Brother Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, presided over the Solemnity of St. Joseph in Nazareth on Monday, March 20. Numerous pilgrims and local Christians attended the celebration.
The Custos, in his homily, referred to the verbs that connect to St. Joseph's life: welcome, cooperate and collaborate. He also described St. Joseph as "a man who gave himself to silence, but also very thoughtful in carrying out what the Lord had indicated to him."
Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm, Custos of the Holy Land
"Joseph is the man who welcomes God's will: he welcomes Mary and the child she carries but also the unexpected events of life. Joseph is the one who guards Mary and the child: he guards them from the evil tongues here in Nazareth; he guards them from the danger that is Herod when he wants to get rid of the children; he guards them in the time of exile; and then he also guards them when they come back here to Nazareth and he will teach the child Jesus a job, the carpenter's job.
Joseph is the one who I would say really teaches to cooperate and not to want to be at the center of everything. And that will be what his Son will do. One who will take in the whole of humanity, he will be one who will guard the whole of humanity and cooperate to the point of giving himself for our salvation."
RABAB ZAITOUN ZAHER
Nazareth
"St. Joseph is a school of faith, obedience, surrender, with trust and joy, to God's will, even when it does not coincide with our will. St. Joseph is a school of love, prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit and all the messages that come to us from God." After Mass, the friars went in procession to the crypt, to the place where the Holy Family lived. There they recited the Act of Consecration of the Custody of the Holy Land to St. Joseph.
CMC
