Novena in Honor of St. Joseph: NINTH DAY

(Disclaimer:  I am NOT taking credits for this. The text herein come from a 40-page novena booklet I purchased from St. Paul Bookstore where no author was indicated.  Undertaking the novena has enabled me to come across these beautiful reflections which I would like to share.  It is hence my hope that another soul might find inspiration from the virtues exemplified by the life of. St. Joseph)

NOTE:  These are the text in their entirety.  Emphasis were supplied by me. Please click on images for better/ clearer view.

DETACHMENT--

"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?"

DETACHMENT meant for St. Joseph that he could center his thoughts and affections on things Divine.  Detachment meant for St. Joseph that he was not enulfed in worldly affairs, that after his work in the carpenter shop, he could have the rest of the time for thoughts and conversations on things Divine.  He was detached from riches because of his poverty which he loved; he was detached from honors because of his humility which saved him the agony and tribulation of those who aspire to hear the applause of men.  He was detached, beacuse of his chastity from those more terrific temptations against purity.

Detachment from earthly affairs kept St. Joseph with his interests in Heaven, and his exile on earth was simply a precious enjoyment of the celestial joys reserved for those who do the will of God in this life.


REFLECTION

What of your detachment from things of this earth?  Are you regulating your life so thatg you can truly say that your thoughts are centered upon things Divine?  Are you engulfed in pleasures that never satisfy?  Are you keen to hear your praises sung knowing that those flatteries cause afterall, more pain than joy?  Are you ambitious, knowing that ambition makes us uneasy, makes us dissatisfied with oput rpesent state and simply drives us from one condition to another as a storm might blow a small piece of paper from place to place?  Are you detached, at least in the sense that you value hevenly treasures more than worldly awards?  Are you detached in that you canm concentrate upon your eternal destriny using earthly things in proportion as you need them, yetnever allowing yourself to become a slave of honors, of ambition, of vanity, of the more base sins that our nature is heir to?  Are you detached so that if God called you as He called the rich young man, "Come follow Me," you could, as the apostles, "leave all things" and realize your vocation, if such were your good fortune?

Prayer

O St. Joseph, make me understand the excellence of poverty.  Grant that I may enter into the interior dispositions which animated thee in regard to that virtue.  Disclose to me the snarest of riches, the dangers which are attached to them, the solicitude which they engender.

Make me understand how much God favors us, when He refuses us riches, since He furnishes us a precious occasion to detach us from ourselves and from creatures, and to increase our merit for Heaven.  Amen.