Go to Joseph

When I was in grammar school, parts of May - lots of parts of May - were practicing for the May Procession.  Week after week after week we went over to the church to make sure we knew what we were doing, and we had the Crowning of Mary.

Maybe it’s a sexist thing, but I can recall as a young kid, “What about Joseph!  Why do we do all of this for Mary and nothing for poor old Joseph?”  Well today we have the Feast of Joseph the Worker, it was established in 1955 by Pius XII.  Many thought it was to counteract the Soviet from celebration on May 1 as the workers day.

When I got to high school, I had the Brothers of Holy Cross, and they had a great devotion to Joseph – so I guess it compensated from grammar school to high school.  There’s a famous prayer that is listed as Ite Ad Joseph (Go to Joseph).  He’s a saint now, Andre Bessette, who was up in Montreal at the great big St. Joseph’s Oratory, and that was his response to different people who were in distress – “Ite Ad Joseph.”  So maybe on this, the Feast of Joseph the Worker, we can go to Joseph with whatever need we have and ask for his intercession.

Monsignor Daniel Hoye