Ite ad Joseph! “Go to Joseph!” (Gen 41:55)
Our collection of music in honor of Saint Joseph, Foster Father of the Son of God, takes its name from the mysterious cry of confidence that Pharaoh uttered concerning the goodness and prudence of Joseph in the Old Testament. Like that figure, St Joseph of Nazareth was entrusted with caring for the material needs of God’s dearest people: Mary and the Child Jesus. His hidden and humble life at the service of the Incarnate Word and the Virgin Mother of God has made St Joseph a special guardian of our community, the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará (SSVM) who aspire to live a life of loving consecration to Christ in imitation of Mary.

In fact, it was on March 19, the Feast of Saint Joseph, during an outdoor Mass in an olive grove on an old farm in San Rafael (Mendoza), Argentina in 1988 that our community of sisters was founded by Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela, IVE. On that day we were born into the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word which had already begun in 1984 through the establishment of the missionary order of priests, the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) with whom we share the same charism, same founder, and twin constitutions. St Joseph has been the special provider, protector, and constant friend for our sisters from the beginning. With great joy we offer him this collection of music in his honor, giving thanks especially for all the graces he has obtained for us during the past thirty years of our life in the Church.

The Musical Selection
The pieces in this collection range from liturgical invitatory chant for the feast of St Joseph to a recent composition in his honor. Some selections reflect the Spanish Josephite piety so famously promoted by St Teresa of Avila which came to the New World and inspired baroque-style pieces and popular hymns throughout Latin America. Music by Franciscan friar Juan Bautista Sancho (1772-1830), composer and scholar, represents the flourishing culture found during the next generation of the California Missions established by St Junipero Serra and Francisco Palou in the second half of the 18th century. New arrangements have been prepared by our sisters to elevate some of the popular devotional hymns of the late 19th Century, a time when Pope Pius IX declared St Joseph “Patron of the Universal Church” and Leo XIII explained the reasons for such devotion in the 1889 encyclical Quanquam Pluries.

The Church’s trust in Saint Joseph has greatly increased and matured over the past fifty years as can be seen in a number of liturgical and magisterial honors. St John XXIII added the name of St Joseph to the canon of the Roman Mass in 1962 at the close of the first session of the Second Vatican Council. In 1989, St John Paul II promulgated Redemptoris Custos, a lengthy treatise on his role as model of workers, defender of the primacy of the interior life, and special figure of paternity in the heart of the family. When Pope Francis unveiled his papal shield in the spring of 2013 it included a hyssop branch in honor of Saint Joseph, Protector of the Church.

Our hope for you is that these pieces may bring you to prayer and contemplation of Saint Joseph in the hidden life at Bethlehem, the dangerous exile into Egypt, the domestic life at Nazareth, and the scene of his holy death accompanied by Mary and Jesus. Please join us in giving thanks to God for the past thirty years of our missionary Institute which has grown and flourished in the sight of the Heavenly Father like the young family entrusted to the protection of St Joseph two-thousand years ago.