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DAY 26: Saint Joseph has a special love for those consecrated to God through religious vows. A virgin himself, St. Joseph knows first-hand the intimacy that a virgin is capable of having with God.

DAY 26: Guardian of Virgins, Pray for Us

I prayed to St. Joseph to watch over me. From my childhood, my devotion to him was mingled with my love for the Blessed Virgin. Each day I recited the prayer, “O Saint Joseph, father and protector of virgins.” It seemed to me that I was well protected and completely sheltered from every danger. — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Joseph has a special love for those consecrated to God through religious vows. Saint Joseph loves everyone, of course, but he has a special place in his heart for virgins. A virgin himself, St. Joseph knows firsthand the intimacy that a virgin is capable of having with God. Saint Joseph lived for 30 years with the two greatest virgins to ever grace this planet: Jesus and Mary. Virginity is a treasure. It is a treasure that St. Joseph guards and wants others to know about.

Remember St. Joseph! Many people know the Memorare prayer to the Virgin Mary. What many people don’t know about is the Memorare to St. Joseph. It’s almost identical to the Marian Memorare. The Memorare to St. Joseph goes like this:

Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, my spiritual father, and beg your protection. O foster father of the Redeemer, despise not my petitions, but in your goodness hear and answer me. Amen.

Saint Faustina’s religious community, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, recite the Memorare to St. Joseph every day. Saint Faustina herself had a tremendous devotion to St. Joseph and daily asked his intercession for her vocation and mission. She wrote:

Saint Joseph urged me to have a constant devotion to him. He himself told me to recite three prayers [the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be] and the Memorare [to St. Joseph] once every day. He looked at me with great kindness and gave me to know how much he is supporting this work [of mercy]. He has promised me this special help and protection. I recite the requested prayers every day and feel his special protection.

Saint Joseph will help you be a guardian of virginity and purity. If you maintain a daily loving relationship with St. Joseph, your eyes, intentions, heart, and relationships can be pleasing to God and free of anything that goes against purity. If you walk with St. Joseph, you will find less and less pleasure in filthy and perverse films. Such “entertainment” will repulse your soul. Music that is foul, degrading to women, and offensive to God will not appeal to you either. This doesn’t mean you must only listen to Christian music or watch Christian movies, but it does mean that you will know light from darkness.

Everyone is going to be tempted to sin against purity — some more than others. In St. Joseph, everyone has a guardian and a protector. Turn to him in times of temptation and you will grow in innocence and purity. Frequently ask his intercession to keep your heart pure and chaste.

I have taken for my advocate and protector, the glorious St. Joseph, to whom I have recommended myself with all the fervor of my heart, and by whom I have been visibly aided. This tender father of my soul, this loving protector hastened to snatch me from the wretched state in which my body languished, as he had delivered me from greater dangers of another nature, which threatened my honor and my eternal salvation. — St. Teresa of Avila

I beg the great St. Joseph, in whom I have a very great confidence, to come to my aid. — St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

A Miraculous Staircase in New Mexico

He [St. Joseph] took his [Jesus’] little hands and raising them to heaven he said: “Stars of heaven, behold the hands which created you; O Sun, behold the arm that drew you out of nothingness.” —  Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

Saint Joseph is the Guardian of Virgins. As a good father, he looks after their needs. An example of his fatherly protection is evidenced in what he did for a group of religious sisters in New Mexico in 1878.

In 1873, the Sisters of Loretto operated a girl’s academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The academy was very successful, so the sisters wanted to build a new chapel. They hired a well-known archi-tect to complete the task. The building project took five years to complete. However, once the chapel was finished, the sisters realized that the chapel lacked a way to get to the upper choir loft without the use of a very long ladder; the choir loft was 20 feet above the main floor. Climbing such a ladder was very difficult for the sisters, who wore a floor-length religious habit. They also realized that there was no room left in the main chapel area for a staircase to be built because of the many pews, and the sisters could not rehire the man who had built the chapel because he died shortly after the chapel was completed. What were they to do?

Well, the sisters prayed to St. Joseph for help. They began a novena to St. Joseph asking him to send a carpenter to help them. Remarkably, on the final day of the novena, a mysterious man arrived at the convent and stated that he was interested in building a staircase to the choir loft for the sisters. The gentleman had only one request: He wanted to work alone and behind closed doors. The sisters readily accepted his offer and hired him.

It took the man three months to build the staircase. Once the project was completed, the man could not be found. He simply van-ished from the town. No one saw him leave, and no one knew who he was. The sisters looked for him everywhere but could not find him. They even ran an ad in the local newspaper to try and locate him. It didn’t work.

Unsuccessful, the sisters went to the lumberyard to inquire who had obtained the lumber for the staircase, as well as to pay for the lumber. When questioned, not one person at the lumberyard knew what they were talking about. The sisters were informed that the lumberyard had never sold any wood to a man building a staircase for a chapel.

Perplexed, the sisters remembered how odd it was that the man had only had a T-square, a saw, a hammer, and a few other basic tools. Come to think of it, none of the sisters ever did see how the lumber arrived at the chapel either. Intrigued, the sisters and others from the town inspected the staircase and realized that the mysterious man had constructed something quite unique. It was a spiral staircase that didn’t interfere with the pews on the main floor in any way. It had 30 steps, no center support or load-bearing column, and appeared to be floating in air. It also contained no nails! It was found to be held together by square wooden pegs. The staircase is an architectural wonder. It’s a carpenter’s masterpiece!

So where did the wood come from? Well, in 1996, a study was done by Forrest N. Easley, a forester and wood technologist for the United States Forest Service and the United States Naval Research Laboratory. His extensive study found that the wood of the staircase is spruce, but unlike any other spruce in the world. Additional studies were undertaken, and it was determined that the spruce that most resembles the kind found in the spiral staircase is only found in Israel.

Who was the mysterious man who built the staircase? The Sisters of Loretto believe that it was St. Joseph. After praying and asking their spiritual father to send someone to construct a staircase for them, St. Joseph came himself and built it for the consecrated virgins. The staircase remains intact to this day.

Pray the Litany of St. Joseph:

Lord, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven,  have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Noble Offspring of David,  pray for us.
Light of Patriarchs, pray for us.
Spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.
Guardian of the Redeemer, pray for us.
Chaste Guardian of the Virgin, pray for us.
Foster-Father of the Son of God, pray for us.
Zealous Defender of Christ, pray for us.
Servant of Christ, pray for us.
Minister of Salvation, pray for us.
Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.

Joseph Most Just, pray for us.
Joseph Most Chaste,  pray for us.
Joseph Most Prudent,  pray for us.
Joseph Most Courageous,  pray for us.
Joseph Most Obedient, pray for us.
Joseph Most Faithful, pray for us.

Mirror of Patience, pray for us.
Lover of Poverty, pray for us.
Model of Workmen, pray for us.
Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us.
Guardian of Virgins, pray for us.
Pillar of Families, pray for us.
Support in Difficulties, pray for us.
Comfort of the Afflicted, pray for us.
Hope of the Sick, pray for us.
Patron of Exiles,  pray for us.
Patron of the Afflicted, pray for us.
Patron of the Poor, pray for us.
Patron of the Dying, pray for us.
Terror of Demons,  pray for us.
Protector of the Holy Church, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.

V. He has made him lord of his household,
R. And prince over all his possessions.

Let us pray. O God, who, in your loving providence, chose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most Holy Mother, grant us the favor of having him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our protector. You, who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

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