In response to a concern about the appropriateness of talking about St. Joseph on CinCarm, let me point out the importance of St. Joseph in the history of the reformation of our Order. In her autobiography, St. Teresa tells us how her first foundation received its name:

"One day after Communion, His majesty earnestly commanded me to strive for this new monastery with all my powers, and He made great promises that it would be founded and that He would be highly served by it. He said it should be called St. Joseph and that this saint would keep watch over us at one door, and our Lady at the other, that Christ would remain with us, and that it would be a star shining with great splendor. "(LIFE, 32:11)

We find in the local statutes for secular Carmelites (ocds) in the United States this provision:

As sons and daughters of St. Teresa, members should keep in mind that Joseph is the patron of the universal Church, and the special patron of our Order. His the model of attentive service of Christ, of Mary and of the Church, and is also the 'master of prayer' proposed to us by St. Teresa.

We are called upon by our Rule to honor Joseph, first of all, because the Church honors him as her Universal Patron. This patronage was declared in the 18th century by the Church in response to signed petitions from hundreds of bishops, priests and laity. Interestingly, the petitions used the words "Universal Church" instead of "Catholic Church." An inspiration of the Holy Spirit in anticipation of Vatican II and its emphasis on ecumenism, don't you think? The Church was pointing to Joseph as the patron of all and for all. This is evident is some of the other titles given to Joseph over the years.

Joseph is recommended to us by our Rule also as the model of attentive service of Christ, of Mary and of the Church.

Attentive! what a rich and vivid word to characterize what it means to love, and to point out how we are to foster and develop a loving relationship. It is so easy to say, "I love you," to God or anyone else. And sometimes we can serve God and others in a very perfunctory way; out of a sense of obligation, at best, and at worst, out of a sense of fear or as a way of manipulation: I'll do this for you if you do such and such for me. We can serve God and others begrudgingly in that way.

But we do not want to serve in this way. Look to Joseph, Teresa says, as your model of service. He was attentive in serving Jesus and Mary. When we love someone we are attentive to them; we are vigilant - watchful in seeing to their needs; conscientiously in search out ways to please our beloved.

Being attentive, so lovingly vigilant and watchful in our service of prayer, is an attitude which disposes us most surely for the grace of contemplation. Such attentiveness connotes a sense of waiting for, waiting on, the Lord who blesses those, the psalmist tells us, who wait so attentively on His Love. The psalms in fact provide us with such vivid images of how we should be attentive - not impulsively jumping into things, but always being open to the Spirit and allowing the Spirit to lead us into what God wishes us to do, into becoming the person God creates us to be. The psalmist tells us to be attentive with eyes watching through the night (Ps 119); in stillness before the Lord and waiting with patience for Him to reveal himself (Ps. 37). 3As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress," that is how attentive we should be on the Lord and for the revelation of His Mercy (Ps. l23). The psalmist reminds us that the servant is ever vigilant, the slave girl is always watchful, for the slightest signal of their master and mistress, so that they can be responsive. We should be as eagerly attentive to God and His Will for us as they, and as vigilant as the watchman who waits for the dawn. More than the watchman looks forward to the dawn which means his shift is over and he can have his rest; more eagerly than that should we wait for, be attentive to the Lord. (Ps. 130)

Such images from the psalms certainly characterized the attentiveness we find in Joseph's fulfillment of his mandate from God to serve the mission of Mary and then of Jesus in his hidden life of preparation.

Finally, our Rule reminds us that St. Teresa, a Doctor of the Church because she herself is regarded as a master of prayer, proposes Joseph to us as a master of prayer. Let me simply recall her words:

Anyone who cannot find a Master to teach him prayer should take this glorious saint for his master, and he will not go astray. LIFE. Chapter 7, 8.

If prayer is a loving conversation with Him whom we know loves us, then Joseph certainly had that experience par excellence, living in the presenceof Jesus as he did. For Teresa, the right road to prayer always meant living in the presence of Jesus, and walking in his footsteps. In our prayer, she tells us, "keeping Jesus present is what we of ourselves can do". To do this, she urges us to "speak with him, asking for our needs, complaining of our labors, being glad with him in our enjoyments and not forgetting him because of them, trying to speak to him ... with words that express our desires and needs." (LIFE, 12:2)

If we are to learn to pray to God with such intimacy, follow St. Teresa's and the Church's advice: GO TO JOSEPH. Jesus is always the way, Our prayer to the Father is pleasing in so far as it is united to the prayer of Jesus which He prays in us through the Spirit. To be attentive to Mary in our prayer is to be attentive to Jesus because her role is always to unite us to Him. Joseph had it all. He lived in the presence of Jesus and Mary, and conversed directly with them, and in so far as he knew Jesus as no other human has known Him after Mary, he knew the Father. That is why he is a model, a master of prayer.

Let us pray.

Dear St. Joseph, be our model and guide in our devotion to Our Lord and Our

Lady. Teach us to do all for Jesus through Mary. Teach us to be ever attentive in our love and service of Jesus with and through Mary and to manifest that love in our service of the mystical body of Jesus. Help us make our prayer a loving conversation with Him Who loves us with infinitemercy, and help us to be vigilant in finding ways of seizing him by the heart with a tenacity which will move Him to draw us to Himself into union with His Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St. Teresa of Jesus on St. Joseph

"I took for my advocate and lord the glorious St. Joseph and earnestly recommended myself to him. I saw clearly that as in this need so in other greater ones concerning honor and loss of soul this father and lord of mine came to my rescue in better ways than I knew how to ask for. I don't recall up to this day ever having petitioned him for anything that he failed to grant . It is an amazing thing the great manyfavors God has granted me through the mediation of this blessed saint, the dangers I was freed from both of body and soul. For with other saints it seems the Lord has given them grace to be of help in one need, whereas with this glorious saint I have experience that he helps in all our needs and that the Lord wants us to understand that just as He was subject to St. Joseph on earth - for since bearing the title of father, being the Lord's tutor, Josep could give the Child commands - so in heaven God does whatever he commands." LIFE, Chapter 6, 6.

"Anyone who cannot find a Master to teach him prayer should take this glorious saint for his master, and he will not go astray." LIFE. Chapter 7, 8.

"One day after Communion, His Majesty earnestly commanded me to strive for this new monastery with all my powers, and He made great promises that it would be founded and that He would be highly served in it. He said it should be called St. Joseph and that this saint would keep watch over us at one door, and our Lady at the other, that Christ would remain with us, and that it would be a star shining with great splendor." LIFE. Chapter 32, 11.

"I understood that I had a great obligation to serve our Lady and St. Joseph; for often when I went off the path completely, God gave me salvation again through their prayers." SPIRITUAL TESTIMONIES. #26.

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