself, Our Lady loved no one more than she loved St. Joseph, her husband. Who can imagine the strength of Joseph’s petition before Our Lady, our mother in the order of grace? Spiritual authors have seen fit to make this comparison. One writer says Christ is the one mediator before the Father, and the way to reach Christ is through Mary, his mother. The best way to reach Mary is through St. Joseph. The ascending order is from Joseph to Mary, from Mary to Christ, from Christ to the Father.

The Church asks from St. Joseph the same support and protection as he gave to the Holy Family in Nazareth. The fatherly concern of St. Joseph extends to the Universal Church, especially to those souls who seek sanctity in their ordinary work, to Christian families, and to those who are near death.

St. Josemaría says, “I am sure Joseph knew how to lend a hand in many difficulties. His skilled work was in the service of others, to brighten the lives of others in the town. With a friendly word, a passing quip, he would restore confidence and happiness to those in danger of losing them.”

Pius IX says the fatherly intercession of St. Joseph in the Church is a prolongation of the authority he exercised over Our Lord, the Head of the Church, and Mary, the Mother of the Church. This is the reason why St. Joseph has been declared Patron of the Universal Church. That home in Nazareth contained all the elements of the nascent Church. It is fitting that Joseph’s care for the Church should be exercised in the same holy manner in which he watched over the Holy Family in Nazareth, said Leo XIII. He made this declaration during a period of great stress for the Church, the causes of which persist to the present day.

We seek Joseph’s intercession whenever the Church is attacked or pushed to the sidelines in public life. The popes have continuously encouraged devotion to St. Joseph. St. Joseph’s mission extends to the end of time. His fatherhood applies to each one of us.

St. Teresa of Avila has written: “Would that I could persuade all men to have devotion to this glorious saint, for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God. I have never known anyone who was really devoted to him, and who honored him by particular services, who did not visibly grow more and more in virtue. For he helps in a special way those souls who commend themselves to him. It is now years since I have always on his feast asked him for something special, and have always received it,” says St. Teresa. “If the petition be in any way amiss, he directs it aright for my greater good. If I could write what I wanted, I should be delighted to go on and on almost interminably, and down to every last tiny detail about the favors this great saint has granted to me and others.”

“For the love of God, anyone who doesn’t believe me has only to try what I say for himself, and he would find out from experience what enormous advantages come from commending himself to this glorious patriarch and having devotion to him always. Those who practice prayer should have a tremendous devotion to him always. I simply don’t know how anyone can think of the Queen of the Angels, during the time she suffered so much with the Child Jesus, without pouring out thanks to St. Joseph for the way he helped them.”

These words of St. Teresa are truly very encouraging. Even though St. Joseph does not say a word in the Gospel, no one has ever had a better teacher. “In human life,” says St. Josemaría, “Joseph was Jesus’s master in their daily conduct; full of refined affection, glad to deny himself in order to take better care of Jesus.” Isn’t that reason enough for us to consider this just man, this holy patriarch, in whom the faith of the Old Covenant bears fruit, as a master of the interior life? Interior life is nothing but continual and direct conversation with Christ, so as to become one with him. Joseph can tell us many things about Jesus.

John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation says, “Let us frequently have recourse to his intercession as we approach his feast. Those souls most sensitive to the impulses of divine love have rightly seen in Joseph a brilliant example of the interior life.” St. Joseph, he says, protects us always. We pray that your spirit of peace, of interior silence, of work and prayer, of service to the Holy Church, will bring us life and happiness in union with our Blessed Mother. So we shall arrive at an abiding love for Jesus Our Lord.

Jesus wanted to launch the redemption of the world from the heart of a family. We are told that “when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:39–40).

The Messiah wanted to start his redemptive task in the bosom of a simple, ordinary family. The first thing that Jesus sanctified with his presence was a home. Nothing extraordinary happened during those years in Nazareth, but Jesus spent the greater part of his life.

Joseph was the head of the family. He was a father according to the law, and it was he who supported Our Lord and Our Lady with his work. It is he who received the message as to what name he must give the child: “You shall call his name Jesus” (Matt. 1:21). He heard the words of those who wanted to protect the child: “Rise and take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt” (Matt. 2:13). And later on: “Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel” (Matt. 2:20). Do not go to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth.

It was from Joseph that Jesus learned his trade, which was to be his means of earning a living. Our Lord must have often shown his admiration and affection for Joseph. From Joseph and Mary, Jesus would have learned certain turns of phrase, popular expressions full of wisdom, which he would later use in his preaching.

This is the family of Jesus: sacred, holy, exemplary, a model of human virtues, ready to carry out God’s will exactly. A Christian home has to be the imitation of the house of Nazareth; a place where there is plenty of room for God, so that he can be right at the center of the love that members of the family have for one another.

As we go close to Joseph, we could examine our conscience and examine our family, and say, “Well, is our family like this? Do we dedicate the time and attention that it deserves? Is Our Lord at its center? Do we live only for the others?” As we contemplate Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, these are questions that we can ask in our prayer in a regular way.

The Second Vatican Council says: “In the family, the parents by word and example are the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children.” In the case of the Holy Family, this was achieved in a most singular manner. Jesus learned the meaning of things around him from his parents. The Holy Family would have devoutly recited the traditional prayers which were said in every Jewish home. In that house, everything that referred particularly to God had a new meaning and content.

How keenly and fervently, and with what a spirit of recollection, would Jesus have repeated the verses of scripture which all Hebrew children had to learn. He would often recite those prayers that he learned from the lips of St. Joseph and Our Lady.

When we contemplate these scenes, parents could frequently consider the words of St. Paul VI, which were recalled by Pope John Paul II: “Do you teach your children the Christian prayers? Do you prepare them, in conjunction with the priests, for the sacraments that they receive when they are young: Confession, Communion, Confirmation? Do you encourage them when they are sick to think of Christ suffering, to invoke the help of Our Lady and the saints? Do you say the family rosary? Do you pray with your children, with the whole domestic community, at least sometimes?”

“Your example of honesty in thought and action, joined to some common prayer, is a lesson for life, an act of worship of singular value. In this way you bring peace to your homes.” Remember that it’s in this way that you build up the Church.

St. Josemaría liked to say, “If Christian homes imitate that home formed by the Holy Family of Nazareth, they will be bright and cheerful homes. Because each member of the family will struggle, first of all, to get to know God, and with a spirit of sacrifice, will endeavor to make life more pleasant for those around him.” The family is a school of virtues, and the ordinary place for us to find God.

Husbands and wives will achieve this aim by exercising the virtues of faith and hope, facing serenely all the great and small problems which confront any family, and will be persevering in the love and enthusiasm with which they fulfill their duties. We see this in the life of Joseph and Mary. Parents will learn to smile and forget about themselves in order to pay attention to others. Their children will learn these things by example. Husband and wife will listen to each other and to their children, showing them that they are really loved and understood. They’ll forget about the unimportant little frictions that selfishness can magnify out of all proportion. They do lovingly all the small acts of service that make up their daily life together.

The aim is this, says St. Josemaría: to sanctify family life, while creating at the same time a true family atmosphere. Many Christian virtues are necessary in order to sanctify each day of one’s life. First the theological virtues, and then all the others: prudence, loyalty, sincerity, humility, industriousness, cheerfulness. These virtues will strengthen the unity that the Church teaches us to pray for.

The liturgy says: “You who, by being born into a family, strengthened family bonds, let there be an increase in unity within the family.”

Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council said: “United to Christ, the family is a member of his Mystical Body and has been called ‘the domestic church.’” That community of love and faith has to manifest itself in all circumstances, as the Church herself does, as a living witness to Christ. The Christian family proclaims aloud both the present power of the Kingdom of God and the hope of the life to come.

The faithfulness of the spouses to their matrimonial vocation will lead them, among other things, said Paul VI, to pray for vocations for their children, so that they may dedicate themselves fully to God’s service with a spirit of self-denial.

In the Holy Family of Joseph and Mary, every Christian home finds its most perfect exemplar. In it, the Christian family can discover what it should do and how it should behave so as to bring about the sanctification and full human development of each one of its members. Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand Our Lord’s life. It’s the school where we begin to know the Gospel. Here we learn to observe, to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the mysterious depths of this simple, humble, and charming manifestation of the Son of God among men. Here we learn, too, perhaps without realizing it, to imitate that life.

The family is the simplest and most basic form of society. It’s the main school of all the social virtues. It’s the seedbed of social life. We have an awful lot to thank St. Joseph for, for giving us all of this example.

It’s in the family, says Gaudium et Spes, that we learn to practice obedience, a concern for others, a sense of responsibility, understanding, and mutual help; a loving coordination of essentially different characters. This becomes a reality particularly, it says, in large families, which have been praised by the Church.

It has been proved that the health of a society is measured by the health of its families. That’s why direct attacks against the family, as happens with legislation allowing divorce, abortion, et cetera, are direct attacks against society itself, whose results are not long in making themselves felt.

Our Lady, who is the Mother of the Church, is also the Mother of the Church of the home. We can call St. Joseph the Father of the Church and the Father of the Church of the home. We can ask that each Christian family might really become a little church in which the mystery of the Church of Christ is mirrored and given new life.

May Our Lady and St. Joseph be an example of humble and generous acceptance of the will of God. Let us ask St. Joseph in a very special way for each member of our families, and in particular for the person most in need.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My immaculate mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW