St. Joseph, Mirror of Patience, Pray for Us!

Mirror of Patience is a fun and insightful title used for St. Joseph in the litany titles found in the St. Joseph chapel here at the Retreat Center. Patience is a one of the attributes of God. In the Book of Exodus, when God is passing by Moses, He shares that slowness to anger (or patience) as one of the attributes by which he is defined. The psalmist uses this attribute at least three to four times in the psalms as a way of reinforcing the patience of the Lord. We, in turn, are called to “mirror” the attributes of God in our lives. St. Joseph had a “profound interior life” and this allowed him to mirror the attribute of God’s patience in his life in a deep way.

Our lives are filled with good and difficult times. In those difficult moments, we are invited to exercise the virtue of patience. To practice patience means to choose to endure difficulties with a balanced mind so that we don’t abandon with an unbalanced mind the goods whereby we may advance to better things, according to St. Thomas Aquinas. By imitating God’s attribute of patience, Saint Joseph is called the “mirror of patience.” He reflects for us what patience looks like by the model of his saintly life. He reflects patience in how he endured difficulties without abandoning himself to sorrow and without losing sight of the good toward which he was striving. We can only imagine how anxious he was when he could not find a fitting place for Mary to give birth to Jesus. He was most probably anxious to hear that his family was being hunted by Herod. But through it, he patiently awaited the revelation of God's plan, submitting himself completely to God's providence. In these ways, St. Joseph models for us why he is the “Mirror of Patience”.

Working with students and the sick and the day-to-day of community life are just two of the reasons that Sisters would have chosen the title Mirror of Patience for the chapel. The energy of youth, the need for vigilance with the sick, and the desire for space all called for the sisters to imitate St. Joseph, the Mirror of Patience.

One story from the history of the Sisters tells of this patience. Once the original chapel and convent was complete in 1911, this comment was made about the chapel, “Whatever its virtues, it has one big fault – it is too small. God speed the day when we can build a new one.” Thus, the chapel was too small for the number of sisters and students both of which were experiencing growth in numbers. The Sisters then patiently prayed for the day when a larger chapel and convent could be built. That became a reality in 1956 when the ground was broke for the current chapel and motherhouse or what is now the St. Joseph Retreat & Conference Center!

Sources:  https://www.coraevans.com/blog/article/5-greatest-titles-of-the-incredible-st.-joseph, YCP – San Diego | St. Joseph, Mirror of Patience (ycpsandiego.org)