Today is the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. My middle name is Joseph. My father was a worker which is called techne in Greek and applies to workers in any material trade, steel workers such as my father as well as carpenter. I find some very interesting recent hymns on one website
Saint Joseph Hymn | Patron of Workers & Families
| Healing & Protection | Feast Day Hymn |
Voice of Grace – Saints, Scripture & Sacred Songs
Thanks Jack. I like those songs. There aren't very many hymns dedicated to St. Joseph.
ReplyDeleteI subscribe to the Magnificat, which is a little.monthly publication having the Mass readings, and a version of morning and evening prayer, as well as some essays and reflections. This month the cover picture is "The Holy Family in Joseph's Workshop", which is a painting by Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). The information on the picture says that it represents the Holy Family during their sojourn in Egypt. It is interesting that at the threshold of the painting there is a tabby cat curled up on a chair. The article mentions that cats were seen as sacred figures in Egypt, protectors of the household.
St. Joseph is invoked as the patron of a happy death.
Jack, thanks for these links. I had not heard them before. Kind of Catholic Contemporary takes.
ReplyDeleteThe one-volume Christian Prayer has one hymn to St. Joseph, called Joseph of Nazareth by Stephen Somerville. It would have been contemporary in the 1970s, when that book was published. I didn't find a setting of it on Youtube, though. Beyond that - when it comes to hymns to St. Joseph, I got nuthin' :-)
I did sort of remember one from grade school days, "O Blessed Saint Joseph". Turns out it is on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDC6EVyo-E
DeleteI got out my old tattered St. Gregory Hymnal, it was in there. The melody is from the Trier Gesangbuch (1872). The lyrics are by Father Frederick Faber. He wrote a lot of those old hymns.
Copyright date on the hymnal was 1920. No I didn't go to grade school quite that long ago!
Katherine, please share your memories of President Coolidge :-)
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