From the Rector
The Feast of Saint Joseph
To the Salesian College Family,
Today on 19 March we celebrate the Feast day of Saint Joseph throughout the worldwide Catholic Church.
St Joseph is known to us all as the husband of Mary, the foster-father of Jesus and a key member of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In fact, Joseph is the patron of fathers and families, bursars and economists, and workers and tradespeople, especially carpenters.
Many churches, hospitals, schools and religious congregations are dedicated to St Joseph throughout the world, whilst many men proudly bear the name of Joseph in their own particular languages in hundreds of countries and regions throughout the globe.
So great is St Joseph’s importance throughout the universal Church that Pope Francis has declared that 2021 is to be dedicated as the ‘Year of St Joseph’ in the Catholic Church, and encouraged us all to call upon the assistance and guidance of St Joseph as a
‘Beloved father’
‘Tender and Loving father’
‘Obedient father’
‘Accepting father’
‘Creatively Courageous father’
‘Working father’
‘Father in the Shadows’.
At one stage in his apostolic letter, ‘Patris Corde’ (‘With a Father’s Heart’), the Pope says to us all:
“Joseph’s attitude encourages us to accept and welcome others as they are, without exception; and to show special concern for the weak. He is the ‘Father of Orphans and Protector of Widows’, who commands us to love the stranger in our midst and the refugee who has lost everything because of war, hatred, persecution and poverty.”
Finally, my good Salesian friends, let us be ready to turn to St Joseph in times of personal difficulty and family challenge throughout the current year, in the clear realization that he ‘has been there and done that’ before us, and fully understands the problems that we are going through in our daily lives.
And, in conclusion, let us pray to him in the following words:
‘Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
and defend us from every evil.
Amen.’
In St Joseph,
Fr Greg Chambers
Rector
