From Fr. Mark-March 15, 2026

From Fr. Mark

Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter.

Just a few short weeks ago, we celebrated his birth, and now the Church begins our preparation to join him on his journey to Calvary. The church scene becomes somber, more intense, and such terms as contrition, conversion, penance, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence dominate the liturgy.

Just as God the Father selected the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of his son, he also chose St. Joseph to be Mary’s chaste spouse and Jesus’ foster father. As the head of the Holy Family — the model for all families — he is also the inspiration for and the protector of all fathers.

This week we take a break from the somberness of Lent and joyfully celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, The Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Christ’s infancy from Mary’s perspective, while St. Matthew’s Gospel gives us the story from St. Joseph’s point of view.

He is introduced to us as a just man, a descendant of King David, a native of Bethlehem, a carpenter living in Nazareth and engaged to Mary. After the Annunciation, when Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he resolved to break off the engagement privately. Under the law of Moses given in the book of Deuteronomy, if Joseph had made a public charge of infidelity against Mary, she would have been stoned to death. Before Joseph could do anything, however, God granted him his own annunciation. An angel of the Lord visited Joseph in a dream, urging him to take Mary as his wife, assuring him that the child she carried had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Joseph must have died before Christ began his public ministry. If he were still alive, he would have stood with Mary at the foot of the cross and there would have been no need for Jesus to entrust his mother to St. John.

It was fear of heresy that delayed devotion to St. Joseph for nearly 1,400 years. So many heretical splinter groups had denied the divinity of Christ that Church authorities felt it was more important to emphasize the doctrine that God was Christ’s father than to venerate the man whom God had chosen to be the guardian of Jesus and Mary. Although there are isolated examples of Joseph receiving some recognition during the Middle Ages in Egypt, in England and in Germany, the Church did not grant him official recognition until 1479 when Pope Sixtus IV established March 19 as the feast of St. Joseph. From that point, devotion to St. Joseph increased dramatically. The Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Jesuits all promoted St. Joseph. St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who was particularly attached to him, said of St. Joseph in her autobiography, “With other saints it seems the Lord has given them grace to be of help in one need, whereas with this glorious saint, I have experience that he helps in all our needs.”

LITANY OF ST. JOSEPH

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us

Illustrious Scion of David,

Light of Patriarchs,

Spouse of the Mother of God,

Chaste guardian of the Virgin,

Foster-father of the Son of God,

Watchful defender of Christ,

Head of the Holy Family,

Joseph most just,

Joseph most chaste,

Joseph most prudent,

Joseph most valiant,

Joseph most obedient,

Joseph most faithful,

Mirror of patience,

Lover of poverty,

Model of workmen,

Example to parents,

Guardian of virgins,

Pillar of families,

Solace of the afflicted,

Hope of the sick,

Patron of the dying,

Terror of demons,

Protector of the Church, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V. He made him lord over his house,

A. And the ruler of all his possessions.

Let us pray.

Lord  Jesus Christ,

by your ineffable providence

you chose saint Joseph

to be the spouse of your most holy Mother:

grant, we beseech you,

that we may have him for an intercessor in heaven,

as we venerate him as our protector on earth.

You who live and and reign forever and ever. R. Amen.