Grant us, O Lord, that we may serve you...with a pure heart like St. Joseph, who gave himself to serve your Son....
As we prepared for today's Solemnity by considering the devotion of the seven Sundays of St. Joseph, we meditated on the principle enunciated by St. Thomas, which applies to the choice of St. Joseph, and to every vocation: "Those whom God chooses for something he prepares and arranges in such a way that they are suitable for it". God's fidelity is shown in the help he always gives, in whatever situation of age, work, health, etc., in which we find ourselves, so that we may faithfully fulfill our mission on earth. St. Joseph corresponded delicately and promptly to the innumerable graces he received from God.
We should meditate many times that the Lord will never fail us; He always awaits our firm correspondence: in youth, in maturity, and when the time that separates us from God is not long; when it seems that everything accompanies to be loyal and in those moments in which it could give the impression that everything invites to break the contracted commitments.
Not feeling God at times -or for long periods-, not feeling attracted to dedicate to God the best time of the day, may be due, perhaps, to the fact that one's soul is full of oneself and of everything that happens around us. In these moments, fidelity to God is fidelity to interior recollection, to the effort to come out of that state, to the life of prayer, to that prayer in which the soul remains alone, naked before God and asks Him, or looks at Him....
God expects from all of us an awakened, loving attitude, full of initiative. The heart of the Holy Patriarch was always full of joy, even in the most difficult moments! We must ensure that our divine task on earth, our journey towards God is always new, as love is always new and original, for, as the poet says: No one went yesterday // nor goes today // nor will go tomorrow // towards God // on this same road // that I am going // For each man the sun // keeps a new ray of light // and a virgin road // God. Always eternally new.
Today we ask St. Joseph for that inner youthfulness that always gives true surrender, the renewal from its very foundations of these firm commitments that we acquired one day. We also ask him for so many who expect from us that inner joy, the consequence of self-giving, which will draw them to Jesus, whom they will always find very close to Mary.