St Joseph has always been an important saint in my family. My paternal grandfather and grandmother were both named for St Joseph and 19 March was always the occasion for my father to take us all to their home, armed with le zeppole di san Giuseppe (a special southern Italian pastry made only for the feast of St Joseph). My grandparents celebrated this day more than their birthdays (which they really did not celebrate) and, since I was named for them, this was the day that I celebrated. I soon figured out that St Joseph was worth a lot more than my birthdate, and so this day became special to me.
In all the years that I passed this feast in Italy, it was always a very important feast day. For Italians, it is Fathers Day. For the Salesians, it is the feast of the lay Salesians… On this feast in 2007, there were 8 of us in the Gesù Maestro community that celebrated this day as our own. The memory of it keeps me glowing still.
So this year at Don Bosco Hall, we celebrated the day in great style… and there are three of us with the name. I had the sense that it was like my birthday also because the wishes were directed toward me. I am grateful for it all…
St Francis de Sales not only had special devotion to St Joseph; he was one of the first, along with St Teresa of Jesus, to promote this devotion. Since I was the principal celebrant at the community mass this morning, I was looking for some words from our St Francis about St Joseph. Only later in the day did I find something that a friend sent to me. It comes from the Spiritual Conferences.
In Conference XIX, St. Francis de Sales made the following observation about the virtues of St. Joseph:
St. Joseph is most justly said to resemble the palm tree, for he was always constant, persevering, strong and valiant. There is a distinction to be made among these virtues. We call people constant when they remain firm and are prepared to suffer the assaults of the enemy, without surprise or loss of courage during combat. Perseverance has chiefly to do with a certain weariness of mind which comes upon us when we have suffered a long time, and this weariness is as powerful an enemy as we can meet: perseverance enables us to disregard this enemy by a continual calmness and submission to the will of God. Strength makes us vigorously resist the attacks of our enemies, and valor is a virtue that makes us not only hold ourselves in readiness to fight or to offer resistance when the occasion presents itself, but also to attack the enemy at the moment when our adversary least expects it.
Wishing one and all a very happy feast of St Joseph (buona festa di papà).
No comments:
Post a Comment