St. Joseph

March 19 is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He is called the Patron of the Universal Church.  God entrusted His most precious loves, Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, to Joseph’s protection and provision.  The Church is the Body of Christ, and Mary is an icon of the Church, and so it is fitting that Joseph continues to watch over these loves through his intercession from Heaven for the good of the Church.  In these trying times, we should invoke him for deliverance. 

Here is an excellent article on St. Joseph, which includes this quote from St. Theresa: 

To other saints, Our Lord seems to have given power to succor us in some special necessity, but to this glorious saint (I know by my experience), he has given the power to help us in all things. Our Lord would have us understand that, as he was subject to Joseph on earth—St. Joseph, bearing the title of his father and being his guardian, could command him—so now Our Lord in heaven grants all his petitions.

My own appreciation of St. Joseph began when I started attending talks hosted by Opus Dei.  The priests, speaking to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, would make an act of faith and request that our time of prayer be fruitful.  He would also invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph as “father and lord.”  The founder of Opus Dei loved St. Joseph very much and thought of him as a perfect example of the spirituality of work which is at the heart of Opus Dei.  Watch St. Josemaria answer this question about St. Joseph..

When our new church was built, I decided to put a statue of St. Joseph in the family seating area as a symbolic way of invoking his intercession and drawing attention to his example for the domestic church, aka, the family.