Thank you St. Joseph!

Source: District of Asia

“The Holy Spirit will not cease to incite the hearts of the faithful until throughout the entire Church militant he is honoured with a new veneration, and monasteries will be built and churches raised in his name, his feasts being multiplied and celebrated more solemnly.”  (Isidore de Islano, Trac. de S. Joseph, P. III, c.6, p. 171)

Devotion corresponds to excellence.  Devotion dictates what we owe him.  The basis of the excellence of St. Joseph is his affinity to the Sacred Heart.  After Our Lady, he tops the list of all saints and this is why he should be honoured with the cult of protodulia (or of supreme dulia).  It is precisely because he possesses a dignity and an excellence very superior to that of all the other saints excepting the Virgin Mary.

But devotion also is concerned with what we owe him because of what he has done for us.  And here again the patronage of St. Joseph is the most excellent, most universal, extending to every necessity and above all most powerful after that of Blessed Virgin Mary.

If the excellence of St. Joseph has abundant theological proofs, we can say that the ‘patronage of St. Joseph has ‘super abundant’ historical proofs.  Every religious institute has volumes in favour of his ‘unceasing patronage’.  The SSPX Mission in India is no exception.  I can even dare to say it serves as a classical example.  He is till ‘mercifully assisting us from heaven’.. We speak not only of material favours, but above all numerous spiritual favors received from him.

In a humble attempt to express our gratitude to St. Joseph, a shrine dedicated to his honor was erected in the priory.  Our district Superior at the occasion of its solemn blessings stressed very much on this aspect that this shrine is our manifestation of gratitude towards the ‘unceasing patronage of our beloved St. Joseph’.

It indeed was a grand occasion for the entire mission to cry out with one voice: ‘Thank you St. Joseph’.

Fr. Therasian Babu

P.s. I sincerely thank a generous American benefactress of the mission.  Thanks to her generous donation, this shrine was made possible.  We are truly grateful for her help.