MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER, SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND SAINT PEREGRINE LAZIOSI, RELIGIOUS: Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Peregrine Laziosi, Religious. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, Saint Joseph and Saint Peregrine, we humbly pray for all fathers and workers, we pray for their safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those seeking for jobs and those workers experiencing injustice, we pray for better working conditions for them. All workers deserve dignity, fair compensation, and safe work environments that allow them to contribute to the common good. May the Lord bless the work of our hands and provide for all those in need. We also pray for the sick and dying, we particularly pray for those who are suffering from cancer and other terminal diseases, we hope the prayers of the Saints can bring them divine healing, comfort and strength from our Lord. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle souls of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen 
SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER: (flourished 1st century CE, Nazareth, Galilee, region of Palestine; St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is the Principal feast day, March 19th ~ St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1st ~ St. Joseph, the Worker). Today the Church celebrates the occasion of the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the Patron saint of all workers and all those who labour in this world, in conjunction with the secular celebration of the Labour Day or May Day.
St. Joseph (1st c.) was born in Bethlehem in Judea and later settled in Nazareth. By Divine command St. Joseph was the foster father of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the chaste spouse of Our Blessed Mother Mary, a carpenter and a virtuous man who was not wealthy. He came from the royal lineage of King David. St. Joseph was a compassionate man, and obedient to the will of God. He was entrusted with the great mission to guard, protect, and provide for the temporal needs of God’s most precious gifts, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus, in the role of husband and father within the Holy Family.
This Feast was instituted by the great Pope Pius XII in the year of 1955, during the time when the threat of Communism was rising everywhere in the world, with many Christians and people all around the world oppressed by Communist regimes and governments, and others yet having dangerous Communist movements and uprisings that were aiming to destroy the Christian faith, the Church and the belief in God. The atheistic Communists thought that they could overcome God and His Church, but the Lord showed them through this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, that their belief and understanding of labour was truly flawed and inadequate, and one that the world should be wary about.
On May 1, 1955, Pope Pius XII granted a public audience to the Catholic Association of Italian Workers, whose members had gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their society. They were solemnly renewing, in common, their promise of loyalty to the social doctrine of the Church, and it was on that day that the Pope instituted the liturgical feast of May 1st, in honor of Saint Joseph the Worker. He assured his audience and the working people of the world: “You have beside you a shepherd, a defender and a father in Saint Joseph, the carpenter whom God in His providence chose to be the virginal father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. He is silent but has excellent hearing, and his intercession is very powerful over the Heart of the Saviour.” To foster deep devotion to Saint Joseph among Catholics, and in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker in 1955 to emphasize the dignity, meaning, and value of human work in the eyes of God, and to give all laborers a model of virtue as well as a heavenly intercessor and protector. This feast extends the long relationship between St. Joseph and the cause of workers in both Catholic faith and devotion.
Beginning in the Book of Genesis, the dignity of human work has long been celebrated as a participation in the creative work of God. By work, humankind both fulfills the command found in Genesis to care for the earth (Gn 2:15) and to be productive in their labors. Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus, is but one example of the holiness of human labor. This silent Saint, who was given the noble task of caring and watching over the Virgin Mary and Jesus, now cares for and watches over the Church and models for all the dignity of human work. This feast day helps celebrate the dignity of workers by honoring Saint Joseph, one of the hardest working fathers of all time. St. Joseph’s mission continues from heaven as the Patron Saint of the Catholic Church. He is also the Patron Saint of many causes including fathers, laborers, families, unborn children, immigrants, carpenters, workers, employment, explorer, pilgrims, traveller, engineers, realtors, against doubt and hesitation, social justice and of a happy death, China Belgium, From the State of Ceará and the city of Macapá in Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Korea, Indonesia, Zapotlan in Mexico Vietnam, Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Mandaue City, Bailen, Cavite, Cebu Cavite, Cebu, Philippines, Americas; Austria; diocese of Baton Rouge, California; Belgium; diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi; Bohemia; diocese of Buffalo, New York and many others.
According to Pope Saint John Paul (1920 – 2005), “Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God”.
“Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten families.”
SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER PRAYER: O Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, to work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God, to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties, to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, having death always before my eyes and the account that I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thine example, O Patriarch St. Joseph. Such shall be my motto in life and in death… Amen
PRAYER: Lord God, You have created all things, and imposed on man the necessity of work. Grant that, following St. Joseph’s example, and under his protection, we may accomplish the works You give us and obtain the rewards You promise…Amen. St. Joseph, the Worker ~ Pray for us
SAINT PEREGRINE LAZIOSI, RELIGIOUS: St. Peregrine (1265-1345) is an Italian saint of the Servite Order. He was born of a wealthy family to Berengario Laziosi, Flora Aspini at Forli, Italy, in about the year 1265. He was a man of violence and anger when he was young, he turned away from his former way of life and entered the Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servites) and gave himself to the service of the sick and needy. As a youth St. Peregrine was a fiery and impetuous leader of a faction fostering civil discord and opposition to the Pope. When St. Philip Benizi was sent to mediate peace in the city of Forli, St. Peregrine personally stopped the public appeal by striking St. Philip. Later, feeling remorse, Peregrine went out of the city, found St. Philip and begged his forgiveness and asked his advice.
Heroically, St. Peregrine gave up his companions and devoted his life to penance, prayer and care of the poor and sick. He joined the Servants of Mary, now known as the Servites, an order founded in Florence during Peregrine’s lifetime, and which was devoted to prayer and service. At the age of 60 his leg became infected with cancer and a doctor advised that it be amputated. St. Peregrine crawled to the Servite monastery chapel room, where he prayed to Our Lord. Miraculously his leg was cured. “Because of this miracle wrought by prayer, the church canonized him in 1726, and named him the patron saint of cancer sufferers.” He died in 1345 at the age of 80. St. Peregrine Laziosi was Beatified on April 15, 1609 at Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Papal States by Pope Paul V and was Canonized on December 27, 1726 at Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Papal States by Pope Benedict XIII. St. Peregrine is the Patron Saint of cancer patients; AIDS patients; open sores; skin diseases; sick people and those with life threatening diseases.
PRAYRR: St. Peregrine, we come to you confidently to implore your aid with God in our necessity. You were converted instantly from a worldly life by the good example of one holy person. You were cured instantaneously of cancer by God’s grace and unceasing prayer. In your gracious kindness please ask the Lord to heal us also in body, mind and soul. May we then also imitate you in doing His work with renewed vigor and strength… Amen
Graciously hear the prayers which we present O God, to you in honor of St. Peregrine, your beloved servant and patron of those suffering from cancer, AIDS, or other life-threatening disease. Grant that we may receive help in our needs through the intercession of him whose life was so pleasing to you. Hear us in the name of Christ, our Lord… Amen. St. Peregrine Laziosi, Religious ~ Pray for us