Sons and Daughters of Saint Joseph

I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through Saint Joseph. ~St Teresa of Avila

The Sons and Daughters of Saint Joseph are men and women who seek to deepen their devotion to Saint Joseph through a few simple prayers to him everyday. Also by meditating on his simple, yet powerful life that now continues into eternity.  

Here is the inspiration for the formation from the Diary of Saint Faustina:  
Saint Joseph urged me to have a constant devotion to him. He himself told me to recite three prayers [the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be and the Memorare once every day. He looked at me with great kindness and gave me to know how much he is supporting this work [of mercy]. He has promised me this special help and protection. I recite the requested prayers every day and feel his special protection.~Diary of Saint Faustina 1203 


Here is the Memorare: 
Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who implored your help and sought your intercession were left unassisted.
 Full of confidence in your power I fly unto you and beg your protection.
 Despise not O Guardian of the Redeemer my humble supplication, but in your bounty, hear and answer me. Amen.


Here is the Sons and Daughters of Saint Joseph Prayer: 
St. Joseph, Please adopt us as your sons and daughters. Teach us how to love as you taught your foster son, Jesus how to love. Teach us how to pray as you taught Jesus how to pray. Teach us how to work as you taught Jesus how to work. Love us as you love Jesus. Work for us as you work for Jesus. Protect us as you protected Jesus. St. Joseph as a sign of your adoption we pray for all our intentions and the whole world joins us. We ask this all in the Name of Jesus. Amen. 
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you, Save Souls, take care of everything!

So you will pray Everyday: 
An Our Father, A Hail Mary, and a Glory be, the Memorare and the Sons and Daughters of Saint Joseph prayer.  
Takes 2 Minutes A Day. 

Meditations on Saint Joseph: 
Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten familes. (Saint John Paul II)

St. Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. (St. Josemaria Escriva)

Saint Pope John Paul II on St. Joseph:

“Let us imitate our model St. Joseph in all our endevours especially the raising and upbringing of our families.  St. Joseph did Great Things in the ordinary things of life.  In loving His wife, In loving His Son, and especially loving God and every person who ever lived.  Let us start always in our family to love our neighbor.    

How much the family of today can learn from this! "The essence and role of the family are in the final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God's love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church his bride."  This being the case, it is in the Holy Family, the original "Church in miniature (Ecclesia domestica)," that every Christian family must be reflected. "Through God's mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families."

The Church deeply venerates this Family, and proposes it as the model of all families. 

Work was the daily expression of love in the life of the Family of Nazareth. The Gospel specifies the kind of work Joseph did in order to support his family: he was a carpenter. This simple word sums up Joseph's entire life. For Jesus, these were hidden years, the years to which Luke refers after recounting the episode that occurred in the Temple: "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them" (Lk 2:51). This "submission" or obedience of Jesus in the house of Nazareth should be understood as a sharing in the work of Joseph. Having learned the work of his presumed father, he was known as "the carpenter's son." If the Family ofNazareth is an example and model for human families, in the order of salvation and holiness, so too, by analogy, is Jesus' work at the side of Joseph the carpenter. 

What is crucially important here is the sanctification of daily life, a sanctification which each person must acquire according to his or her own state, and one which can be promoted according to a model accessible to all people: "St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies;...he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things--it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic."

 (Extracted from Redemptoris Custos)

Apostolic Exhortation of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II On August 15, 1989.

St. Teresa of Avila on St. Joseph

"I took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph and commended myself earnestly to him; and I found that this my father and lord delivered me both from this trouble [a temporary paralysis] and also from other and greater troubles concerning my honor and the loss of my soul, and that he gave me greater blessings than I could ask of him. I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which He has freed me, both in body and in soul. To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succor us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint my experience is that he succors us in them all and that the Lord wishes to teach us that as He was Himself subject to him on earth (for, being His guardian and being called His father, he could command Him) just so in Heaven He still does all that he asks. This has also been the experience of other persons whom I have advised to commend themselves to him; and even to-day there are many who have great devotion to him through having newly experienced this truth." 

"I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to this glorious saint, for I have great experience of the blessings which he can obtain from God. I have never known anyone to be truly devoted to him and render him particular services who did not notably advance in virtue, for he gives very real help to souls who commend themselves to him. For some years now, I think, I have made some request of him every year on his festival and I have always had it granted. If my petition is in any way ill directed, he directs it aright for my greater good." 

“I only beg, for the love of God, that anyone who does not believe me will put what I say to the test, and he will see by experience what great advantages come from his commending himself to this glorious patriarch and having devotion to him. Those who practice prayer should have a special affection for him always. I do not know how anyone can think of the Queen of the Angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Child Jesus, without giving thanks to Saint Joseph for the way he helped them. If anyone cannot find a master to teach him how to pray, let him take this glorious saint as his master and he will not go astray." (St. Teresa of Avila)

The Holy Father said that the Church “venerate[s] the legal father of Jesus, because the new man takes form in him, who looks to the future with confidence and courage, does not follow his own project, but entrusts himself totally to the infinite mercy of him who fulfills the prophecies and inaugurates the season of salvation.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

My brothers and sisters take St. Joseph as your model and you will advance and climb in virtues to levels unheard of.  Before devotion to St. Joseph, I used to follow my own will in regards to my sanctification.  I would go to Mass/Blessed Sacrament or do other “Holy things” with no regards to my family.  My true great mission that is my vocation to Marriage, I did not want to embrace.  I wanted to save the world through my way and in the process I let my family down.  St. Joseph showed me through humble obedience to God’s will in my life I would be able to take part in the Great mission to save souls.  I had to start that “Mission”with my family.  So now if it is not good for my family I may miss daily mass like I did today.  My heart is there but I could not go due to family and work requirements.  God blesses my desire but even more so blesses me for accepting God’s will that I not live in a church.  Thanks to St. Joseph who is teaching us everyday!