Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

This special feast of St. Joseph was instituted by Pope Piux XII in 1955 as an answer to the Communist celebration, May Day, held on May 1st. This was Holy Mother Church's antidote for a modern day pagan feast, as All Saints' Day, for instance had replaced the Celtic Samhein festival over a thousand years ago.

Today is a day to end or begin a novena to St. Joseph, also the patron of fathers and patron of the Universal Church.

Here is a prayer I found that I had never seen before:

Prayer for Workers

O glorious Joseph! Who concealed your incomparable and regal dignity of custodian of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary under the humble appearance of a craftsman and provided for them with your work, protect with loving power your sons, especially entrusted to you.

You know their anxieties and sufferings, because you yourself experienced them at the side of Jesus and of His Mother. Do not allow them, oppressed by so many worries, to forget the purpose for which they were created by God. Do not allow the seeds of distrust to take hold of their immortal souls. Remind all the workers that in the fields, in factories, in mines, and in scientific laboratories, they are not working, rejoicing, or suffering alone, but at their side is Jesus, with Mary, His Mother and ours, to sustain them, to dry the sweat of their brow, giving value to their toil. Teach them to turn work into a very high instrument of sanctification as you did. Amen.

~ written by Pope John XXIII
(The pope my Dad had an audience with when he was a sailor in the late fifties, early sixties)

Some fun things to do on this feast day:

Saint Joseph's rice fritters

Frittelle Di San Giusepe

2 1/4 cups milk
1 cup raw rice
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons fruit brandy (optional)
Grated rind of 1 large orange
3 tablespoons golden raisins
3 tablespoons pine nuts
Oil for deep frying
Confectioners' sugar

Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.

Add the rice, salt, vanilla, and granulated sugar.

Cover the pan, and simmer gently until the rice is fully cool.)

Mix the rice thoroughly with the eggs, flour, baking powder, brandy, orange rind, raisins, and pine nuts.

Heat the oil to 375° F. for deep-fat frying. Drop the Frittelle mixture 1 tablespoon at a time into the oil. Cook a few at a time, keeping the Frittelle separate. Fry until golden brown.

Drain the Frittelle on paper towels. Serve them hot, sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.

~ From Women for Faith and Family

* Make sure and run over to Catholic Cuisine to check out the awesome gingerbread toolbox recipe and tutorial to make in honor of St. Joseph! Awesome, awesome job done by Eileen and children on this...

* Catholic Cuisine also has posted a scrumptious looking recipe for St. Joseph's Raspberry Cream Cupcakes. Yum!

* Charlotte has a beautiful coloring page for today, too!

* Today is a good day to hunt out spring flowers to deck out a special shrine for St. Joseph. We'll place our statue of St. Joseph in the middle of our dining room table so he's at center stage today, and if our lilacs haven't bloomed yet, well... we do have plenty of dandilions. I have a feeling St. Joseph would love dandilions from the children's hands.

~ Woops! Please forgive me; I first wrote that it was Pope St. Pius X who instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Wrong Pope Pius! Just had him on the brain, I think... He wasn't around in 1955, of course.