St Joseph the Worker

 Today is the feast of St Joseph the Worker, a feast instituted I think early in the 20th century at a time when communism was on the rise and many countries were instituting a Labour Day. Joseph is a very appropriate patron of the world of work, being what is called a tekton in Greek. Although this is traditionally translated as carpenter, it would have in fact included other manual work too, such as with stone. The pictue left shows the traditional site of the workshop in Nazareth.

 

One of the greatest effects of the pandemic has been on the world of work. Families have lost
breadwinners, workers have lost jobs, furloughs and redundancies are all around, etc etc.  So we need someone up there to put in a good strong word for the world of work, and who better than St Joseph?