St. Joseph

I rather wish that I could find the time to post more regularly. I seem to get bogged down in the day-to-day actions of my life. I wonder if anyone else struggles with this....
For today, I wanted to say something about St. Joseph. While he is not a patron of mine, I wish to grow my devotion to him. I know he has aided me in the past, but I am lazy in my devotions, so my prayers to the Foster Father of Christ are sporadic, at best.
One thing that really came to my attention not so very long ago was something that in turn shed a great light on St. Joseph. I have been teaching many children of different ages, and interacting regularly with many others. What struck me then, and strikes me now, is how much they model themselves, consciously or not, upon their parents. Especially as children, but even as grown adults, children are the mirror of their parents, in many ways. I suppose this might not be the case in unhealthy families, but I am blessed to work with children from families that live their Faith. The point in all this is that if St. Joseph was the Foster Father of Our Lord, then it was from St. Joseph that Our Lord learned to be a man, a human (in His human nature, anyway). To know Our Lord is to know the man who formed Him, to whom He was subject. St. Joseph, the just man, was chosen by God as the best man to form the Son of God. That is no little privilege, and only a really and truly great man, whose image (human) we see in his Foster-Son. Sancte Joseph, Ora pro nobis!

-Amator

O Glorious Descendant of the kings of Judah, Inheritor of the virtues of all the patriarchs. Just and happy St. Joseph, listen to our prayer. Thou art our glorious protector, and shall ever be, after Jesus and Mary the object of our most profound veneration and tender confidence. Thou art a hidden saint, one of the greatest of saints, and art particularly the patron of interior souls. In union with all those who have ever been most devoted to thee we now dedicate ourselves to thy service; beseeching thee, for the sake of Jesus Christ, who vouchsafed to love and obey thee as a son, to become a father to us; and to obtain for us the filial respect, confidence and love of children towards thee.

O powerful advocate of all Christians, whose intercession, as St. Theresa assures us, has never been found to fail, deign to intercede for us now, and to implore for us the particular intentions of this Novena.

(Mention your intentions here)

[Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.]

Present us, O great Saint, to the adorable Trinity, with Whom thou hast so glorious and so intimate a correspondence. Obtain that we may never efface by sin the Sacred Image, according to the likeness of which we were created. Beg for us that Our Divine Redeemer would enkindle in our hearts and in all hearts, the fire of His Love, and infuse therein the virtues of His adorable infancy, His purity, simplicity, obedience, and humility.

Obtain for us likewise a lively devotion to thy virgin spouse, and protect us so powerfully in life and death, that we may have the happiness of dying as thou didst, in the friendship of our Creator, and in the immediate protection of the Mother of God. Amen.