St. Joseph the WorkerSt. Joseph the Worker

May 1, or” May Day ,” was celebrated throughout the Communist world as a way of presumably reputation the role and importance of laborers in Marxist countries. The Communist conception of project as almost an end in itself was, of course, quite different from the Christian understanding, and in 1955, to highlight this difference, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Joseph, the partner of Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, devoted a lifetime laboring as a carpenter. His primary motive for cultivating wasn’t a quest for riches or status, but a desire to serve God and to care for his family in a beloved channel. Joseph never directed any supernaturals; he never made any important address; he wasn’t a public figure, but was known exclusively as a humble carpenter( Matthew 13:55 ). Joseph labored in gloom, but was nonetheless given an important part in God’s plan.

Lessons

1. Work is not intended to be an end in itself or a move to earthly riches; very, it’s meant to glorify God and to help us prepare for eternity. As Jesus said,” Do not store up for yourselves precious on earth, where moth and decompose destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up jewels in Heaven, where neither moth nor rot destroys , nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there too will your heart be”( Matthew 6:20 -2 1 ).

2. Honest and humble labor is a source of true-blue human dignity. Though St. Joseph toiled as a simple carpenter, he achieved huge holiness, and his sample affected Jesus, Who — though the eternal Son of God and the Source of all initiation — Himself learned from Joseph and for a meter followed in his paces as a carpenter( Mark 6:3 ).

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From Johnnette Benkovic’s Graceful Living: Musings to Help You Grow Closer to God Day by Day

St. Joseph is the best protector to help you in your life, to infiltrate the spirit of the Gospel. Indeed, from the Heart of the God-Man, Savior of the world, this spirit is infused in you and in all men, but it is certain that there was no worker’s spirit so perfectly and seriously infiltrated as the putative papa of Jesus, who lived with him in the closest intimacy and society of family and work. So, if you want to be close to Christ, I recur to you “Ite ad Ioseph”: Go to Joseph!

— From an address of Pope Pius XII to Italian workers

Johnnette’s Meditation

How are my labor and my vacation productive for my salvation and that of others? What can I do in each to construct them more so? How can St. Joseph’s example and intercession expedite me to do so?

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Peregrine Laziosi( 1345 ), Religious, Patron of cancer sufferers

Photo by Matt Marzorati on Unsplash

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