Father Rocky’s Homily Highlight – The Year of Saint Joseph – Transcript
Yesterday was a great feast of Our Lady, The Immaculate Conception, and our Holy Father Pope Francis surprised us by announcing a Year of Saint Joseph and it began yesterday.
It will go for an entire year, until next year December 8th,, the Immaculate Conception.
Our Holy Father has told us on more than one occasion that he’s the pope of surprises. Keeps us attentive. Now, while it was surprising to announce a year of Saint Joseph, on the other hand it’s not unusual that popes do declare years as special years.
1954 was a Year of the Blessed Mother. 1984, under Saint John Paul II was the Year of our Blessed Mother as well. The year 2000 was the Jubilee year, there was a Year of Saint Paul. There was the Year of the Rosary in 2003, there was the Year of the Holy Eucharist which was 2005 — that’s the year that Saint John Paul II died.
There was the Year of Mercy with Pope Francis earlier on and now he declares a Year of Saint Joseph. We’ve seen that our Holy Father has a very vivid devotion of Saint Joseph. I had never seen this image of Saint Joseph lying down and asleep but now you see him all over, as Pope Francis had one. And I’ve learned from him that if you have intentions or things you can’t figure out you have Saint Joseph sleep on them. So all the intentions we receive from our listeners for the Mass and the Rosary, at least the ones that come into our website, we print them out and we have Saint Joseph sleep on that. That’s kind of a hallmark of Pope Francis’ devotion to Saint Joseph.
Also, early on in his pontificate, one of the first things he did is he mandated that the name of Saint Joseph be inserted in every Eucharistic Prayer at Mass. It had only been in the Roman Canon, which was the first Eucharistic Prayer, and only since the Second Vatican Council. So he took that and he extended it. Right after we mention the Blessed Mother, we mention Saint Joseph.
And he consecrated his pontificate to Saint Joseph early on as well. So why would he announce a Year of Saint Joseph on a feast of the Blessed Mother – a great feast of the Blessed Mother? I haven’t asked him and he didn’t tell me, right? But my hunch is because Joseph and Mary are always together.
Joseph is the husband of Mary. Joseph is the Guardian of Mary. Joseph had a vocation to care for Mary and to care for the Child. And maybe in a sense it was one way of Pope Francis giving a gift to the Blessed Mother yesterday … by inviting the entire Church to honor her husband.
But what a great occasion it is to promote this devotion of Saint Joseph and then have that chance to tell our stories about Saint Joseph and his powerful intercession.
So stay tuned! What I can tell you now because we’ve already delivered on this, if you go to the Relevant Radio app, which all of you should have and all of your friends should have, ’cause it’s free and it’s really great. You’ll find an article on there today. That was written by Lindsey Kettner about the Pope announcing the Year of Saint Joseph with a link to his letter on Saint Joseph. You can do that today it’s on our app. It’s on our website at RelevantRadio.com.
