During the year of St Joseph, I have added the prayer by Pope Leo to St Joseph to my daily prayers. As it happens my church recites Pope Francis’ prayer to St Joseph before mass. It is a good prayer and invokes his aid against the pandemic. I was curious about the differences between the two prayers and was struck by this: Pope Leo asks St Joseph to protect the church from the wiles of the evil one as well as aiding us as individuals. Pope Francis only invokes his protection for individuals. I found this disturbing when considering how the st Michael prayer was also cut from many churches after v2. It always seemed deliberate to me to discourage prayer for Holy church in her hour of greatest need.
My wife and I attended a beautiful catechesis given by Dr. Scott Hahn this past Friday at St. Joseph Seminary in NY. His talk was on St. Joseph and The Eucharist. It was quite beautiful. Please not, that fir sone reason the video of Dr Hahn speaking starts at about the 28 minute in link below. The beginning of talk is a bit “academic” but stick with it because he then opens up about being a dad, husband, his conversion and what I found most beautiful talking about his son who was ordained this past Spring. He also talks about another son who is in formation right now. I found this uplifting talk…. And given all the darkness and worry in world, it was a nice “date” night with my bride of 35 years…. Hope you get to watch it
