Today was the feast of "St. Joseph the Worker" which was instituted in 1950.

The Gregorian chant for this feast is so modern and ugly, that even St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary used to "Psalm tone" the propers for this feast (when I was there, 2000 to 2003), even though this was otherwise NEVER done at the Seminary. Every Sung Mass was normally 100% full Gregorian chant propers -- even when this seriously lengthened the duration of Mass.

The only exception, when the seminarians used the abbreviated "Psalm tone" chant propers, was St. Joseph the Worker's day (May 1st). The professor in charge of Gregorian Chant at the seminary, Fr. Thierry Gaudray, even approved of this.

Isn't it interesting that such a feast is new enough to be criticized like this, but old enough to be used at many (most?) Traditional chapels?

I mean, it's a fact that the Communists hold May 1st to be an important feast day. And the Pope even emphasized how St. Joseph is the model and patron of workers (rather than the Communist party, which was always jockeying for this position!). It's obvious Pope Pius XII was trying (wisely or unwisely) to co-opt or steal the thunder of the Communists, who are traditionally demagogues trying to mobilize the "workers" to get what's theirs from the nasty capitalists.

I'll never forget some of the Canadian seminarians at S.T.A.S. used to tongue-in-cheek call this feast day, "St. Joseph the Red" (the "red" referring, of course, to communism). I thought it was quite witty.

This line of thought is very strange.  Within our Roman Catholic tradition it's more than a little marginal and Jansenist-oriented.  Since when has mainstream Catholicism not been both pro-business and pro-labor all at the same time?  We have always sympathised with both the cultured wealthy few and the morally upright lower classes.  Social justice is an absolutely Roman Catholic tradition since the beginning of the Church in the Ancient Roman world and the Jansenist-like desire to limit justice to private and personal matters is completely foreign to our entire mainstream Catholic heritage.  It smacks more of Thomas Malthus than of Jesus Christ.

Belittling Catholic feast days on the feast day itself is also more than a little impious.  The disdain of the Novus Ordo for the Feast of the Ascension shouldn't be imitated by us on the holy Feastday of St. Joseph the Worker.  "Workers" are precisely not the concern of the Reds, a faction that serves the selfish interests of fanatic intellectuals against both workers and business about equally.  Insofar as the Reds care about anything that would surely be the тαℓмυd and certainly not something so opposed to their elitist philo-semite snobbery as the working class.

The dangerous lack of compassion among SSPX seminarians outlined in the above comment should throw some light on the subsequent collapse of the SSPX into the Great Apostasy of the Marxist Novus Ordo.   When even seminarians lack compassion for the poor majority of mankind, which is after all simply the working class by another name, then they will certainly lack the moral strength to take on the Novus Ordo as Our Lord expects them to do and readers should easily recognise that recent events bear this out with starkest clarity.  

Justice is not an un-Catholic notion.  On the contrary, a passion for justice is the most frequent personal sign of Roman Catholicism among men throughout our incomparably lone and glorious history.  This lowly Franciscan must apologise for offence given by this strident defence of the immemorial Catholic championing of justice, and especially of social justice.  But the most sacred principles of our holy religion must be defended!  The glorious feast of St. Joseph the Worker should be a day of joy in every Roman Catholic heart, not a time for Jansenist-like hardheartedness and cynicism.

Our Lord is also the Almighty Lord of Compassion and Social Justice.  He is proud to be known among men on earth as nothing less than the proud and loyal son of St. Joseph the Worker.  We should defend the sacred honor of St. Joseph without hesitation.  

Gross impieties in a Jansenist vein should have no place among us.

     

Jesus was the one who was the original revolutionary against Jєωιѕн capitalism, which is why the Jєωs nailed him to the cross.

I don't like this line of thought. It strikes me as Modernist.

Jesus wasn't a communist. He wasn't a revolutionary either.

He preached the Gospel of salvation, and restored the One True Faith. He restored morality to its primordial purity. He also fulfilled the Old Testament and all the Prophecies by starting the New Testament in His Blood.

He wasn't a demagogue, rabble-rouser, revolutionary, hippie, activist, extremist, union leader, communist, or any of those titles which are millions of miles beneath Him.

Ghandi or Martin Luther King might have been many of those things. Our Lord was not.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was in a class by Himself: the God-Man

Today was the feast of "St. Joseph the Worker" which was instituted in 1950.

The Gregorian chant for this feast is so modern and ugly, that even St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary used to "Psalm tone" the propers for this feast (when I was there, 2000 to 2003), even though this was otherwise NEVER done at the Seminary. Every Sung Mass was normally 100% full Gregorian chant propers -- even when this seriously lengthened the duration of Mass.

The only exception, when the seminarians used the abbreviated "Psalm tone" chant propers, was St. Joseph the Worker's day (May 1st). The professor in charge of Gregorian Chant at the seminary, Fr. Thierry Gaudray, even approved of this.

Isn't it interesting that such a feast is new enough to be criticized like this, but old enough to be used at many (most?) Traditional chapels?

I mean, it's a fact that the Communists hold May 1st to be an important feast day. And the Pope even emphasized how St. Joseph is the model and patron of workers (rather than the Communist party, which was always jockeying for this position!). It's obvious Pope Pius XII was trying (wisely or unwisely) to co-opt or steal the thunder of the Communists, who are traditionally demagogues trying to mobilize the "workers" to get what's theirs from the nasty capitalists.

I'll never forget some of the Canadian seminarians at S.T.A.S. used to tongue-in-cheek call this feast day, "St. Joseph the Red" (the "red" referring, of course, to communism). I thought it was quite witty.

Why not use the psalm tones from St Joseph on March 19?

I wonder how this holiday is viewed in those heavily influenced by "liberation theology" like Central America.

this feast suppressed the more traditional feast of St Joseph's Patronage of the Catholic Church[/i]. i guess you think that the fact that St Joseph had a job is more important than his protecting the church. the feast is so bad that the only Father or doctor quoted in matins is St Albert the Great who had trouble justifying the title of workman, after all this is what the Fathers mocked heretics for being " He was a fuller, or he was a butcher"  

this feast suppressed the more traditional feast of St Joseph's Patronage of the Catholic Church[/i]. i guess you think that the fact that St Joseph had a job is more important than his protecting the church. the feast is so bad that the only Father or doctor quoted in matins is St Albert the Great who had trouble justifying the title of workman, after all this is what the Fathers mocked heretics for being " He was a fuller, or he was a butcher"  

No, this does not suppress St Joseph as patron of the Catholic Church. The holiness of St Joseph is too great for that. Rather it adds another title of honor for all of us to honor St Joseph.

Quote from: confederate catholic

this feast suppressed the more traditional feast of St Joseph's Patronage of the Catholic Church[/i]. i guess you think that the fact that St Joseph had a job is more important than his protecting the church. the feast is so bad that the only Father or doctor quoted in matins is St Albert the Great who had trouble justifying the title of workman, after all this is what the Fathers mocked heretics for being " He was a fuller, or he was a butcher"  

No, this does not suppress St Joseph as patron of the Catholic Church. The holiness of St Joseph is too great for that. Rather it adds another title of honor for all of us to honor St Joseph.

Those in the know are aware that St. Joseph was the Chief Architect of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem.  To be a great builder and architect is the profession of kings and therefore St. Joseph did not have a "job" as we understand the term.  When St. Joseph worked with wood it was more magical and mystical than prosaic; he also had to feign a low social status to escape Herod's secret police after the visit of the Magi at the Epiphany of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in the City of David and the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker also presents the true dignity of Catholic labor with a skill not to be easily found anywhere else.

The above snarky reference to St. Albert the Great is not great and the Feast of St. Joseph in May in no way lessens the great honors rendered to him.  Our Lord is no mean fuller or butcher but, like his legal father, a Royal Chief Architect of kingdoms and worlds.  And the word used for St. Joseph, "Tekton", also refers to the teaching of the Divine Mysteries.  Our Lord is therefore also the hereditary Chief Teacher of the Mysteries of the Universe and of the Kingdom of God.