Saturday, January 30, 2021

Year of St Joseph: Remptoris Custos!

How fitting in this year dedicated to St Joseph in the Universal Church, that the work of Karol Jozef Wojtyla should have a prominent place as well:

Of note, especially, is paragraph# 6 which highlights Joseph as guardian of the Incarnate Word, and  somehow of the Redemption:

Joseph's way of faith moved in the same direction: it was totally determined by the same mystery, of which he, together with Mary, had been the first guardian. The Incarnation and Redemption constitute an organic and indissoluble unity

St John Paul II goes on to emphasize in this vein, the significance of Joseph being added to the Roman Canon by Pope St John XXIII:

 Precisely because of this unity, Pope John XXIII, who had a great devotion to St. Joseph, directed that Joseph's name be inserted in the Roman Canon of the Mass-which is the perpetual memorial of redemption - after the name of Mary and before the apostles, popes and martyrs.

For nearly 2,000 years, St Joseph was not even mentioned in the official prayers of the Church.  Yet now, the "protodulia" or piety always owed to him only behind that of Mary's "hyperdulia" is fully realized in the Liturgy of the Mass.