from Fr. Faber's book "Bethlehem" 
Joseph draws near to adore. The earthly shadow of the Eternal Father rests softly on the Child. Joseph draws near, that most hidden of all God's saints shrouded in the very clouds and shadows which surround the Fountain of the Godhead.
His soul is an abyss nameless graces, of graces deeper than those from which ordinary virtues spring, roots which make no trial of the winter of world, but wait to bear marvelous blossoms before the Face God in the world to come. We can give no name to the character of his sanctity. We cannot compare him with any other of saints of God. As his office was unshared, so was his grace. It followed the peculiarities of his office: it stood alone. He to Mary among men what Gabriel was to her among angels; he came nearer to her than Gabriel; for he was of her nature. What St. John was to Mary after Calvary, Joseph was to her after Bethlehem: so that probably, if we could perceive it, there an analogy between his holiness and that of the Beloved Disciple. But his sanctification is hidden in obscurity.
It is most certain that he was a peculiar vessel of the divine predilection, predestined to a singular and incomparably sublime office, laden with the most magnificent of graces to fit him for that office. For, as wonderful as was his office to Mary, his office to Jesus surpassed it, unless, as is more true, the former was but a portion of the latter. He stood to Jesus visibly in the place of the Eternal Father.
He was loved therefore in a most peculiar way by the Divine Person whom he thus awfully represented, and also in a most peculiar way by the Second and Third Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, because of that mysterious representation. The Human of Jesus must have regarded him not only with the tenderest love but also with deep reverence and an inexplicable submission. Meek and gentle, blameless and loving, as St. Joseph was, it is possible to think of him without extreme awe, because of that shadow of identity with the Eternal Father which belongs to him hides him from our sight even while it presents him to our faith.
We cannot describe his holiness, because we have no term of comparison. It was not only higher in degree than that of the saints, it was also different in kind. But it was eminently hidden with God. (He was) the fortress behind which the honor of Mary and the life of Jesus was secure. If his hiddeness was like that of God, so also was his tranquility. His justice, like that of God, was so tempered with mercy that it almost lost its look of justice and wore the semblance of indulgence.
He draws near to the newborn Jesus, that he may adore before he commands. His vast soul fills silently with love, and his life would have broken and ebbed away at the Infant's feet upon the floor of the Cave, as it did years afterward on his lap, but the time: was not come, and the Babe sanctified him anew, and fortified him with amazing quiet strength and robust gentleness, and raised him into a higher sphere of holiness and of grace unspeakable in order that he might be the official superior of his God.
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Who can fathom the thoughts or awe of St. Joseph towards Our Lady and the Christ Child? Such a beautiful soul! And he is protector of the holy Church. He has many special privileges that we need not hesitate to call upon. His was a most special purity and strength. He is the patron of a holy death for tradition has long presented him as dying in the presence of Jesus and Mary.
Let us call upon St. Joseph for our needs and for the needs of our families, dear ones, and the holy Church.
St. Joseph: pray for us!
