Friday, March 19, 2010

For the Feast of Great Saint Joseph

GKC does not mention St. Joseph very often, but I think this one little piece can stand on its own:



"A Christmas Song For Three Guilds"

To Be Sung A Long Time Ago - Or Hence

The Carpenters.

St. Joseph to the Carpenters said on a Christmas Day:
"The master shall have patience and the 'Prentice shall obey;
And your word unto your women shall be nowise hard or wild:
For the sake of me, your master, who have worshipped Wife and Child.
But softly you shall frame the fence, and softly carve the door,
And softly plane the table - as to spread it for the poor,
And all your thoughts be soft and white as the wood of the white tree.
But if they tear the Charter, let the toscin speak for me!
Let the wooden sign above your shop be prouder to be scarred
Than the lion-shield of Lancelot that hung at Joyous Garde."

[GKC Collected Poems 137-8]


Therefore, let us always honour St. Joseph, in particular in his title of "Terror of Demons", and let use recall the great guidance given to us by Father Jaki:
Let us therefore exclaim: "Holy Mary, Saint Joseph, pray for us, and do so together!" No combined voice can be stronger than the united voice of those two. The two are so united that whenever we invoke Joseph, Mary also hears our voice, and so does the Child of theirs, who as the Savior of the world is the greatest treasure which a marital union could conceivably guard.
[SLJ The Litany of St. Joseph]

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