SAINT JOSEPH: IN THE LIFE OF THE MISSIONARY DOMINICAN SISTERS OF THE ROSARY PART III
What does St. Joseph mean or has meant for your life?
We ask our sisters who pertains to this Province of Central America and Caribe because Sr. Josefina Sarrazin had the inspiration to put the Province under the protection of St. Joseph.
What I do remember, and many sisters will remember is that during the years I joined the Congregation in the Novitiate of Pamplona, in 1963, there was a devotion to St. Joseph. Every night, before the recreation, all the sisters: perpetually professed, junior sisters, novices and postulants, we sang a song in which we asked the intercession of St. Joseph for all the missionaries of the congregation and beyond… We asked that he would give us very good vocations and finally some need at the congregational level, which in those years was the construction of the current General House in Madrid.
Many co-novices from India, the Philippines, Peru, Regina of the Congo and those from Spain will remember this song:
O Holy Joseph, our joy,
O propitious intercession of thine intercession.
Hear our prayer kindly
And have mercy on us.
See here prostrate,
your beloved daughters,
thy daughters who are called
slaves of the Lord.
Bless the missionaries
and obtain for us from the Lord
very good vocations,
and may the construction of Madrid take place.
Over the years, in 1978, I was assigned to the Province of San Jose, in the Dominican Republic. In this beloved town was my mission for eighteen years. Here I had the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of St. Joseph and I liked it. It was contemplating the four of the Virgin of Altagracia, National Patroness. Jaime Reinés, M SSCC, a biblical expert and our parish priest then invited us to contemplate the picture:
- In the foreground and with intense light we see Mary, the full of Grace, the Mother contemplating the great Mystery of God’s love: the Child, her Son, our Savior (dressed in the colors of the Dominican flag).
- Joseph in the shadows and half-light, in the background of the painting, he is barely visible, he goes unnoticed. It is necessary to sharpen our gaze to see him, to appreciate him, to value him.
- Joseph is part of this picture, of the great mystery of our faith, but he is barely appreciated in his place in the background, but he is very present.
St. Joseph, teach us to live like you in listening to God, when he speaks to us in our dreams, desires, wishes, utopias.
Teach us through your silence, listen, to get up and get on the road and take action, to defend life and to work for our daily bread.
Thank you, St. Joseph continue to intercede for our Province. May we enter into the common project outlined in the Provincial Chapter; grant us the grace to accept the will of God expressed in the General Plan and the Provincial.
Sister Arantzazu Ladrón de Guevara-Guatemala