Day 2 of the Novena to Saint Joseph

God will welcome us at the end of the journey… He will accept us on the basis of our love.

Jesus has prepared His disciples for the great day of Last Judgment. The scene is impressive: the King, seated on His throne of glory, separates the good from the bad. To the good, whom he calls the “Blessed of my Father,” he shows that everything they have done during their lives for the starving, the poor, strangers and the needy, they have done for Him, Jesus.

The message is clear: we will be accepted on the basis of our love, on our way of putting into practice the second great commandment: “You will love your neighbour as yourself.” The poor, the little ones, they are not only the people whom we happen to meet. They are also those whose misery the media report to us. They are also the Christians around the world who suffer for their faith, who are scorned and persecuted because they belong to Christ. Do we pray for them?

We know very little about the daily life of Saint Joseph, but popular piety attributes to him virtues motivated by love. As for Saint Brother André, he spent his life tirelessly welcoming people struck by disease, infirmity, trials and tribulations of every sort. He could not help seeing Jesus in all those who came to him.

Saint Joseph, you who guided the first steps of Jesus in life, teach us the path of love, of the faithful love of God, of the humble love of our neighbour.

Make a Novena to Saint Joseph, from March 10 to 18, 2019.