S. IOSEPH OPIFICIS: florúmque mensi prǽvia

S. IOSEPH OPIFICIS: florúmque mensi prǽvia

Ad Officium lectionis: Evaristus antverpensis 1968

Te, pater Ioseph, ópifex colénde,

Názaræ felix látitans in umbra,

vócibus lætis humilíque cuncti

  corde canámus.

Régiam stirpem tenuémque victum

mente fers æqua tacitúsque portas,

sacra dum multo mánuum labóre

  pígnora nutris.

O faber, sanctum spéculum fabrórum,

quanta das plebi documénta vitæ,

ut labor sudans ut et officína

  sanctificétur.

Qui carent escis, míseros fovéto;

témpera effrénos perimásque lites;

mýsticus Christus pátriæ sub umbræ

  tégmine crescat.

Qui Deus trinus simul unus exstas,

qui pater cunctis opiféxque rerum,

fac patrem Ioseph imitémur actu,

  morte imitémur. Amen.

O father Joseph, venerable worker, happily hidden in the shadows of Nazareth, we all sing to you with humble hearts and glad voices. With a peaceful mind in poverty you kept your royal lineage secret, while with the great labor of your hands you nourished your family. O worker, holy example to all workers, by your life you give such great witness  to the people that labor by sweat of the brow is a vocation made holy. Show your favor to those who lack food, the wretched, soften the unbridled and destroy strife; that the mystery of Christ may grow under the shade of a father’s roof. O God, both three and one, you who are the Father to all and craftsman of all things, grant that we may imitate Joseph in our deeds and in a holy death. Amen

Ad Laudes matutinas

Auróra solis núntia,

mundi labóres éxcitans,

fabri sonóram málleo

domum salútat Názaræ.

Salve, caput domésticum,

sub quo supérnus Artifex,

sudóre salso róridus,

exércet artem pátriam.

Altis locátus sédibus

celsæque Sponsæ próximus,

adésto nunc cliéntibus,

quos vexat indigéntia.

Absíntque vis et iúrgia,

fraus omnis a mercédibus,

victus cibíque cópiam

mensúret una párcitas.

Sit Trinitáti glória,

quæ, te precánte, iúgiter

in pace nostros ómnium

gressus viámque dírigat. Amen.

Dawn the herald of the sun arouses the workers of the world, the sound of the carpenter’s hammer greets the house of Nazareth. Hail, O head of the family, who under the supreme Builder, drenched in salty sweat you exercise your fatherly craft. Raised to the highest abodes, next to the heavenly Bride, now assist your petitioners who are vexed with poverty. May violence and conflicts, all fraud in wages, be gone; may abstinence alone be the measure of the abundance of goods and food. To the Trinity be glory, who, by Joseph’s prayers, ever direct the steps of all in the way of peace. Amen.