By Sister Gianna, O.C.D.
While the traditional image for St. Joseph is the lily, I have recently come to connect him with pine cones. Yes, pine cones. From time to time, at outdoor statues of St. Joseph, I have started to place a pine cone in front of him, or near him if that seems more appropriate. It is a devotional gesture for me, just like, as a more conventional gesture, one would place a bouquet next to the Blessed Mother statue. The prickly, hard pine cone doesn’t compare with the beauty of tender, sweet-smelling flowers, but it is an important image to me because it speaks of the self-sacrificing protection of St. Joseph and any variety of difficult situations.
The purpose of the pine cone, as we know, is to protect the seed life inside. How that brings to my mind Joseph’s strong protection of the Divine Seed, Jesus, and his tender and beautiful wife, Mary. The pine cone is built for adversity, you might say, just like St. Joseph was. Think about that terrible trial of leading the Holy Family into Egypt, the burden of protection that Joseph had placed on him. The little boy Jesus certainly observed and heard and recounted his father Joseph’s self-sacrifice to protect this little Holy Family from harm.
Later on, during his adult life, did Jesus have his father in mind when he said to Jerusalem, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (Luke 13:34). The image Jesus conjures refers to the gesture of a hen when fire is sweeping through a barn. In order to protect her chicks, she uses her own body as a shield, sacrificing herself so that the little chicks may live.
Let us be willing to place ourselves under St. Joseph’s powerful protection, for the Heavenly Father has sent him to us to make real for us what the Psalmist says, “He has covered me with His feathers and under His wings I do trust.” (Psalm 91:4).
Original watercolor paintings created by the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles
