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Redemptoris Custos

Apostolic Exhortation

Redemptoris Custos

  • Pope John Paul II
  • Libreria Editrice Vaticana
  • Vatican City
  • 1989 AD

John Paul II presents Saint Joseph as guardian of the mystery of the Incarnation, husband of Mary, true father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. Joseph’s obedience of faith begins when he accepts Mary into his home and receives responsibility for the child conceived by the Holy Spirit. His fatherhood is exercised through protection, naming Jesus, presenting him in the Temple, fleeing with the Holy Family to Egypt, and raising Jesus in Nazareth. Mary and Joseph’s marriage unites virginal and marital love, while the Holy Family offers the pattern of authentic family life. Joseph’s carpentry and shared work with Jesus reveal the sanctifying value of ordinary labor; his silence, contemplation, purity, and readiness to surrender personal plans show how active service can be joined to interior prayer. The Church therefore invokes him as protector, model of evangelical virtue, and intercessor for evangelization, families, workers, and all Christians. The reflection closes by entrusting the Church and the world to his fatherly care as they seek a deeper understanding of Christ’s saving mystery.

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