HIS LIFE, HIS VIRTUES, HIS PRIVILEGES
HIS POWER.

A Month of March in his Honour

BY

VERY REV. ARCHDEACON KINANE, P.P.
Fethard, Co. Tipperary.

AUTHOR OF "THE DOVE OF THE TABERNACLE," "THE ANGEL OF
THE ALTAR;" "MARY IMMACULATE, MOTE ER OF GOD;"
"THE LAMB OF GOD."

With a Preface by

HIS GRACE THE MOST REV. DR. CROKE,
Archbishop of Cashel and Emly.

24 AUG85

OXFORD

Nihil Obstat:

GULIELMUS J. WALSH, S.T.D.,

PRÆS. COLL. S. PATRITII APUD MAYNOOTH,
CENSOR THEOLOG. DEPUT.

Imprimatur:

EDUARDUS CARD. MAC CABE,
ARCHIEPISCOPUS DUBLINENSIS,

HIBERNIÆ PRIMAS.

Imprimatur :

THOMAS W. CROKE,

ARCHIEPISCOPUS CASSLIENSIS.

To St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus; To St. Joseph, who, first after Mary, adored the Incarnate Word, and watched over the Nativity of the Saviour of the world;

To St. Joseph, who protected the Divine Babe, and saved the very life of the Infant Redeemer from the cruelty of Herod ;

To St. Joseph, so often visited and instructed by the Angel of the Lord, God's Ambassador ;

To St. Joseph, privileged to carry in his arms, and to press to his bosom the Divine Infant Jesus;

To St. Joseph, favoured to supply, by the labour of his hands, the wants and comforts of the Saviour of the World;

To St. Joseph, who, for thirty years, lived in the school of Jesus, and whose departing soul was absolved by Jesus Christ Himself;

To St. Joseph, chosen by the Almighty,

and made worthy to be the spouse of the purest of virgins, Mary Immaculate, Mother of God;

To St. Joseph, the Guardian of God's choicest jewel and most precious treasure on earth, the Virgin Mother of the Redeemer of the world;

To St. Joseph, Head of the Holy Family, Jesus and Mary;

To St. Joseph, styled by the Holy Ghost a "just man ;"

To St. Joseph, after the Blessed Virgin, the most exalted, the most privileged, the most holy, and the purest soul ever created by the hands of the Almighty;

To St. Joseph, the Patron of the Universal Church;

To St. Joseph, the Patron of a happy death: In thanksgiving for all graces received through his intercession;

In reparation for all sins committed, and graces abused;

of a

In petition for the grace of a holy life, but still more especially for the grace happy death, this little book is most humbly, most reverentially, and most affectionately, dedicated.

PREFACE

Ir must be next to impossible, one would imagine, for an Irish missionary priest, especially if in charge of a widespread and populous district, to find time for applying himself, with even the most moderate relish and smallest chance of success, to any manner of occupation, not immediately, and of its own nature, connected with the business of his sacred ministry.

The duties of a Christian Pastor are numerous and exhausting. Besides attending sedulously, as he is bound to do, to his own private and personal devotions ("attende tibi"), it is gravely incumbent on him to pray much and earnestly for his flock. Or his soul's peril he has also to preach to them