March 1st — The Foreshadowing of St. Joseph.
1st Day. — The Foreshadowing of St. Joseph.
1. As the Church of Christ is prefigured in the rites and ceremonies of the Old Law, so the chief personages who centre round Our Lord in the redemption of the world are foreshadowed in the Old Testament. We trace the outlines of Our Lady’s graces in Esther, Jahel, Bethsabee, Judith. So, too, St. Joseph’s place in the new dispensation is anticipated in the place of the patriarch Joseph at the court of Pharao. Thus it is that God in His love for His chosen ones paves the way for them centuries before. From the beginning He has prepared their work, and the throne they are to earn in heaven by their labors and sufferings for Him.
2. In the life of the patriarch Joseph there was throughout a correspondence to the life of the foster-father of Jesus Christ. The troubles and persecutions of his early life; his long time of servitude and obscurity; his wondrous purity, his time of patient expectation; his glorious exaltation; his omnipotence with the king; his power to save all who came to him — all these were repeated, or rather were fulfilled, in St. Joseph. Reflect on each of these, and consider how St. Joseph is a model to us.
3. We read of the patriarch that the king of Egypt made him lord of his house. So God made St. Joseph lord of that earthly tabernacle of flesh in which He dwelt on earth. Joseph ruled Our Lord in His sacred humanity. He made him lord, too, of another house in which He sojourned, of the sacred house that Wisdom built for Himself in the form of His holy Mother. If St. Joseph was thus lord of Jesus and Mary, what may we not expect from Him?
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March 2d — St. Joseph’s Parentage and Birth.
This article, March 1st — The Foreshadowing of St. Joseph. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/devotional/the-catholic-daily/march-month-st-joseph/march-1st-foreshadowing-st-joseph/
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