Meditation on St. Joseph's Submission to Divine Providence

Saint Joseph's submission to the order of Divine Providence.

Behold I come to do Thy Will, O GOD. ¹

PREPARATORY PRAYER (page 28).

FIRST PRELUDE.

To represent to myself again the humble dwelling of the Holy Family.

SECOND PRELUDE.

Great Saint Joseph, who wast always obedient to the guidance of the LORD, obtain for me grace to give myself without reserve to His designs, and to accomplish His Holy Will in all things.

FIRST POINT.

Saint Joseph's submission to the order of Divine Providence.

Saint Joseph was raised to a high dignity, but the exalted duties confided to him by the LORD often caused his heart to suffer painfully. What grief, for instance, for this sensitive heart, so zealous for the glory of the Son of GOD, when he saw himself reduced to offer to Him for His first dwelling nothing better than an abandoned stable! What a yet more bitter grief when he was obliged to expose Him to the rigours of extreme poverty during the flight into Egypt! Again, what a source of pain when, as the Divine Child grew older, he was obliged to employ Him in the hard labour of his occupation, command Him, and treat Him as an ordinary child! A heart so humble and so penetrated with respect for JESUS as was that of Saint Joseph, can alone understand what all this must have cost him. Yet although no less touched with the abasement of his Saviour, he was equally subject to the will of Heaven, and this great Saint knew how to govern the movements of his heart, so that his tenderness for JESUS never led him in the very least to deviate from the plan which had been traced out for him. What an example! How it puts to shame the vain reasoning and the guilty resistance that I so often oppose to the guidance of the LORD!

SECOND POINT.

I ought to imitate Saint Joseph's submission to the order of Divine Providence.

The example of Saint Joseph teaches me that the continual care of a soul who wishes to please GOD should be to conform itself in all things to the will and to the guidance of this Sovereign Master. That in spiritual things, seeking one's own will spoils all, and the more generous I am in sacrificing my own wishes and natural inclinations to the designs of the LORD, the more I shall procure His glory and my own advantage. GOD knows the needs of all those who belong to Him: He knows what means of salvation, what kind of trials can be the most profitable to them. Some He sanctifies by long illnesses. He provides for others crosses and persecutions. These, are deprived of their goods or their reputations; those, are separated by death from the objects which they most cherished. Others suffer sorrow of spirit or of heart, the depth of which GOD alone knows. All these trials are the marks of predestination. They come from the Hand of the LORD, Who dispenses them with wisdom and with love, and those who receive them with submission are sure of soon making rapid progress in the way of Holiness. Oh, how necessary it is for me to see in all that happens to me the Will of GOD, and to yield to it with love!

Colloquy with Saint Joseph.

To beg of him to obtain for me the same perfect submission to the order of Divine Providence of which his whole life was a perpetual exercise.

Resolution.

To receive cheerfully, as coming from the Hand of GOD, all the trials that can befall me.

OFFERING OF RESOLUTIONS (page 33).

Spiritual Bouquet.

Behold I come to do Thy Will, O GOD.

PRAYER.

I conjure thee, etc. (page 33).

EXAMEN OF THE MEDITATION (page 34).

1. Heb. x. 9.