Prayer to Saint Joseph, Patron of Cornerstone
Dear Saint Joseph, Guardian of the Holy Family and the Interior Life, may we fulfil God’s will to become instruments for His glory, for His salvation to reach all humanity, for the transformation of the structures of the world from within by the power of the Word, and for all creation to come to Trinitarian Communion. May your interior strength and exterior gentleness be our model to bear witness. May we attract everyone to Christ by being rich in the Word, having a loving nature and firm spirit captive to Christ, gently salting the culture and expanding the reign of Christ wherever we go. Give us competence in our work, powerful speech and a rich inner life that glows with the light of Christ, exuding brotherly (sisterly) generosity, being most reverential of the holy name of Jesus, and presenting a non-judgemental outlook, suffused in humility and obedience as we collaborate in the ranks of Christ. When we don’t understand His inscrutable ways, may we carry on in humble trust and hope in the goodness of our Saviour. May we see our failures and losses of spirit as God-ordained afflictions, allowed in His great wisdom, to sanctify us by removal of the remnant of pride in us, an opportunity for a deeper and fuller communion in suffering given to thank, praise and glorify Him therein, prove a love without conditions for our beloved, and conform more perfectly to His image. May He be pleased to bruise us and may we be loving and loyal as a faithful bride in the intimacy of pain shared with our beloved. May we be strongly conscious of His call to be faithful in the little things of life rather than to do spectacularly to make a name for ourself, a vain attempt at self-glory and a ploy of the devil to deceive us into invoking the Holy name of Jesus in our selfish quest to be. In the face of injustice, may we not be aggressive or violent but offer prayerful resistance by the eloquent silence of the cross, looking to the suffering saviour’s demeanour and waiting patiently for God to make reply for us, at His time, of His choosing, and by His holy, sovereign will, which always ends in a share in His glory. Give us discerning minds never to enter reckless ventures of suffering, but may we never avoid a cross He has sent us, which always leads to sanctification and is an invitation to share His glory. Since a person's true progress consists in self-denial, may we humbly submit to the restraints of His cross and mortify ourself in ways most pleasing to Him, for He has said, “If you want to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” So He did not send His beloved ones to temporal joys but to great battles, not to honours but to contempt, not to idleness but to work, not to rest but to bring forth much fruit in patience. May we prefer not what is easiest, but what is most difficult, not what is delectable, but what is most distasteful, not what is restful, but what is wearisome, not what is consolation, but what is sorrow, not what is greatest, but what is least, not what is the best of the temporal but the worst, to desire to be nothing and to know nothing except Christ, our beloved, whom we must resemble and unite with in simplicity, purity and love. For it is a favour to a friend, that he or she should suffer and be afflicted in this world for love of the beloved, how often so ever, and by whomsoever, and in what manner so ever, He may permit it to befall us. As ones who have chosen to be far from this world, may we leave every friend for Jesus, our only true friend, and detest all worldly honours. O Father, always to be honoured, the hour is here which you foresaw would arrive, that your beloved children, for a little while, should be oppressed exteriorly but should always live interiorly to you, and never be stumbling blocks in your path. May He have absolute sway over our beings and all our circumstances, balancing our sleeping and our rising, our eating and our sexuality, and may we grow ascetically and mystically as disciples of the Word. May we surrender our material interests into His hands, observing austerity, fidelity and obedience to authority, focusing primarily on seeking His kingdom and His righteousness, which is to appropriate the weighty talent of the Word handed to us and employ all ways and means of multiplying it, recalling that our needs have always been met and confident that they will continue to be met, like the widow of Zarephath, for we have a Father in Heaven who supplies our every need. May we have no plan of our own but discern His sacred plan that unfolds every day and cooperate with it, letting it fructify as we live the sacrament of the present moment in a perfect Eucharistic spirituality, making ourself an irreversible thanksgiving offering of praise every day, a total kenosis and holocaust for God and His people, and facing all the consequences of the offering to Him. Faithful to the teachings of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, may we abide in unity and love among all brothers and sisters, and be courageous in goodwill, discussing our differences dialogically and seeking and doing His will in all matters. Pray that God is merciful to us, sinners, who may faithfully prosecute this, the grandest calling of our life, begun and brought to completion by Jesus Christ.