Great Power To Avert The Punishment

The Man For March

The Importance of Devotion to St Joseph

“The children of the world are ignorant regarding the privileges and rights which the Most High has conferred on my holy spouse, and the power of his intercession with the Divine Majesty and with me. But I assure you, my daughter, that in Heaven he is most intimate with the Lord, and has great power to avert the punishment of Divine Justice from sinners. In all trials seek his intercession, because the Heavenly Father will grant whatever my spouse asks.”

“On the Day of Judgment, the condemned will weep bitterly for not having realized how powerful and efficacious a means of salvation they might have had in the intercession of St. Joseph, and for not having done their utmost to gain the friendship of the Eternal Judge.”

~ Words of Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda

But the wish nearest to my heart is, that all unfortunate sinners would have recourse to St. Joseph, that he may swiftly raise them up from the abyss into which they have fallen; let them call upon him with the same vehemence and ardor, as they doubtless would cry for help on accidentally falling into a dark pit. The patriarch Joseph of old, a prefigurement of our saint, possessed a tender and compassionate heart. He could not refrain from weeping when he beheld his brethren stricken with horror, remorse, and anguish, at the recollection of the fratricide they had committed. And yet the tenderness and compassion of the second Joseph will do even more; he will draw tears of sincere contrition from the eyes of unhappy sinners.

If the Virgin Mary be the Refuge of Sinners, St. Joseph is also their refuge, to a lesser degree, on the same grounds. It was compassion for sinners that brought the Son of God down from Heaven. "O felix culpa!-O happy fault!" exclaims the Church in the Exsultet on Holy Saturday. Had this not been the case, would Mary have been the Mother, and Joseph the guardian and adopted father of Jesus? In Jesus only can true and solid happiness be found, even on earth; Joseph knew this well; he also knows that the sinner's misery springs from the misfortune of having lost Jesus! Joseph himself experienced that grievous torment; his anguish was great on that occasion, though the loss of Jesus was certainly without any fault of his own. He can, therefore, more feelingly sympathize with poor sinners, he is more alive to the misery of their condition, and consequently a more strenuous advocate in their behalf: in the company of Mary he will conduct them to the Temple where, after three days' careful research and heartfelt grief, they will have the happiness of finding Him! "If you seek Him, you will find Him with Joseph and Mary," says Origen. Alas! my brethren, we are all sinners; let us, therefore, go with confidence to Joseph, and let us address him in the words of those Gentiles who, desirous of being presented to Our Lord, said to the apostle St. Philip: "We wish to see Jesus." Ah, most powerful and compassionate father! do bring us to Jesus; it is by thee that we would be introduced into His Divine Presence: rebels and sinners that we are, we have not the courage to present ourselves; but we now appeal to thy goodness in the words of the Egyptians to thy representative of old: "Our salvation is in thy hands." It is our firm conviction, that in virtue of the authority which thou didst exercise over Jesus here below, we shall the more easily be restored to His grace and friendship.

~ Father Patrignani