ST. JOSEPH

St. Joseph was foster-father of Jesus Christ and spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was a descendant of the house of David and seemingly died before the passion of Jesus. We learn from Mt. (13:SS) and from Mk. (6:3) that he was a "tekton" - a word which means mechanic in general and carpenter in particular. Mary conferred on St. Joseph the greatest honour when at the Finding in the temple she said to Jesus: "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously". LK. 2:48.

Here Our Lady calls St. Joseph the father of Jesus! The Church, mindful of the importance of St. Joseph, has appointed two feasts in his honour, March 19^th and May 1^st. Wednesday in each week, and the month of March each year,are devoted to him. Pope Pius IX made him Patron of the Universal Church while in 19S6 Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph, the worker, and ordered it to be celebrated throughout the world on May Ist. St. Joseph is the patron saint for many topics. Some of them are listed here alphabetically; against doubt, against hesitation, Austria, Belgium, bursars, cabinetmakers, Canada, carpenters, China, confectioners, craftspeople, dying people, engineers, families, fathers, Florence, happy death, holy death, house hunters, Korea, labourers, Peru, pioneers, protector of the church, social justice, travellers, Turin, Universal Church, Vatican II, Vietnam, wheelwrights, working people.

TO DO

1. Using the list above compose, with your pupils, a litany to Saint Joseph and recite it at a suitable time.
2. Colour in the picture of St. Joseph with the boy Jesus.
3. Engage the pupils with this choir prayer service in honour of St. Joseph. Arrange the class into two seated groups - one facing the other for this choir prayer service. The lines of the prayer service may be either chanted in monotone or read.

Setting the Mood: As an introduction play some quiet reflective music.

Side 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Side 2: And the earth was without form and void.
All: But the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters (Gen 1:1-2).
Side 1: That Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you.
Side 2: And you shall be turned into another man (1 Sam 10:6).
Side 1: Now when these signs meet you, do whatever your hands find to do, for God is with you (1 Sam 10:7).
Side 2: Joseph was a just man. (Mt. 1:19).
Side 1: The just man shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow ... All: planted in the house of the Lord ... in the courts of our God. (Ps 92:13-14).
Side 1: It costs so much to be a whole man that there are very few who have the courage to pay the price. (Shoes of the Fisherman).
Side 2: He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature. (Heb 1:3).
All: God gave him another heart; and all these things came to pass. (1 Sam 10:9).
Side 1: A new heart I will give you, and a new Spirit I will put within you (Ezek 36:26).
Side 2: I, the Lord God, have called you to serve the cause of right.
Side 1: I have taken you by the hand and formed you;
Side 2: 1 have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations. (Is 42:6).
All: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news (Lk 4:18).
Side 1: Out of His infinite glory, may He give us the power through His Spirit for our hidden selves to grow strong,
Side 2: So that Christ may live in our hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love,
Side 1: we will with all the Saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;
All: until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, we are filled with the utter fullness of God. Amen. (Eph 3:16-19).

Conclusion: Finish off with a quiet reflective time while listening to some mood music.