St. Joseph’s titles include ones not often heard. For example, Light Amongst Patriarchs is one of them. The Patriarchs are our fathers in faith, those elders of the Hebrew people, from Abraham, down through Isaac, Jacob, and eventually to Joseph. They gave form to and nurtured the Hebrew people, whom God had chosen as His Own, and are the forerunners of Christ. The prophets all point to the coming Messiah, the Redeemer. St. Joseph shines light on their teaching and example, allowing one to realize the One to Whom all Scripture points and time tends.
Another title, which one might call common, is actually a compound title: Spouse of the Mother of God. Here St. Joseph is presented not only as the faithful spouse of his wife, Mary, but as the spouse of God’s human Mother. As if fatherhood and raising a family weren’t challenge enough! St. Joseph is entrusted not only with the holiest of women, whom he has taken as his wife, but with the care of one in whom Our Lord would be Incarnate and come forth, to be of human estate.
Oh, that we could all be as faithful, caring, and tender as St. Joseph to his family, the First Family of our faith.