Pope Francis and his devotion to Sleeping St. Joseph

Did you know that Pope Francis is a great Devotee of St. Joseph? That´s right! Pope Francis is awed by the silence, humility and custody of St. Joseph. And also of how he, received great revelations through the Dreams. That is why the Holy Father is very fond of this beautiful devotion to Sleeping Saint Joseph.

When Pope Francis speaks to us about St. Joseph, he always tells us that St. Joseph is Custodian, that this is his office, to take care, to take charge of that which came to him unexpectedly, a Son, a Son that he had not begotten, to take charge of a woman whom he loved.

Pope Francis tells us that St. Joseph did not know or even imagine that what he was taking care of was the life of a nascent Church. One of his words addressed to St. Joseph was in St. Peter´s Square celebrating the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19, 2013, and with which he began his pontificate. Here is an excerpt that we should read again:

Pope Francis: The humble St. Joseph.

How does St. Joseph exercise the guardianship of the Holy Family? With discretion, with humility, in silence, but with a constant presence and total fidelity, even when he does not understand. From his marriage to Mary until the episode of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem at the age of twelve, he accompanies her at all times with care and love.

St. Joseph is with Mary, his wife, both in the serene moments of life and in the difficult ones, in the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the trembling and joyful hours of childbirth; in the dramatic moment of the flight to Egypt and in the anxious search for her son in the Temple; and then in daily life in the house of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught Jesus his trade.

The Pope and St. Joseph the Custodian.

How does St. Joseph live his vocation as custodian of Mary, of Jesus, of the Church? With constant attention to God, open to his signs, available to his plan, and not so much to his own; and that is what God also asked of David: God does not want a house built by man, but fidelity to his word, to his design; and it is God himself who builds the house, but of living stones marked by his Spirit.

And St. Joseph is a guardian because he knows how to listen to God, he allows himself to be guided by his will, and precisely for this reason he is even more sensitive to the people entrusted to him, he knows how to read events realistically, he is attentive to his surroundings, and he knows how to make the wisest decisions.

In St. Joseph, dear friends, we see how to respond to God´s call, with availability, with readiness; but we also see what is the center of the Christian vocation: Christ. Let us keep Christ in our lives, to keep others, to safeguard creation.

In the Gospels, St. Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a hard worker, but in his soul we perceive a great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak, but rather the opposite: it denotes strength of spirit and capacity for attention, compassion, true openness to others, love. We must not be afraid of kindness, of tenderness."

Pope Francis and Sleeping St. Joseph.

On January 19, 2015, Pope Francis also gave us a very personal confession about the devotion to Sleeping Saint Joseph, which he had also mentioned on several occasions. In it, he related the following:

"I would also like to tell you something personal: "I love St. Joseph very much because he is a strong and silent man and on my desk I have an image of St. Joseph sleeping, and sleeping he takes care of the Church! And when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little piece of paper and put it under St. Joseph, so that he dreams it!.... This means for me to pray for that problem!"

In the same way as Pope Francis, I too am amazed at the silence, humility and all that St. Joseph teaches us... If only every husband and father were devoted to this great Saint and imitated his great virtues, we would undoubtedly change this society in which every day, the percentage of absent fathers and husbands at home seems to increase. Sleeping Saint Joseph, pray for us.