The 7 Sorrows & 7 Joys of San Giuseppe Devotion

Today marks the traditional start of the 7 Sorrows & 7 Joys of St. Joseph devotion. Like I said last year in my post about the devotion, it can be done any time of year, but traditionally it is done on the 7 Sundays before the Feast of St. Joseph on 19 March every year. In addition, on each of these 7 Sundays it is customary to receive Holy Communion in honor of San Giueseppe as well.

1 of the earliest mentions of San Giuseppe's sorrows & joys is found in the writings of St. John Chrysostom. St. Teresa of Avila helped spread devotion to St. Joseph. The devotion was actually started by 2 Franciscan priests. The ship they were on was wrecked off the coast of Flanders. Clinging to a plank, St. Joseph appeared & rescued them. When they got to shore they asked him who he was. San Giuseppe replied '"I am Joseph, and I desire you to honor my seven sorrows and seven joys." He went on to ask them to daily to recite the Our Father and Hail Mary seven times. The traditional form of the devotion as it is now practiced was composed by Ven. Januarius Sarnelli in the 1st half of the 1700s.

1 of the beauties of this devotion is its Scriptural basis. It starts with the Scripture that each sorrow & coresponding joy is based on. It goes on to include a prayer based on each pair & ends with an Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be.

Last year I talked about praying this devotion in part as a way of asking St. Joseph's intercession for an end to abortion. Also to ask that he would bless the efforts of those Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers that provide an alternative to abortion. Finally, that he would help those fathers who lost a child to abortion to find repentance & forgiveness (if they willingly participated) & healing from the emotional damage (whether the father willingly participated or not).

I firmly believe that San Giuseppe's role in protecting Jesus from Herod shows us how God wants to continue working through him to help us as we battle the "culture of death" & build the "Culture of Life". San Giuseppe is often known as the silent saint because Scripture doesn't record a single word he said. But as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. & his actions we read about in Scripture speak loud & clear about what God sees as the ideal of fatherhood. Let us not ignore that lesson.

You can find the devotion here or here.