Just as God procured the best parents for His Son, both being chaste, He wanted also that His Son have as His spouse a woman who is chaste, as each consecrated woman is. Every religious chosen for and from this singular love to be the spouse of the Incarnate Word, in imitation of Saint Joseph, must dedicate herself completely to taking care of Him, that is to say, to seek to please Him by doing His most Holy Will and being spiritual mothers of His children.
—from St. Joseph and the Servants of the Lord, prologue
Today, the whole Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph. As the foster father of Jesus and patron of the Universal Church, St. Joseph is of great importance for all Catholics, especially during this year dedicated to him.
For the Servidoras, March 19 is particularly significant because it is the day that our congregation Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará officially began in 1988, under the special patronage of St. Joseph. This year, on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, we celebrate our 33rd Anniversary of foundation.
To honor St. Joseph on his feast day and the day that we were placed in his special care, we share with you some memories of those foundational days. The following anecdotes are from the book St. Joseph and the Servants of the Lord, published in 2018 on our 30th Anniversary as a tribute to the graces received through his intercession.
Mother María de la Concepción, SSVM, one of the sisters from the founding group of Servidoras, recalls the days in 1987 when she and a group of other young women were meeting regularly with the hopes of forming the female branch of the Institute of the Incarnate Word. One of the conditions for their being able to form a new community was practical: to have a house for the convent. They had learned about St. Teresa of Jesus’ devotion to St. Joseph and the power of his intercession, and so they began the 30 Day Prayer to St. Joseph on January 1, 1988. The particular intention of this prayer was to find a house that could be the convent in order to begin the female branch.
Mother María de la Concepción writes:
We were born under the protection of Saint Joseph, and he lovingly took care of all of us, so that we would grow up close to him. In the same way that he ‘gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, (John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, 1)’ he actively participated in our spiritual growth, while at the same time, attending to our material needs. How can we forget the innumerable times he was at our side, always present in all our spiritual and material difficulties…and we can clearly see this today as well.
I had heard personally about Divine Providence, but I had never perceived its effects in such a tangible way… on this first occasion, it was shown when we received our first house. I confess that for me it was unthinkable to just receive a house. The only thing that I understood clearly was that God had called us to consecrate ourselves in this Institute, and some way we would be able to do it…
…Personally, I didn’t believe that it would be so quick. I assumed that a year or so would pass before getting it. But to my surprise, ignorance, and lack of confidence, during the January meeting, we were told that the saint had gotten us a house on the thirteenth day of that same month! The Cerioni family, a family very close to Bishop Leon Kruk, had offered the diocese a house with land (a farm), close to the town of Cerrito on the outskirts of the city of San Rafael. Bishop Kruk thought of us immediately…In this way, our beloved Patriarch (St. Joseph) began to take care of his little flock.
That is why Saint Joseph was the name of the first convent, and why we were able to begin immediately with the foundation…The official date of our beginning was March 19th, the feast day of our Saint, who from this moment was considered our patron. This was, I believe, the first grace with which our saint began a chain of graces which will never end; because since that first time, we continue to ask his intercession.
Even though some of us were quite ignorant about the significance of consecration to Jesus Christ, I don’t think I have ever experienced such great desires to give myself to His service as I did at the beginning of our religious experience.
At the end of the Spiritual Exercises, our sisters went to the house which had been given to us. They went to prepare the house and to make it livable in the same way that Saint Joseph, above all in poverty, must have prepared the cave in Bethlehem for Mary and Jesus. Just as God confided the safekeeping of his most precious treasure to Saint Joseph, He also confided the first consecrated religious of our small Institute to Saint Joseph’s care…
It is not a coincidence that we were founded under the care of this Holy Patriarch. Indeed, by the very nature of St. Joseph’s role in the salvific design of the mystery of the Incarnation, we, as the feminine branch of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word can consider St. Joseph as our protector.
We began in a very humble house lacking many necessities. At the time, I remember thinking that my only joy was to live under the same roof as the Incarnate Word, under the most humble form of bread. God himself wanted to live poor, as our Spouse.
God wanted us to begin in a way that was so humble and simple, that at that time no one could suspect what God had prepared for us. This was the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth…The humble and hidden way of Nazareth is always God’s way. And as it did in the humble house of Saint Joseph, the presence of Jesus (in the tabernacle) filled our small humble house with joy.
We pray through the intercession of St. Joseph for all the members of our Religious Family and for all families, that our homes may always be filled with the joy that comes from living in the presence of Jesus and according to His will.
St. Joseph, guardian of virgins, pray for us!
