The Year of St Joseph

Feast Day 19th March & 1st May

The year from 8th December 2020 to 8th December 2021 has been declared by the Pope as a year to celebrate St Joseph.

St Joseph the Carpenter and Worker was Mary's husband and the guardian of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was often hidden or appears in the shadows, but played a very important role in the life of Jesus and our salvation. St Joseph's vocation was to love and care for Jesus. His heart, his love and all his abilities was for the service of the Messiah. St Joseph was obedient in God's will.

St Joseph was a carpenter. He is often depicted in pictures teaching Jesus how to work with wood and taught him all he knew. St Joseph worked hard to provide for his family.

Lilies are often seen by statues of St Joseph as it is said that these flowers grew from his wooden staff. He was so chosen from among other men by the blossoming of his staff like a lily. Likewise, the biblical passage, "The just man shall blossom like the lily" 

It is said that St Joseph died in the arms of Mary and Jesus.

St Joseph is the patron Saint of the Catholic Church, fathers, workers and carpenters.

We are asked this year to honour St Joseph, to entrust our daily work to St Joseph, follow his example and to pray with St Joseph through the year.

Where can you hear about St Joseph in the Bible?

How will you be like St Joseph? 

How to Celebrate the Year of St Joseph

• Learn about St Joseph
• Learn about St Joseph's virtues and try to imitate them
• Colour a picture of St Joseph and add it to the alter in class
• Read passages of the Bible that include St Joseph
• Participate in the 33 Day Consecration of St Joseph: https://yearofstjoseph.org/consecration/
• Plan and take part in a Virtual Visit or pilgrimage to different parishes of St Joseph
• Attend church virtually on his feast day - March 19th
• Include St Joseph in your daily prayers
• Learn a hymn for St Joseph

In Year 2, we learnt that St. Joseph is the Patron Saint of workers. We made our own St. Joseph toolbox and wrote down all of the things that we do to carry out God’s work on our own tools. We also enjoyed making our own St. Joseph cards to celebrate St. Joseph’s feast day. 

On St Joseph’s day in Nursery, we spoke about Jesus being the Father of Jesus on earth. He was chosen by God to help bring up baby Jesus. Joseph was married to the Virgin Mary. He was also a Carpenter who taught Jesus everything about carpentry. Today we have drawn pictures of our Father figures. We have thought about how they help us at home and in our free time we have been using our hands to construct things just like Joseph did. 

In Year 4, we learnt all about the life of Saint Joseph. We then wrote our own prayers to Saint Joseph. Lots of us asked Saint Joseph to help us be more like him. We also asked him to watch over our family like he did his own family. Lots of us also created some wonderful pieces of artwork. 

At Joseph’s Day - Year 6

To celebrate the Year of St Joseph, Year 6 looked at the Sicilian tradition of building an altar to St Joseph. When the people of Sicily were facing hunger and unemployment due to drought, they prayed to St Joseph. The rains canes, the crops grew and people returned to work. Every since, the people of Italy have built altars to the saint and dressed them with flowers, crops, bread and food.

We created dioramas of the altar of St Joseph and said prayers for all those who still hunger. 
 

St Joseph -pray for us.

In this special year of St. Joseph, Year 1 learnt all about Jesus' earth father.  We each made our own tool box in honour of St. Joseph's work as a carpenter.  Our tool boxes included special tools to do God's work - tools to be more like St Joseph.  

   Pray       Be Faithful       Follow Jesus        Forgive Others                     

Good Attitude       Love      Bible Study        Obey Parents