St. Joseph's feast day

by - March 19, 2011


Today is the feast of St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and foster-father of Jesus! This is probably one of my favorite feast days.

Joseph was a descendant of the House of King David. After marrying Mary, he found her already pregnant and, being “a just man and unwilling to put her to shame” (Matt. 1:19), decided to divorce her quietly; but an angel told him that the child was the son of God and was conceived by the Holy Ghost. Obeying the angel, Joseph took Mary as his wife. After Jesus' birth at Bethlehem (modern Bayt Lam, Jordan) in Judaea, where the holy family received the Magi, an angel warned Joseph and Mary about the impending violence against the child by King Herod the Great of Judaea, whereupon they fled to Egypt. There the angel again appeared to Joseph, informing him of Herod's death and instructing him to return to the Holy Land. credit

Today, we went to Mass early in the morning. Afterwards, we said a St. Joseph chaplet, and then went into the hall for a feast!




I don't know the entirety of the St. Joseph's table tradition/legend, but I'll share what I remember.
Sometime ago, a woman was in need of help (I don't remember exactly what, a loved one was dying or something). So, she prayed to St. Joseph and told him that if he helped her, she would hold a feast in his honor every March 19. Her request was granted, and every year, she put up a big table/altar with food and images of St. Joseph.
In Italy, if someone comes to your home on this day, you are required to give that person dinner, in St. Joseph's honor.
Then there were some little things like; If you steal a lemon from the altar (there were lemons) then you'll meet the person you are destined to marry before the next St. Joseph's feast day, or if you put a blessed Flava bean in your purse, you'll never run out of money, or if you put it in your pantry, you'll never run out of food.
I took a flava bean and a lemon. heheheh.
Also, if you write an unselfish intention of a piece of paper, and then burn it in front of an image of St. Joseph, that intention will be granted.
St. Joseph is probably one of my favorite saints. I admire him a lot.
I ate lots and lots, even though there were mainly sweets, but now I'm hungry again!
God bless,

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1 comments

  1. We had a St. Joseph alter for my Home-school group! It was quite fun!

    ~Monica

    ReplyDelete

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