Day 7: Patron of a Holy Death

On the seventh day of the Saint Joseph Novena, we contemplate one of the most distinctive of his patronages: he is the patron of a holy death. Catholic tradition holds, with reverent confidence even in the absence of explicit Gospel testimony, that Saint Joseph died at Nazareth before the public ministry of Jesus, surrounded by his Blessed Spouse Mary and his Divine Son Jesus. No human being who has ever died has died in such company, and the death of Saint Joseph is the model of the holy death every Christian hopes to receive.

Today's meditation

The Gospels do not record the death of Saint Joseph, but his absence from every scene of the public ministry of Jesus (he is not at the wedding at Cana, not at the Cross, not at the foot of the Resurrection) is taken by the unanimous Catholic tradition as evidence that he had died before the public ministry began. The Lord at the Cross entrusted His Mother to Saint John (John 19:26-27); had Saint Joseph still been alive, no such entrustment would have been necessary, since Mary would have been under her husband's care.

The Catholic devotional tradition has filled in what the Gospels did not record: that Saint Joseph died at Nazareth in his own house, with Mary holding one of his hands and the boy or young man Jesus holding the other, with the prayers of the household commending his soul to God. This is the holy death the patron is invoked to obtain for us: a death in the state of grace, in the company of the Lord, with the prayers of those who love us, and with the consoling presence of the Blessed Mother.

Today's intention

Today, ask Saint Joseph for the grace of a holy death: for yourself, for those you love who are now dying or in serious illness, for those you love who will die before you do, for those who will die today in your city or country, for the souls in their last hour. Pray particularly for those whose death will be sudden or violent, for those who die alone, for those who die without the sacraments, that Saint Joseph's powerful intercession may obtain for them the grace of final perseverance.

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 closing line of the traditional Saint Joseph novena prayer is one of the most poignant in the Catholic tradition: 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. The prayer asks Saint Joseph, who has held the Christ Child in his arms, to ask Christ to come to us in our last moment with the kiss of welcome into eternal life.

Catholic spiritual writers have long observed that the way we live is the way we die. The soul that has spent its life in trust, in the sacraments, in fidelity to the Lord, dies in the state of grace by the natural fruit of the life it has lived. The soul that has spent its life in resistance to grace dies in resistance unless an extraordinary grace breaks through at the end. Saint Joseph's patronage of the dying is, in part, the grace that breaks through.

The Catholic faithful traditionally pray daily for the grace of a holy death. The most common formula is part of the Hail Mary itself: "Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death." The repeated petition over a lifetime of rosaries is a Catholic life-long preparation for the moment of dying. Add to it on Day 7 of this novena the prayer to Saint Joseph: Saint Joseph, in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me the grace to die in the same arms.

Closing prayers

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

Saint Joseph, Patron of a Holy Death, pray for us, and for the souls of those who will die today.