SOLEMNITY ST. JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

They are happy who dwell in your house, O Lord,
for ever singing your praise. PS 83:5

2 SAMUEL 7:4-5,12-14,16

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Joseph, Your foster father and most chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin, Your Mother, belonged to the line of David and thus You shared in his lineage, fulfilling this prophecy of Nathan. True to His Word, the Eternal Word of the Father came to us as the Son of Man by becoming incarnate of the Virgin Mary. God entrusted His most beloved Son and daughter to the safekeeping of his beloved and most faithful servant, Joseph of the house of David.

The house that God has built is You, Lord. You are its Cornerstone, and on You the whole structure stands immovable and rock-solid. Let the storms come, the winds blow, and churn up the waves so high that they threaten to destroy it, but it will stand firm, for we have Your assurance that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. St. Joseph, who was appointed Your guardian, is also the guardian of the Church. Just as he was vigilant in protecting You and Mama Mary, so is he vigilant in guarding the Church. He kept You and Your Mama safe; through his powerful intercession, he will keep the Church safe as well.

The word of the Lord came to Nathan:
‘Go and tell my servant David, Thus the Lord speaks: “When your days are ended and you are laid to rest with your ancestors, I will preserve the offspring of your body after you and make his sovereignty secure. (It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will make his royal throne secure for ever.) I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established for ever.”’

PSALM 88(89):2-5,27,29

His dynasty shall last for ever.

I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever,
that your truth is firmly established as the heavens.

‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty for ever
and set up your throne through all ages.

‘He will say to me: “You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.”
I will keep my love for him always;
with him my covenant shall last.’

His dynasty shall last for ever.

ROMANS 4:13,16-18,22

My Soul's Beloved,

All that St. Paul says of Abraham, our father in faith, is fulfilled gloriously in St. Joseph, the just and righteous. His faith in God's commands was acted on without question, promptly and without question. His silence is more eloquent than the words of all the sages, prophets, patriarchs, apostles, and disciples and every Church Father, Pope, and Bishop, who took up the pen to write about God and the Son of God.

Here was a man chosen by God of all the men of all time and in every age, just as He chose the Virgin Mary for the single most important work ever entrusted to a human being. You, O Lord, are the sinless one. Mary was full of grace from the moment of her conception and hence sinless as well. But St. Joseph was truly one like us, human and subject to all the trials that our flesh is subject to, and he came out as gold purified seven times in the furnace of tribulation and suffering. He was rightly called just.

St. Joseph, by virtue of his fatherhood to You, my Lord, is our father as well, just as God, Your Abba, is ours too. If Mary was given at the foot of the cross to the beloved disciple, he too was given to us, as guardian and protector of the Son whom we are privileged to call Brother, we too can call him abba, whom You called abba on earth. He continues to share this fatherhood with You in heaven as well, just as Mama Mary continues to be Your Mother. 

We thank You, Lord, for making us members of Your family and for the riches, treasures, and graces we receive by virtue of this relationship we share with You.

The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith. That is why what fulfils the promise depends on faith, so that it may be a free gift and be available to all of Abraham’s descendants, not only those who belong to the Law but also those who belong to the faith of Abraham who is the father of all of us. As scripture says: I have made you the ancestor of many nations – Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not exist.
Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars. This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him.’

MATTHEW 1:16,18-21,24

My Soul's Beloved, 

In the middle of Lent, a time for fasting, reparation, repentance, and conversion, the Church gives us a day to contemplate the gift that God has given us, St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, chaste spouse of the Virgin Mother, protector and guardian of the Holy Family and of the Church. He is the terror of demons who trembled at the sight of his humility, his obedience, his silence, his unquestioning and ready availability to God, who could count on him to care for His priceless and most beloved Son, You, my Lord, and the daughter of Zion, Your Mother, Mary.

We are given the passage from St. Matthew's Gospel to contemplate how You came to be born. We are told of St. Joseph's betrothal to Mary, and they were to marry. But before he took her to his home, she was found to be pregnant with You. In these few short verses that speak of him, we are given a short but remarkable picture of his character. The author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals that he was a man of honor. He loved Mary very much and was careful to ensure that any action he intended to take would cause her no embarrassment or difficulty with the law. He would do all he could to ensure the separation would be done quietly. 

His decision would have caused him great suffering, for he had envisaged a life of joy with the woman he loved, but unable to fully comprehend what had happened, he was sure of the goodness and purity of the Woman, and possibly contemplating the prophecy of Isaiah, he thought this was the right course of action. Until the Angel Gabriel stepped in and revealed that he was an intrinsic part of God's plan of salvation and redemption of the world.

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.