Day 6: Model of the Interior Life

On the sixth day of the Saint Joseph Novena, we contemplate Saint Joseph as the supreme model of the interior life of the Christian soul. He is the saint of silence. The Gospels record no word he ever spoke, and yet his interior life was so rich that he heard the angelic voices of God and obeyed them perfectly. The soul that wishes to deepen its prayer and recollection in Christ has no better model than the silent patriarch of Nazareth.

Today's meditation

The Catholic spiritual tradition has consistently held that the interior life is the essential foundation of every active Christian life. Without prayer, the works of mercy become activism without grace. Without recollection, the apostolate becomes performance without depth. Without silence before God, the words spoken to others lose their savor. Saint Joseph models the priority of the interior over the exterior, of the hidden over the visible, of the contemplative ground over the active fruit.

The angelic communications Saint Joseph received are recorded in the Gospel of Saint Matthew: at the conception of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21), at the flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13), at the death of Herod (Matthew 2:19-20), at the choice of Nazareth as the place of the Holy Family's residence (Matthew 2:22). In each case, Joseph's response was immediate and silent obedience. The interior listening that prepared him to hear the angel in the dream was the same interior listening that prepared his response.

Today's intention

Today, ask Saint Joseph for the gift of an interior life: the gift of silence in prayer, the gift of recollection during the day, the gift of attentiveness to the small graces and inspirations of the Holy Spirit, the gift of patience with the slow growth of the spiritual life, the gift of perseverance in the daily disciplines of prayer.

The traditional St Joseph novena prayer

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O Saint Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that, having engaged here below your Heavenly power, I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers. O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Saint Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for me. Amen.

Reflection

The Catholic monastic tradition has long invoked Saint Joseph as the patron of contemplatives. The Carmelite reform of Saint Teresa of Avila placed Saint Joseph at the center of the order's spirituality, and the great mystical writers of the seventeenth century (Saint John Eudes, Father Jean-Jacques Olier, the school of the French Oratorians) developed a Josephite mystical theology focused on the hidden life of Saint Joseph as the highest model of contemplative union with God.

Saint Teresa of Avila's testimony in her Book of Her Life: "I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted; and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favors which God has given me through this blessed saint... To other saints, the Lord seems to have given grace to succor us in some of our necessities, but of this glorious saint, my experience is that he succors us in them all."

If your prayer life has grown thin, if the daily rosary has become a duty rather than a delight, if your time before the Blessed Sacrament has become difficult to enter, today is the day to ask Saint Joseph for the recovery of interior life. He has succored Saint Teresa, and he succors us. The man who heard the angels in dreams will obtain for you the grace to hear the inner voice of the Holy Spirit in your own prayer.

Closing prayers

Pray seven times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Joseph, model of the interior life, pray for us.