We don’t know much about the life of St. Joseph, but we can imagine certain things that must have occurred

For example, as a loving father, St. Joseph likely held the infant Jesus in his arms.

This particular image should inspire our daily prayer, as we begin each day basking in the presence of God.

The author of the 19th-century book, The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, describes this image.

“St. John the Evangelist enjoyed for a brief hour a blissful ecstasy while reclining on the Bosom of the Savior but how many times did not the Savior Himself take His repose on that of Joseph and sleep sweetly in his arms?

Every kind of divine and human light enclosed in the Heart of the Savior must in a sense have been infused into the soul of Joseph when He thus lovingly reposed in his embrace… we must place the incomparable Joseph at the head of all the greatest contemplatives since he lived in a continual state of contemplation in its most exalted form.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes contemplative prayer as, “the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.” (CCC 2724)

If we want to grow in prayer, let us “go to Joseph” and learn from him how to have a heart like Jesus.