Dear Parishioners and Friends,
 
Tomorrow, we will join with our fellow Americans in celebrating Labor Day.  Many will have the day off.   We should take some time to pause and reflect about the dignity of all work.   This year many are deeply concerned about those out of work, or those who can’t find a job in the area in which they were trained.  Clearly we are living during a time more and more are calling the Great Recession.     As Christians we readily entrust our concerns and all our work to St. Joseph, patron of workers.
 
May first is the official feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  Nevertheless, it would seem appropriate to have a votive Mass in honor of St. Joseph on Monday.  St. Joseph is the model for all who work in whatever way.  In him we see the righteous man who devoted himself to being the best carpenter so as to support his wife, Mary, and Jesus, the Son of God, his step-son.  We surmise that St. Joseph had a carpentry workshop-business in ancient Nazareth.   Some scholars have suggested that it was more sophisticated than we might first imagine.  It is thought that Joseph ran a shop very much like a Yankee workshop during the time of the American Revolution.  There were many tools required.   And then there was the business side of it all that any one who has run a family business knows well.
 
From an early age Jesus was probably trained to assist St. Joseph.  Most likely He studied some simple accounting and the local languages for taking orders and sending out bills.  As a boy Jesus would observe St. Joseph and gradually learn from him the carpenter’s trade.   Many hours were required to perfect these skills.  Many hours would be spent making from scratch the various items required for the homes of the day.  After His apprenticeship Jesus would work side by side with St. Joseph for many years and after St. Joseph’s death would continue until the age of thirty.  Jesus knew well the demands and dignity of hard work.   
 
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family, were workers.  They teach us to sanctify our work by seeing in all we do our loving, heavenly, Father.   On this Labor Day let us reconsecrate our labors to the greater honor and glory of God.  Let us do what is asked of us cheerfully and well.  May all who are looking for work find what they want without delay.
 
Yours in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor