Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

Feast date: May 01

St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19—Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1—Joseph, the Worker.

“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God,” Pope John Paul II had once said.

There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and  a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.

We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man, and obedient to the will of God. He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.

Since Joseph does not appear in Jesus' public life, at his death, or resurrection, many historians believe Joseph had probably died before Jesus entered public ministry.

Joseph is the patron of many things, including the universal Church, fathers, the dying and social justice.

“This troubling development, together with the increasingly strident rhetoric associated with it, are regrettably contributing to a deteriorating climate of mistrust and threat, and dangerously jeopardizing international peace and security,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.

“There is a clear need to go beyond nuclear deterrence, to move past this illusory logic and to embrace the path of comprehensive disarmament, while definitively rejecting not only the use, but also the immoral possession of nuclear weapons,” he added in his statement, delivered on April 29.

The list includes heads of state, reigning sovereigns, heads of government, ambassadors, and other officials.

The Pope asked rhetorically, “How many marriages today fail after three, five, seven years? Wouldn’t it be better, then, to avoid pain, to only touch each other as in a passing dance, to enjoy each other, to play together, and then leave each other?”

He responded, “Don’t believe it! Believe in love, believe in God, and believe that you can face the adventure of a lifelong love.”

The novena “has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning,” the introduction notes.

Pope Francis “placed the Gospel at the center of all his reflections and placed the face—and the mystery—of each person before any other theological or moral evaluation,” Father Pasolini wrote. “By respectfully approaching the conscience of all, Pope Francis has not tried to impose new certainties. He contented himself with reopening the fundamental question: if God were truly the Father of all, what would be left for us to do?”

Abbot Donato Ogliari, OSB—one of two prelates selected to preach meditations to the College of Cardinals before the election of the new Pope—preached his meditation during the cardinals’ sixth general congregation on April 29.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who served as one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization until the Pontiff’s death, celebrated Mass for participants in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

“I think it was a gift to be at this Mass,” said a father of children with Down syndrome. “People with disabilities don’t always experience that. Sometimes they experience the Church as their home. But as often as not, they experience marginalization in the Church or isolation in the Church, not necessarily by malice, but just a failure to appreciate the kinds of accommodations that they need.”

On April 29, members of the College of Cardinals met in their sixth general congregation since Pope Francis’s death. 183 of the 252 members of the College of Cardinals—including 124 of the cardinal electors—were in attendance, the Vatican newspaper reported.

Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón said that the plan was conceived in cooperation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaun, who visited Tijuana last November. Parishoners are being encouraged to surrender their firearms, with payment offered according to the market value of the weapons.