Saint Joseph and Mary - A Marriage Made in Heaven

Saint Joseph and Mary - A Marriage Made in Heaven
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Rose_M.]Rose M.

Are you caught up in a constant struggle with your marriage and need someone to turn to? Do you wish to protect your marriage from further deterioration? Now, more than ever, heavenly help is needed for marriages and the family, as there are so many attacks coming from all sides including spiritual, psychological and financial attacks.

If you are looking to find out more about a special heavenly protector for your marriage then you are in the right place. St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, is your answer, he will protect your marriage as he protected Mary and the Christ child when they were in danger from Herod and helped them in all their needs.

God the father trusted Saint Joseph with his most treasured possessions and I am sure you can follow his lead and trust him too. The key is to ask for Saint Joseph's help every day as God won't go against our free will and force his help upon us! We must learn to ask, this takes humility to ask for help.

The reason Saint Joseph is such a great helper in marriages is that he blessed with being the happiest married man that ever existed! In their love for God and his will and in their common pursuit of holiness, Joseph and Mary's marriage was truly a marriage made in Heaven. It was indeed a union of two minds and hearts with one common purpose in mind, God and attaining unity with him, together, as a couple. Having the Christ child as their son was certainly a huge bonus too.

As well as helping marriages as a whole, Saint Joseph can also help fathers and husbands to fulfill their roles more perfectly, as being human, no matter how good we think we are, there is always room for improvement!

Marriage between Mary and Joseph was lived out in great holiness and this ensured a great unity of thought and will amongst them. Indeed, St Francis de Sales states that there is no other vocation in life that demands such ongoing virtues of patience, forbearance and charity with each other than in marriage. The husband is, biblically, the head of the house and so it is a great responsibility on the husband to be the head and responsible for the overall needs including the spiritual needs of his family. St Joseph will provide all the help and guidance a husband needs to fulfil his role well.

With regard to the home, keeping the peace is also a very important part of a spouse's role. Joseph and Mary lived in perfect harmony together as the Holy Family, unity reigned among them. And where unity is, God is.

Whenever there is true, unselfish love there is unity, putting another's needs ahead of your own (but not at the expense of self worth followed by inevitable resentment towards the other).

As marriage is the 'most intimate of all unions' as the Church states, St Joseph also shared in a special way in Mary's holiness, virtues and sublime dignity as the Mother of Jesus. This is also why St Joseph is such a great saint in heaven today, his sharing in Mary's holiness in a special way, through the bond of marriage, helped him to become even holier, more sanctified in his daily life as a carpenter, husband and foster father.

This sanctification, of growing in holiness, is one of the primary goals of marriage which is often forgotten. Time and time again this sanctification process often comes by trials and sufferings caused by one or other of the spouses to each other. This suffering resulting from selfishness and immaturity always has its roots in pride, selfishness and often sin.

Through his marriage, St Joseph took part in God's overall awesome and divine plan for marriage and all marriages in the sight of God have their place in this plan also.

Saint Joseph also came nearer, through his privilege of marriage to Mary, 'than any other to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses so nobly all created natures'. Mary was the holiest, purest woman that ever existed; she needed to be, as she was the mother of God. So too a devout husband shares in a special way in the wife's prayers and vice versa the wife with her husband.

St Paul reassures a devout spouse that they can contribute to the welfare of their spouse's soul in a special way due to their intimate union through marriage even if the other spouse is an unbeliever. When God looks at a married couple he sees one not two! They are joined in one flesh through the Sacrament of Matrimony during the marriage ceremony.

With regard to parenting another key goal in marriage, recourse is often had to St. Joseph, who, as well as being an excellent husband was also 'the best personification of paternal solicitude and vigilance' as the Church states. His love and care for his precious foster son was part of the unique vocation entrusted to St Joseph by God the father and St Joseph did not fail in duties towards Jesus.

St Joseph is a great example for all fathers to look up to and emulate.

Just as thousands of years before, Israel had followed the path of Exodus in order to begin the Old Covenant and the 'old' Joseph (of dreamcoat fame) had saved the Israelites from extinction in the famine, so the 'new' Joseph, 'guardian and co-operator in the providential mystery of God also watched over the one who was to bring about the new Covenant' and rescued him from the sword of Herod when he sought to kill the Christ child in the massacre of the innocents by Herod' (RC 14).

In the Greek language, father literally means nourisher, protector or upholder. St Joseph nourished the Christ child, protected him and upheld the One who upholds the whole world.

Now in Heaven, through his spiritual fatherhood of all who belong to Christ, which is all of us, as we were created through Christ and redeemed by him on the cross, St Joseph looks after and protects us as long as we ask him to do so.

As Christ's brothers and God's adopted 'sons through Jesus Christ', St Joseph loves to have this fatherly care of us, meeting our needs and blessing us with treasures from the storehouses of Heaven. How could Jesus refuse his loving foster father anything as long as it accords with his divine will?

It is easy to see that all these blessings came to St. Joseph' as a result of his commitment to marriage following God's call on his life. The importance of a firm commitment is vital in regard to marriage: 'Commitment is the enemy of resistance, for it is the serious promise to press on, to get up, no matter how many times you are knocked down' (David McNally). Commitment allied with perseverance is part of the true married love that remedies all. It is a love based not on hormones but on a decision to love no matter the cost.

So go ahead, try praying to St Joseph today, just ask him simply for the help you need. He will be delighted I assure you. St Teresa of Avila said she had never asked anything of this great Saint that he had refused her.

St. Joseph is a great mediator to open the doors with our one true mediator Jesus Christ in Heaven and who better than St Joseph, with the exception of Mary, to have a right to God's 'ear'!

Try it for yourself and you will find out that Saint Joseph is always willing to help. Never be afraid to ask, he won't let you down in your marriage and in your family needs!

For more information and unfaling prayers to obtain St. Joseph's help from Heaven go to http://www.stjosephpatronsaint.com/

Rose M McGee is an author, catechist and teacher who loves to share the knowledge of God's love with others. She runs a popular site on St Joseph http://www.stjosephpatronsaint.com/

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Saint-Joseph-and-Mary---A-Marriage-Made-in-Heaven&id=4092096] Saint Joseph and Mary - A Marriage Made in Heaven