Advent Prayer to St. Joseph
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by Deacon Bruce Olsen
Hail Joseph, weary Advent traveler, protector of the treasures of heaven! You led the Virgin Mother and the Child in her womb along winding and rocky paths, through desert and mountain and valley and plain, to the city of David, to honor a decree, to fulfill a prophesy. We, too, are Bethlehem bound. Will you show us the way?
A star guided the Wise Men to the stable, and an angel pointed the way for the shepherds. But we desire you to be our guide - because in following in the footsteps of your faith and virtue, your strength and courage, your humility, righteousness and purity, your complete trust and abandonment to the will of God, and your unconditional love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the child in the tabernacle of her womb - we have absolute assurance that we will encounter, not only the Babe in the manger, but the Savior on the cross, the One risen from the tomb, the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, and the Lord of Lords seated on his Heavenly Throne.
Please light for us the dark and arduous pathways we travel till we encounter the true Light born to you and for us. Keep us alert and focused. Free us from distraction, lest the commotion of the world causes us to stray and takes us only to lighted trees and presents rather than to a star-lit stable and God's greatest gift.
Sure our footing and let us not stumble or wander from the path through sin. Protect us, as you did Mary and the Promised One, from all that might bring danger to our souls. Reassure us when we are wearied and discouraged by the struggles, disappointments, anxieties and fears that tempt us to abandon our journey to Bethlehem and the one whom we desire to encounter there.
And when I, too, am rejected by the innkeepers
of the world, when there seems no room for me and I don’t know where my place
is, grant me welcome and acceptance at the stable by you, Mary and Jesus, the
holiest of all families.
This Advent, keep us watchful, keep us alert, to see the face of the One we seek in the face of the hungry and the thirsty, in the stranger and the naked, in the sick and the prisoner, in the sinner and the saint, and within ourselves. Bless us, O Righteous One, with the same Advent hope, peace, joy, and love that marked the first Advent, your Advent, on the journey to Bethlehem.
