This year of the Great Jubilee is a year of justice. Joseph was a just man (Mt 1:19). This year is also an opportunity for exceptional freedom. Joseph was so free that he obeyed God and took Jesus and Mary to Egypt in the middle of the night (Mt 2:13). This Great Jubilee is the two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus' Incarnation. Joseph had an important role in this central event of all history.

Although the feast of St. Joseph is always a special occasion, his feast in this year of the Great Jubilee may well be the greatest feast of Joseph in our lifetimes or even in history. Today, through the intercession and fatherhood of Joseph, the Lord may do much more than we can ever ask for or imagine (Eph 3:20). Today, on this special feast in this special year, "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor 2:9).

St. Joseph — man of faith, foster-father of Jesus and patron of fathers, husband of Mary, patron of the universal Church, a carpenter and the patron of workers, patron of a happy death, patron of Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Vietnam — St. Joseph, pray that this Great Jubilee will be pleasing to your foster-Son and be everything He wants it to be. St. Joseph, pray for us.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, July 28, 1999

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, August 3, 1999