Though St. Joseph lived in poverty and contempt,
he came of a noble ancestry. The blood of
kings and saints ran in his veins; and what is more,
he inherited from them the virtues of each, but in
a far higher degree than that which their original
possessor had enjoyed. How much that is good in
me is an inheritance from my parents and
forefathers; yet how ill I have employed the virtues
I received from them! Instead of being better
than they, like St. Joseph, I may be the degenerate
child of parents far better than myself.
St. Joseph, as the greatest of all the saints next
to Our Lady, had all the privileges of other saints.
Hence we may piously believe that, like St. John,
he was cleansed from sin in his mother's womb.
He was to be Mary's spouse, he was to occupy the
first and foremost place in the family of Jesus, he
was hereafter to be the Patron of the whole
Church: it was therefore fitting that he should be
endowed with this initial privilege of being from
his birth a child of God, an heir of the Kingdom
of Heaven. Thank God for this privilege bestowed
on him.
St. Joseph was the connecting link between
the Old and the New Dispensation, the first dawn
that announces the coming day. In his youth he
belonged to the Old Law, in his later life to the
New. As the dawn brightens into the glorious day,
so St. Joseph's life, beautiful from the first,
advanced in splendor continually. Is this the history
of my life? Have I made steady progress in the
love of God?