Meditation on St. Joseph's Spirit of Faith

Saint Joseph's Spirit of Faith.

The just man liveth by Faith. ¹

PREPARATORY PRAYER (page 28).

FIRST PRELUDE.

To seclude myself again in spirit within the humble dwelling of the Holy Family.

SECOND PRELUDE.

Great Saint Joseph, inheritor of the faith and virtues of the Patriarchs, obtain for me the grace to live a life of faith, as all the Saints have done.

FIRST POINT.

Saint Joseph's Spirit of Faith.

The spirit of faith is the most precious gift that GOD can bestow upon the soul. By its light the illusions of sin and the falseness of the world's maxims are made plain to us. It dissipates all darkness, and gives reality to the truth which we believe. It shows to us the advantages of serving GOD and the powerful charms of virtue, and it draws us gently to practise them. Saint Joseph possessed in plenitude the spirit which creates Saints. He thoroughly despised the frivolous advantages which the world admires and seeks. He had no ambition save that of obtaining the Divine love and the treasures of Grace. Accustomed to view everything with regard to GOD, he knew how to disentangle his heart from all human motives, and to banish from his spirit all low and worldly thoughts. His intentions, his desires, his words and his actions, were animated by a supernatural motive, and tended entirely to GOD. When shall I labour seriously to form myself on so beautiful a model? When shall I devote myself to rendering my faith as he did, living and practical, and to regulating my thoughts, my judgments, and my conduct upon the maxims which Faith proposes to me?

SECOND POINT.

Means of acquiring the Spirit of Faith.

The spirit of faith is a spirit of truth and of light, as the spirit of the world is one of confusion and of error. The one can only be established in my soul upon the ruins of the other. If, then, I wish to be enlightened with the light from on high, I must not be deceived by the false maxims of this world. If I follow in the footsteps of Saint Joseph, how sweet and easy it will be to me to endeavour to form my heart and my spirit in the school of Nazareth! The world esteems riches, honours, and distinctions. At Nazareth there was a GOD humiliated and hidden from the eyes of creatures, a Virgin, His Mother, whose heart, following His example, cherished poverty, obscurity, and contempt. The world loves to be drunk with pleasures, and to lose in the tumult of its feasts the thoughts of eternity and the maxims of salvation. In Nazareth reigned peace and silence. JESUS, Mary, and Joseph, having the Divine law written in their hearts, meditated upon it night and day. They weighed all things in the scales of the sanctuary, and they judged worthy only of a sovereign contempt all that could not be brought to the love and service of the LORD. These are the examples that I should follow. I am not of the world. In receiving Holy Baptism, I have renounced its corruptions and its vanities; I ought then to live by faith, according to the expression of the great Apostle, living in the world as though not of it.

Colloquy with Saint Joseph.

To beg him to obtain for me a true spirit of faith, which shall cause me to despise the vain advantages of the world, and to seek solely the charms of virtue and the treasures of Grace.

Resolution.

To animate each of my actions with a supernatural motive.

OFFERING OF RESOLUTIONS (page 33).

Spiritual Bouquet.

Saint Joseph, inheritor of the faith and the virtues of the Patriarchs, pray for me. I belong not to the world, but to GOD.

PRAYER.

I conjure thee, etc. (page 33).

EXAMEN OF THE MEDITATION (page 34).

1. Rom. i. 17.