Morning Prayer - With Joseph's Heart On The Way

My God,

awaken in me the heart of Joseph, ready to rise and go.

Sometimes, Lord, your call comes unexpectedly: in a dream, in a whisper, in an event that interrupts my plans. Help me to accept that it is your plans, not mine, that bring life.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Give me the trust of Joseph to rise and go, even if I do not understand where you are leading me, and even if the path leads to an unknown “Egypt.”

Give me the faith to recognize your voice and follow it without hesitation.

In You is my security

I believe that you go before me on all my paths, preparing a place for me.

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.” (Exodus 23:20)

“in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6)

Lord, the Holy Family were foreigners in Egypt. Remind me that we are all at times strangers, lost and dependent on the kindness of others.

Give me a heart for those who are refugees today, far from home, and may I recognize you in them.

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

When you deemed the time had come, you spoke to Joseph again. You called him from a foreign land back home.

“‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’” (Matthew 2:20)

Make my paths straight, O Lord

But even on the way home, Joseph encountered a new fear. His caution was not a sign of a lack of faith, but of wisdom. He did not rush forward headlong, but heeded his fear and waited again for your guidance.

“But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,” (Matthew 2:22)

Open the heavens for me, I pray, so that I too, in my dreams and in the silence of my heart, may see the ladder upon which your angels ascend and descend with instructions for me.

“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:12)

Send your angels to guard me today and to encamp around me, that I may be safe from all evil.