Below is a reflection that the SSJ Mission Corps director, Becca Little, wrote for the St. Mary-by-the-Sea Retreat House's Ponderings of Grace. We are delighted to share it here with you as well!
Openness. Love without hesitation or question. Humble loyalty. Each of
these things could be used to describe Saint Joseph. As we celebrate him
and I begin to reflect on these characteristics, it is not lost on me
the similarity between the qualities of Saint Joseph and the qualities
of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and SSJ Mission Corps communities.
Devoted service without second thought is the path that Saint Joseph
modeled for us in his devotion to Mary and to the will of God. Daily I
see this humility and loyalty in the faces and lives of the Sisters of
Saint Joseph and the SSJ Mission Corps volunteers. Last year, during his
Papal Inauguration, which fell on Saint Joseph's Day, Pope Francis
describes Saint Joseph as a protector with a heart full of tenderness
and compassion:
"In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a
working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the
virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a
capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others,
for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!"
It is a privilege and honor to be a witness to this tenderness within
the hearts and lives of the SSJ community. Daily I walk with the SSJ
Mission Corps members, two young women who live lives full of this
compassion, teaching me how to live out this call. As we celebrate the
feast of Saint Joseph and continue to move together through Lent, I
encourage you to look for the places in your own life where others are
teaching you the humble, unfailing loyalty and compassion of Saint
Joseph. These living examples are the key to finding these traits within
our own hearts.
