For many Catholic Filipinos, it was during Pope Francis’ visit in the Philippines on January 2015 that they first heard of “The Sleeping Saint Joseph.” (See the transcript of his speech on this topic at the end of the article) Personally, I didn’t think I ever saw before a figurine depicting Saint Joseph in such a way. By sharing about his great love for Saint Joseph, Pope Francis had delivered a touching message for families. It surely made a mark in our hearts and has left many of us wanting to have our very own Sleeping Saint Joseph image at home. Our family actually owns one and it came to us rather providentially. It was a year ago and my sister had a dream about Saint Joseph. To her surprise the next day, she received a Christmas gift from a friend- ‘twas none other than a small image of the Sleeping Saint Joseph. What a symbolic present from this great saint!
Saint Joseph had providential dreams twice, which of course happened when he was sleeping:
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:19-25)
When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matthew 2:13-15)
Photo credit: F.C. Ziegler Company
We know that in this season of Christmas, the Nativity is never complete without the man God chose to be a foster father to Jesus. With much obedience and humility, Saint Joseph had taken Jesus wholeheartedly, and carried the biggest responsibility of a father the world has ever seen. The Sleeping Saint Joseph teaches us important life lessons that we can reflect on. As an ordinary Catholic, how can we relate with his story and learn from it?
1. When there’s nothing else you can do, it’s not too bad to just sleep! That is, to sleep as you rest in the Lord.
Sometimes, there comes a point in our lives when we are too lonely or burdened with problems, or conflicted with making very important decisions that we almost give up. We feel like there’s nothing we can do anymore and that no resolution awaits our misery. It drains us to think of ways to get through until we find ourselves exhausted and sleep becomes a temporary escape. But perhaps, to sleep is not too bad, if we do so by faithfully resting in God’s merciful embrace. That is, to entrust to God in prayer our fears, pains and struggles just as Saint Joseph restfully did.
Saint Joseph wanted to quietly leave and divorce his wife Mary, as he did not understand beforehand that she conceived her Son through the Holy Spirit. In the Gospels, we find him dreaming. An ordinary man like us, Saint Joseph did sleep with worries in his heart. But as we know, he was also a “righteous man,” so we expect that he did not only sleep, he surely must have had rested in God by prayer. When we are at our lowest or powerless about certain situations, we must humble ourselves and pray.
Let me share with you this simple self-composed prayer I wrote a while ago:
“God Almighty, I come before You faced with many difficulties. I surrender everything to you with faith. As I fall asleep, let me be comforted with Your peace and the Motherly love of the Blessed Virgin. Please give light to my situation and help me through as You bless me once more with another day in You. Amen.”
2. At times, it’s better to sleep, than to talk!
Remember the common saying that arguing couples should not sleep without solving their issue? Probably it isn’t completely true. When we are emotional, our actions and reactions can get carried away. If we discuss things over while we’re in the heat of a tensed moment, we might say something that we don’t mean at all. When hurtful words are blurted out and unwise things are done, it won’t be easy to take those back.
This can also happen when we force ourselves and we force it on God to solve our problems overnight. When we’re up at night and starting to rant at God of our frustrations and cares, then it’s time we sleep, rest and pray, and let God do the talking! It is by resting in the Lord, by listening to Him in prayer, that we feel His loving presence direct us and overcome the noises in our lives. Let us remember the Sleeping Saint Joseph who, in the silence of his restful dream, heard God’s calling for him and understood His Divine plan. Remember though that angels don’t just appear in somebody’s dreams. In the Bible, they only appear to people like Saint Joseph in his dreams, when God sends them from Heaven for a very important message. While we are most likely not to see an angel appear in our dream, if we do earnestly pray before we sleep each day, we might wake up with God’s inner voice in our hearts clearly telling us what we’re supposed to do.
3. Give your faithful confidence and obedience to God as you awaken from your “sleep”!
Our trials can seem as if they are the longest nightmares that we’re trapped in. But one day, we can suddenly feel God calling us to rise and directing our hearts what to do and where to go. It is like waking up from the darkest night of our souls and like Saint Joseph, we must trust in God and never doubt His aid. Saint Joseph had no idea what would happen next after his dreams, but he didn’t complain at all. He did exactly what he’s told to do, which was to take his wife Mary and name the Child “Jesus,” and left Bethlehem, headed to Egypt at once. To all of us, Saint Joseph is an example of holiness, obedience and faithful confidence in God, without the blabbing and questioning that we are so often tempted to do at present.
4. Wake up from your “sleep” and respond to God’s call, quickly and timely!
Many Catholics, including myself, claim that we live a righteous life at peace with God. However, it is only during challenging times that we can ever prove ourselves where we stand in God. “Do I still love God even I have so many sufferings?” “How much am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of God and my faith?” “Am I willing to live a moral life, even my situation makes it hard to do so?” When trials arise, we might be too focused on the hardship and the sadness they bring that we fail to answer swiftly to God’s call. On the other hand, there are times when we’re too happy in life that we only see what’s fleeting, the material things. We act so slow that we miss out on the opportunity to serve God and the chance He is giving us to follow as He leads.
Saint Joseph carried the weight of the Holy Family, right from the very start all the way to the Nativity of Jesus. Waking up from his dreams, he didn’t waste any time and fulfilled what God wanted him to do at the very moment he was told to.
Let us be all-ears to the call of God! He is awakening our faith and renewing our spirit. Let us welcome the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus to our home this Christmas just like Saint Joseph kept them deeply in his heart. We must take on our own special roles in life, say, as a husband and father, or a nun on a mission, and do it as a service to the Lord. As the Sleeping Saint Joseph reminds us, we bear our crosses during the day and before our sleep in the silence of the night, we must intently and restfully be with God in prayer!
Pope Francis’ Message (in part) to Filipino Families about The Sleeping Saint Joseph
January 16, 2015
The Scriptures seldom speak of Saint Joseph, but when they do, we often find him resting, as an angel reveals God’s will to him in his dreams. In the Gospel passage we have just heard, we find Joseph resting not once, but twice. This evening I would like to rest in the Lord with all of you, and to reflect with you on the gift of the family.
It is important to dream in the family. All mothers and fathers dream of their sons and daughters in the womb for 9 months. They dream of how they will be. It isn’t possible to have a family without such dreams. When you lose this capacity to dream you lose the capacity to love, the capacity to love is lost. I recommend that at night when you examine your consciences, ask yourself if you dreamed of the future of your sons and daughters. Did you dream of your husband or wife? Did you dream today of your parents, your grandparents who carried forward the family to me? It is so important to dream and especially to dream in the family. Please don’t lose the ability to dream in this way. How many solutions are found to family problems if we take time to reflect, if we think of a husband or wife, and we dream about the good qualities they have. Don’t ever lose the memory of when you were boyfriend or girlfriend. That is very important.
Joseph’s rest revealed God’s will to him. In this moment of rest in the Lord, as we pause from our many daily obligations and activities, God is also speaking to us. He speaks to us in the reading we have just heard, in our prayer and witness, and in the quiet of our hearts. Let us reflect on what the Lord is saying to us, especially in this evening’s Gospel. There are three aspects of this passage which I would ask you to consider: resting in the Lord, rising with Jesus and Mary, and being a prophetic voice.
Resting in the Lord. Rest is so necessary for the health of our minds and bodies, and often so difficult to achieve due to the many demands placed on us. But rest is also essential for our spiritual health, so that we can hear God’s voice and understand what he asks of us. Joseph was chosen by God to be the foster father of Jesus and the husband of Mary. As Christians, you too are called, like Joseph, to make a home for Jesus. You make a home for him in your hearts, your families, your parishes and your communities.
To hear and accept God’s call, to make a home for Jesus, you must be able to rest in the Lord. You must make time each day for prayer. But you may say to me: Holy Father, I want to pray, but there is so much work to do! I must care for my children; I have chores in the home; I am too tired even to sleep well. This may be true, but if we do not pray, we will not know the most important thing of all: God’s will for us. And for all our activity, our busy-ness, without prayer we will accomplish very little.
Resting in prayer is especially important for families. It is in the family that we first learn how to pray. And don’t forget when the family prays together, it remains together. This is important. There we come to know God, to grow into men and women of faith, to see ourselves as members of God’s greater family, the Church. In the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to encounter others and share our lives with them. That is why it is so important to pray as a family! That is why families are so important in God’s plan for the Church!
I would like to tell you something very personal. I like St Joseph very much. He is a strong man of silence. On my desk I have a statue of St Joseph sleeping. While sleeping he looks after the Church. Yes, he can do it! We know that. When I have a problem or a difficulty, I write on a piece of paper and I put it under his statue so he can dream about it. This means please pray to St Joseph for this problem.
Next, rising with Jesus and Mary. Those precious moments of repose, of resting with the Lord in prayer, are moments we might wish to prolong. But like Saint Joseph, once we have heard God’s voice, we must rise from our slumber; we must get up and act (cf. Rom 13:11). Faith does not remove us from the world, but draws us more deeply into it. Each of us, in fact, has a special role in preparing for the coming of God’s kingdom in our world.
Just as the gift of the Holy Family was entrusted to Saint Joseph, so the gift of the family and its place in God’s plan is entrusted to us so we can carry it forward. To each one of you and us because I too am the son of a family.
The angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph the dangers which threatened Jesus and Mary, forcing them to flee to Egypt and then to settle in Nazareth. So too, in our time, God calls upon us to recognize the dangers threatening our own families and to protect them from harm. We must be attentive to the new ideological colonization.
Saint Joseph, pray for us!
Mama Mary, pray for us!
Amen.
She graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas, the country's Pontifical and Catholic university, with an AB in Legal Management and minor units in Theology.
As an unmarried woman, prayer holds a central place in her daily life, with a focus on the Rosary and the Divine Office. Embodying her faith, she emphasizes the growth of her inner spiritual life, guided by the wisdom of Carmelite spirituality.
God manifested to her in a unique and radical manner, which made her know Who He truly is and led her to total surrender of her life to Him.
She has studied the Bible with her family, developing a particular fondness for the Old Testament.
Her adorable and intelligent toy poodle is a delightful companion in her daily life, bringing warmth and joy to her home.
Her hobbies include reading about everything, learning Japanese and German, listening to music and playing the flute.
In her leisure time, she enjoys gaming on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo 3DS, iOS and OS, and collecting things related to PlayStation and Nintendo.
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I commend you for giving us this wonderful site for Catholics! I always enjoy the articles in here. They help me learn more about Catholicism and my favorite saints like St. Joseph the very Holy spouse of Mary. St. Joseph, pray for us.