St. Joseph Novena Study – Day 8: Friend in Suffering

Last updated on: March 17, 2024 at 1:22 pm by Andrew Laflamme

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St. Joseph Novena Study – Day 8: Friend in Suffering 2024-03-17T13:22:10-05:00 Andrew Laflamme

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St. Joseph and Our Lady of Exile (Photo by A. Laflamme)

St. Joseph and Our Lady of Exile at The Abbey of Our Lady of Exile, Trinidad (Photo by A. Laflamme)

Welcome to Day 8 of the St. Joseph Novena Study! If you’ve been following along each day, thank you. I am getting a lot out of writing these reflections and I hope they are beneficial for anyone patient enough to be reading them.

With that, todays list and reflection are about St. Joseph, Friend in Suffering, based on Day 8 of the EWTN Novena found here:

DAY 8: FRIEND IN SUFFERING

Day 8 St. Joseph List

Closer Union with divine savior
Bore suffering like Christ
No complaints
No impatience
Faith
Humility
Confidence
Love
Cheerful
Gratitude
Martyr of the hidden life
Kind
Sympathetic to those in need
United with Jesus and Mary
Share in Mary’s spirit of Sacrifice

With Suffering, Good Isn’t Always Easy

A good life does not necessarily mean an easy life.

Just because the Holy Family was good, does not mean they didn’t suffer. We should remember that Joseph was present for the first three of Mary’s Seven Sorrows.

Many of us have had elevated levels of stress in our lives at some point. In these times, it is easy to look around you and to desire an easier life, but how can we bear suffering like Christ? Looking at St. Joseph, we can see that we should have gratitude, faith in God’s plans for you, and remember that there are others in the world suffering too.

With wars currently raging on in the world, I find myself feeling guilty for being stressed when I know that there are families right now struggling for not only food, but their lives. However, rather than comparing our sufferings to others, we can be united in compassion.

A Call to Compassion, “With Suffering”

We have a call to be like Christ and to embrace the sufferings that are naturally presented to us in our day to day. This also helps us in the call to sympathize with those in need.

I don’t do this well, but I hope I can unite my struggles that I have to those of Jesus on the cross that we remember at Mass. Additionally, I want to unite that suffering to those who suffer more than me, to have compassion. By Com-passion, I mean “with-suffering” or suffering with, so as to share the burdens.

Suffering Makes Saints

This is martyrdom. Whether the martyrdom is red, white, blue, or green, many Saints have been made through bearing their sufferings well.

Lastly, all of this is possible because we recognize that we were made for more than this life on this Earth. The beauty (one of the many) of being Christian is that our Earthly desires and possessions could be all taken away, but our relationship with Christ is untouchable. No matter what comes our way, there is an eternal stability in Jesus.

But we will talk more about that tomorrow.

St. Joseph, Pray for Us

Let’s remember all of the trials that St. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went through and how they bore them with an eternal world view. God, give us the grace to do the same.

St. Joseph, friend in suffering, pray for us!

“So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

Acts 5:40-42

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