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[[File:The Dream of Saint Joseph.jpg|thumb|alt=Saint Joseph, sleeping, an angel flying over him|''The Dream of Saint Joseph'', Philippe de Champaigne]]

[[Saint Germain]] was embodied as '''Saint Joseph''', the father of [[Jesus]] and husband of [[Mother Mary|Mary]].

== In the New Testament ==

There are few references to Saint Joseph in the New Testament. The Bible traces his lineage back to [[King David|David]]. It also recounts how when the angel of the Lord warned him in a dream that Herod planned to kill Jesus, Joseph heeded the warning and took his family to Egypt, returning after Herod’s death. Joseph is said to have been a carpenter and is thought to have passed on before Jesus began his public ministry. In Catholic tradition, Saint Joseph is revered as Patron of the Universal Church and his feast is celebrated on March 19.

== Devotion to Saint Joseph ==

The sixteenth-century mystic [[Teresa of Avila]] was greatly devoted to Saint Joseph and chose him as the patron of her order. She wrote: 

<blockquote>I don’t recall up to this day ever having petitioned him for anything that he has failed to grant.... With this glorious saint I have experience that he helps in all our needs and that the Lord wants us to understand that just as he was subject to St. Joseph on earth—for since bearing the title of father, being the Lord’s tutor, Joseph could give the Child command—so in heaven God does whatever he commands.<ref>''The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila'', vol. 1, ''The Book of Her Life, Spiritual Testimonies, Soliloquies'', trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1976), pp. 79–80.</ref></blockquote>

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[[File:Gerrit van Honthorst - Childhood of Christ - WGA11656.jpg|thumb|Childhood of Christ, Gerard van Honthorst]]

== The Holy Family ==

In a dictation delivered on May 6, 1979, the Ascended Master Jesus said that Saint Joseph taught him much more than the sacred labor of carpentry:

<blockquote>He taught me the sacred labor of the alchemy of the Holy Ghost, the changing of the water into wine. Truly I am the son of Joseph, the great miracle alchemist of all time. And truly my works show forth his handiwork and the blessed grace of my mother.</blockquote>

Where history has not preserved the record, the Ascended Masters have from time to time given us glimpses into the life of the Holy Family. One such story was dictated by Mother Mary to [[Mark Prophet]] in 1968:

<blockquote>
I recall one morning when beloved Jesus was yet a small lad that he came to me with a very hard piece of wood that he was trying to whittle. He desired that I should persuade Joseph to exchange it for a softer piece, one that would lend itself more easily to molding. I sat him on my knee, and I proceeded to explain to him that there was an ingrained quality that of old had been placed within trees making one to possess a harder quality and another a softer quality. I told him that the soft wood would easily mar and that, were he to use it, the little image that he sought to whittle would not endure the knocks and tumbles that might later come to it, whereas a carving made of hard wood would endure more substantially.

I also told him that the wood enjoyed being shapened by his hands and that the only difference between the soft and the hard wood would be that of a greater use of patience on his part.  He brushed back his hair which had fallen across his eyes and, with great and quick gentleness, planted a kiss upon both of my cheeks. I noticed a trace of a tear in one eye as he dashed away to continue his work of shaping the hard wood.<ref>Mother Mary, “Shaping the Hard Wood,” {{POWref|11|9|, March 3, 1968}}</ref>
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In another dictation, Mother Mary told us that Saint Joseph “did father and nourish the Christ Child and therefore set the pace of the age of Pisces.” The Blessed Mother said:  

<blockquote>May all of you who are of the Masculine Ray in this life remember his example in all of his lifetimes and know that your stature in God can be modeled after this role model of one who dared to defend Woman, who dared to raise up that [[Manchild]], and stand as the protector not only of a family but of an entire area of a planet, until that one could fulfill his Christhood.<ref>Mother Mary, “The Karmic Weight of a Planet,” {{POWref|31|27|, June 15, 1988}}</ref></blockquote>

== The mantle of Saint Joseph ==

Saint Germain has said:

<blockquote>
Yes, I AM Saint Joseph, and I walk in the full mantle of my office as protector of Mary and of every mother and every woman and of every child in the earth. And I tell you, beloved, that I play that role. As many in the earth call to me as Saint Joseph, so I respond to that name.

Knowing who I am, therefore, I can be called by any name, any key of any name of any past incarnation. Thus, I have rolled them into one and determined to be called by you merely “Holy Brother,” ''Saint Germain''.<ref>Saint Germain, “I Am Not Done with Pisces!” {{POWref|35|26|, June 28, 1992}}</ref>
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== See also ==

[[Saint Germain]]

== Sources ==

''Pearls of Wisdom'', 1988, vol. 1, ch. 2.
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