"And in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary."—St. LUKE 1. 26, 27.
This son of David, the descendant of kings, is in the world's sight nought but a simple workman, obliged to gain his bread by the sweat of his brow. When God proposes working out some grand design, He renders lowly all the surroundings of the person whose greatness He intends to manifest That master-piece of the Divine Wisdom, Power and Love, the Incarnation, was to be divested of all earthly splendour; therefore, during three hundred years the house of David was lost sight of among the other families of Judah, Zerubbabel is the last king who plays any part in history. The branch to which Joseph belonged fell into indigence, and as there is nothing so efficacious as poverty to ensure the world's neglect, Joseph was in a fit position to be associated in the Divine work.
When God abases and humbles you; when He deprives you of the means of action, of the elements of success; when He appears to frustrate and annihilate your every effort, do not be alarmed. In this very way He is about to effect, by you and in you, some great work. Men despise, or worse still, they forget you, and know you no more. This is the moment awaited by God. Now, will the Divine Power (such is the meaning of the name Gabriel) descend to visit you, and, as Mary and Joseph, so you too are about to be summoned to concur in the carrying on of the Divine work, in the development of the Incarnation in the perfecting of the mysterious Body of Christ, in the extension of the Church, and the reign of Jesus.
Watchword.—Desire to be ignored, and to ignore oneself.
2. Devotion to Saint Joseph counselled by our Lady.
Father P. Balthazar Alvarez being sick, a religious presented him with an image of Saint Joseph, exhorting him to commend himself to the holy Patriarch. "You are right," replied the Father; " that is precisely what the Blessed Virgin counselled me to do." On hearing these words, a brother who had accompanied Father Alvarez in his journey to Rome, remembered that on quitting the Holy House of Loretto, the Father told him that he had just experienced a deep feeling of devotion to Saint Joseph. It is possible that was the moment when Our Lady exhorted the Father to confidence in her Holy Spouse.
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