The month of May, Mary’s month, began with a feast of St. Joseph: St. Joseph the Worker on May 1. This seems appropriate, as the pure love Mary and Joseph had for one another, and their unique mission of caring for the Only Son of God, would have knitted them together more closely than any other pair in history.
Of course, it was easy to love Mary; she was the most lovable human being ever created! But St. Joseph’s appreciation for Mary was honed by the very fact that he was a “worker”: as a carpenter, he was trained to look for beauty, proportion, precision. A contractor who has proved himself a veritable St. Joseph to our Sisters once told us that, after everyone else in a construction project has packed up and left, ostensibly having completed their jobs, the carpenter comes in. It is he whose trained eye notes the holes, gaps, cracks, things misaligned or omitted — and the chaos others have left behind, he fixes, smooths, and finishes.
Because Joseph was skilled at creating beauty, and at noticing its absence, he would have marveled at his spouse’s beauty. Not one of the details of her soul would have escaped him — the delicacy of her kindness, the strength of her courage, the intensity of her charity. Day after day, he would have admired this woman who magnified God’s glory, like a diamond’s facets multiplying light. He would have been awestruck that, of all men, he was entrusted with her.
From this example of St. Joseph and Our Lady flows a suggestion for the month of May: train yourself to see beauty, in whatever way comes most naturally to you. Perhaps it is literary beauty or architectural beauty, cinematography, natural beauty, or the beauty of another person. Whatever is your inclination, immerse yourself in something beautiful; take a little time to notice the particulars; express appreciation. Beauty reveals God.
A Sister who preceded me at the convent where I now live invested a great deal of time in the backyard — fostering a relationship with the landscapers who donate flowers annually, installing a birdhouse, planting flowering vines. Do I take time to notice this space and the delightful creatures who inhabit it? The cardinals and woodpeckers and hummingbirds who visit our feeders, the chipmunks who dart through, the wrens nesting in the bird house?
And if there is a difficult person in your life, someone whose beauty you struggle to see, try, if you can, to speak with someone who loves that person. Ask that person’s friend or parent or spouse to describe to you some of his or her best qualities. Love and beauty go hand in hand: beauty sparks love, but love sees beauty where others see only ugliness or frustration. Through the eyes of someone who loves, perhaps you, too, can see the beauty. St. Joseph, be our guide!
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks, OP, is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
