Charity registration No. SC002876   Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Main Menu Notices Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Sunday March 25th. 2012 Last Monday, March 19th., we celebrated the feast of St. Joseph,  patron of our church at Spean Bridge. All that we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father  of Jesus comes from Scripture, and it is so little.  We know he was a carpenter, a working man, for the Nazarenes  asked about Jesus, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" (Matthew  13:55). He wasn't rich for when he took the infant Jesus to the  Temple he offered a sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons,  allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Luke 2:24).   Despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage.  Luke and Matthew both mark his descent from David, the greatest king  of Israel (Matthew 1: 1-16 and Luke 3 :23-3 8). Indeed the angel who  first tells Joseph about Jesus refers to him as "son of David, " a royal  title used also for Jesus.   We know Joseph was a compassionate, caring man. When he discovered  Mary was pregnant after they had been betrothed, he knew the child was  not his but was as yet he was unaware that she was carrying the Son of  God. He planned to divorce Mary according to the Law as he was  concerned for her suffering and safety. He knew that women accused to  adultery could be stoned to death, so he decided to divorce her quietly  and not expose her to shame or cruelty. Joseph was man of deep faith, obedient to whatever God asked of him  without knowing the outcome. When the angel came to Joseph in a  dream and told him the truth about the child Mary was carrying, Joseph  immediately and without question or concern for gossip, took Mary as  his wife. When the angel came again to tell him that his family was in  danger, he left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled  to a strange country with his young wife and the baby. He waited in  Egypt until the angel told him it was safe to go back   Joseph loved the child Jesus so much. His one concern was for the  safety of this child entrusted to him. Not only did he leave his home to  protect Jesus, but upon his return settled in the obscure town of Nazareth for the safety of the child. We are told that he took his family to Jerusalem every year for Passover,  something that could not have been easy for a working man. It was there  that Jesus stayed in the Temple, and Joseph and Mary searched with  great anxiety for three days for him (Luke 2:48).  >>>>>>  Feast of St. Joseph