St. Joseph, model of virtue

Happy New Year! May the Lord pour upon each of you the fullness of his graces and blessings as we begin this year together.

Typically this time of year we contemplate where the Lord might be leading us and where we might like to be by the end of the year, and we make resolutions to lead us in those directions. As we begin this year we entrust ourselves, our families, and our parish family to the patronage of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus.

Back in early December Pope Francis made this year (until December 8, 2021) the Year of St. Joseph. Our attention, as we begin 2021, turns to St. Joseph to learn from him how he followed the Lord to a perfection and to beg his intercession that we might become more like him in his life of virtue.

St. Joseph lived a few virtues very well – namely obedience, trust, chastity, prudence, and courage. Considering our need for growth in these areas as well, we turn to the Lord asking for an increase in each, and then we ought to consider our own lives personally and how we might live more perfectly obedience to the Lord’s commands, how we might more perfectly trust him, how we can treat one another with greater purity and live more chastely, how we can better exercise the virtue of prudence before we act, and how the Lord might be inviting us to live more courageously as Christians in the world today.

Know that each of you are in my prayers in a particular way. Please pray for me!