To ask how Saint Joseph lived in the Divine Will is to probe one of the most discreet and most luminous points in the writings of Luisa Piccarreta. The Gospel presents Joseph as a "righteous man"[1], silent, guardian of the Child and of his Mother. The spirituality of the Divine Will adds a further perspective: at Nazareth, according to Jesus speaking to Luisa, the Divine Will already reigned on earth as it reigns in Heaven — and Joseph belonged to that household where it reigned.
The answer calls for a distinction. Jesus is the divine Will; the Virgin Mary possessed its Fiat in full; Joseph, for his part, lived "in the reflections" of that Will[2]. The image is precise: he is not its source; he receives its radiance and lets himself be wholly ruled by it. And yet Jesus also affirms that "the Queen of Heaven, the heavenly King Jesus and Saint Joseph lived in the Kingdom of the Divine Will"[3]. Joseph is therefore no mere onlooker: he truly dwells in that Kingdom, in his own proper place.
That place has a name in the Book of Heaven: Jesus calls Joseph his guardian, his tutor, his cooperator, and even his "prime minister"[4] [5]. Far from being marginal, Mary's spouse becomes the accessible model for all those who receive no extraordinary graces but who wish, in work, silence and obedience, to let God reign within them.
This article remains within the bounds of a private revelation. Luisa's writings add nothing to the deposit of faith; they shed light on a figure whom the Magisterium itself describes as the summit of the "obedience of faith"[6]. Read in that light, they never contradict the Gospel: they extend its contemplation.
A question that presupposes two clarifications
Before answering, we must agree on two terms: who Saint Joseph is in the Catholic faith, and what "living in the Divine Will" means. Without these reference points, the phrase about the "reflections" would remain obscure or, worse, misunderstood.
Who Saint Joseph is in the faith of the Church
Joseph is the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the foster father — or adoptive father — of Jesus. The Gospel according to Saint Matthew calls him a "righteous man"[7]: not merely honest, but attuned to God, prompt to do his will as soon as it is made known. Saint Luke shows him leading the Holy Family to Bethlehem, into Egypt, then into the hidden life of Nazareth, "where Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour"[8]. The Catechism makes of that hidden life a "school" of silence, work and ordinary obedience[9] — precisely the virtues that the Divine Will will reveal as a path of holiness.
The Church has gradually taken the measure of that silence. On 8 December 1870, Blessed Pius IX declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church by the decree Quemadmodum Deus[10]. Leo XIII devoted to him the encyclical Quamquam Pluries (1889)[11]. John Paul II published Redemptoris Custos (1989), and Pope Francis Patris Corde (2020), opening a Year of Saint Joseph. These texts describe a man whose whole holiness lies in perfect obedience to God's will — precisely the ground on which the Book of Heaven will place him.
"What he did is pure "obedience of faith."" — Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, n. 4[12]
What "living in the Divine Will" means
Luisa's vocabulary distinguishes two levels. Doing God's will means obeying him: keeping the commandments, accepting one's duties, renouncing sin. Living in the Divine Will designates a deeper union, in which the soul consents to God operating within it, so that its human acts are taken up into the one divine act. This gift suppresses neither the virtues, nor the sacraments, nor obedience to the Church: it carries them into a more interior mode[13].
That is why the question "how did Joseph live in the Divine Will?" is no mere anecdote. It amounts to asking: to what degree, and in what mode, did this man of everyday life share in the highest life God offers a creature? Jesus' answer to Luisa is nuanced, and that nuance is the whole interest of the subject. For the full distinction between the two levels, see the difference between doing God's will and living in the Divine Will.
Nazareth, the first home where the Divine Will reigned on earth
The heart of the answer lies in an entry of volume 24, dated 7 July 1928. Luisa contemplates the hidden life of Nazareth and wonders whether the Divine Will reigned there. Jesus confirms it, in terms of considerable scope.
"It is true that the Divine Will reigned in the house of Nazareth on earth as It reigns in Heaven. My heavenly Mother and I knew no other Will. Saint Joseph lived in the reflections of our Will." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 24, 7 July 1928[14]
This affirmation is decisive for the whole spirituality of the Divine Will: the Kingdom it announces already existed on earth, concretely, in a house, around a carpenter's workbench. It is therefore neither a utopia nor a novelty without roots. Jesus will say so again in volume 29: that Kingdom "is no stranger to the earth", for "the house of Nazareth, the family that lived there, belonged to that Kingdom, and it reigned there perfectly"[15].
A real Kingdom, but "without a people"
Jesus immediately adds a capital qualification, which rules out any triumphalism. The Kingdom reigned at Nazareth, but it as yet had no people: the order of Creation and the royalty of man were not restored on the scale of humanity.
"I had Saint Joseph as prime minister. But a single minister does not make a ministry. […] Our Kingdom was for us alone, for the order of Creation and the royalty of man were not restored." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 24, 7 July 1928[16]
Nazareth is thus "the rallying point of the Kingdom of our Will"[17]: the seed is sown, the leaven is formed, all is prepared for that reign to rise one day upon the earth. Joseph is no detail in this picture: he is its first visible servant, the sole minister of a still-hidden kingdom. That says the dignity Jesus recognises in him. During those hidden years, he says, "all good was done between Me and the Father in Heaven, my heavenly Mother and dear Saint Joseph"[18]: a circle of four, of whom Joseph is the only man of the earth. Already at the Nativity, "Saint Joseph and the angels were also praying" before the Child[19] — an image of the adoration that fills his whole life.
"The reflections of our Will": how exactly Joseph shares in it
Here the answer calls for the greatest rigour. Jesus does not say that Joseph possessed the Divine Will in the same way as himself or Mary. He says that he lived in its reflections. To understand this image is to understand the whole subject.
The meaning of the image of "reflections"
A reflection presupposes a source of light and a surface that receives it faithfully. At Nazareth, the source is the Divine Will reigning unshared in Jesus — who "was the Divine Will itself" — and in Mary, who "possessed its Fiat"[20]. Joseph, placed "in the midst of these seas of light", could, says Jesus, only "let himself be dominated by this most holy Will"[21]. He is totally enveloped by it, illumined, transformed — but as one who receives, not as one from whom the light springs.
This nuance does not lower Joseph; it places him with justice. He lives in the Kingdom, he breathes its air, he moves in it in all things — and that is already an immense grace, refused to the rest of humanity at that time. But the full gift of living in the Divine Will in the constitutive sense, the gift that makes Mary the Queen of the Kingdom, is not described in the same way for him. Joseph is the perfectly consenting just man, immersed in the light of the two whom he guards.
Jesus, Mary, Joseph: three ways of dwelling in the same Kingdom
The following table summarises, from the texts of the Book of Heaven alone, how each of the three members of the Holy Family dwells in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. The columns distinguish the mode of presence and the image used by Jesus.
| Member of the Holy Family | Mode of presence to the Divine Will | Image / words of Jesus to Luisa |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus | He is the Divine Will | "He was the Divine Will itself" (vol. 24) |
| Mary | She possesses her Fiat in full; Queen of the Kingdom | "The sovereign Lady possessed her Fiat" (vol. 24) |
| Joseph | He lives in the reflections; guardian and prime minister | "Saint Joseph lived in the reflections of our Will" (vol. 24) |
The reading of the table is simple: one and the same Kingdom, three ways of dwelling in it, without confusion or rivalry. That is why Jesus can say in a single breath that all three "lived in the Kingdom of the Divine Will"[22], while reserving to each an irreducible place. For Mary's own place, see Mary's place in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
Why Joseph did not "know everything" from the beginning
One detail of the writings confirms this posture of reception. At the moment of the virginal conception, says Jesus, "no one, not even Saint Joseph knew, at the beginning of my Conception, that I was already among them"[23]. And again: in the mystery of the second Fiat — the Redemption beginning in Mary's womb — "my Mother was its sole spectator. Even Saint Joseph knew nothing of it. If, afterwards, Saint Joseph learned of it, it was I myself who revealed it to him"[24].
Joseph therefore receives light by revelation, in due time, and not by a native possession of the mystery. That is exactly what living in the reflections means: to be introduced, faithfully and progressively, into a light of which one is not the source. Far from diminishing his figure, this trait makes it deeply fraternal for the ordinary believer, who likewise enters the Divine Will step by step.
Saint Joseph, "prime minister" and guardian of the Kingdom
If Joseph lives in the reflections, it is not in passivity: Jesus entrusts him with an active and precise function. The Book of Heaven describes it in almost institutional language.
Tutor, cooperator and overseer
In volume 19 (15 June 1926), Jesus links Joseph's mission to that of the priests who assist Luisa, and he uses three words that define the charge of Mary's spouse.
"I chose Joseph as tutor, cooperator and overseer of the Sovereign Queen and of Myself." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 19, 15 June 1926[25]
Tutor: he protects and represents. Cooperator: he acts with them, not beside them. Overseer: he watches, keeps, defends. These three words bespeak a real participation in the Kingdom, ordered to the service of Jesus and Mary. Volume 24 confirms it by calling him "prime minister": the sole minister of a kingdom still without a people, but a true minister[26].
The guardian who alone holds the secret
Joseph is not only useful: he is the confidant of the hidden work of Redemption. In volume 21 (30 April 1927), Jesus stresses that, while Mother and Son consumed themselves in silence for the salvation of the world, a single person on earth knew what was being plotted.
"Saint Joseph alone knew what We were doing." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 21, 30 April 1927[27]
To keep that secret without divulging it, to wrap it in work and silence, is the proper form of Joseph's holiness. The Book of Heaven here rejoins the Gospel, which reports not one word of his: his obedience lies entirely in his deeds. Jesus goes so far as to say that, when he gives Luisa a faithful confessor, he regards him "as filling the office of Saint Joseph and of my Mother"[28], so highly does he esteem the function of guardian.
The work of Nazareth, sanctified in the Divine Will
No trait of Saint Joseph is better known than his manual labour. The Book of Heaven makes of it one of the places where the Divine Will truly circulates among the members of the Holy Family.
"It is Love that hastened on"
In volume 32 (16 April 1933), Jesus describes his hidden life as a continual conquest of love. The work shared with Joseph holds there an explicit place: not a suffered necessity, but an overflow of love.
"Thus, when I worked with Saint Joseph to procure for ourselves the necessities of life, it is Love that hastened on. They are conquests and triumphs that I won." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 32, 16 April 1933[29]
The God who could, by a single Fiat, have placed all things at his disposal[30], chose to lower his hands to wood and nails, at Joseph's side, out of love. It is in that shared labour that Jesus says he "prolonged his life of Nazareth in every creature"[31]: every Christian who works for God recovers something of Joseph's workshop.
Hammering wood, hammering the human will
Luisa carries the contemplation of that labour further. Following Jesus in his hidden acts, she hears in the carpenter's gesture a spiritual significance.
"In hammering the wood, You hammer the human will to destroy it, so that your Divine Will may rise in the midst of creatures." — Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 23, 11 March 1928[32]
The labour of Nazareth thus becomes a parable of the Divine Will itself: patient, repeated, humble, it gradually undoes self-will to make room for God's reign. And Luisa adds that her "I love you" flows even "into the rivers of love that pass between You, your Mother and Saint Joseph"[33]: the Divine Will circulates among the three like a single river.
The silence, the obedience and Joseph's "fiat"
The keyword of the Divine Will is the Fiat — "let it be done". Now the Gospel shows Joseph performing, without a word, acts of perfect obedience: taking Mary into his home, leaving for Egypt, returning. The Magisterium sees in this the purest form of the fiat.
"In every circumstance of his life, Joseph was able to pronounce his "fiat", just as Mary did at the Annunciation." — Pope Francis, Patris Corde, n. 3[34]
This word of Pope Francis illumines from within what Luisa says. If Joseph lives in the reflections of the Divine Will, it is because his whole life is a silent and continuous fiat. He needed no speeches: his obedience was his language. John Paul II calls this the "obedience of faith"[35], and he recalls that "Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord had commanded him"[36] — a formula Scripture repeats at every divine order received.
Thus, where the Virgin pronounces an explicit Fiat at the Annunciation, Joseph pronounces a fiat of deeds. Both converge towards the same reality Luisa calls living in the Divine Will: letting God decide, operate and reign. Saint Joseph is, in the order of ordinary life, its first perfect witness.
A chronology of Saint Joseph in the "Book of Heaven"
Mentions of Saint Joseph run through the volumes of the Book of Heaven over more than thirty years, from the first visions of the grotto of Bethlehem to the great pages on the Kingdom. The frieze below retains the most significant milestones.
- 26 December 1900 — volume 4Joseph and Mary in ecstasy before the Child
The continual presence of the Child Jesus keeps "Joseph and Mary plunged in a continual ecstasy"; without a miracle, they could not have attended to their duties[37].
- 14 August 1912 — volume 11Jesus works the wood with his adoptive father
Jesus recalls that he lowered his hands "to working wood, to driving nails, thus helping my adoptive father Joseph", and that he prolongs that life of Nazareth in every creature that works for him[38].
- 25 December 1920 — volume 12The guardian of the grotto
In the grotto of Bethlehem, "Saint Joseph never deprived me of a little light or a small lamp during the night": an image of the guardian's watchful keeping[39].
- 15 June 1926 — volume 19Tutor, cooperator and overseer
Jesus declares he chose Joseph "as tutor, cooperator and overseer of the Sovereign Queen and of Myself"[40].
- 30 April 1927 — volume 21Joseph alone knew
Among men, "Saint Joseph alone knew what We were doing" for the salvation of the world[41].
- 7 July 1928 — volume 24"The reflections of our Will" and the prime minister
The master page: the Divine Will reigned at Nazareth, "Saint Joseph lived in the reflections of our Will", and Jesus had him "as prime minister" of a Kingdom still without a people[42].
- 31 May 1931 — volume 29All three lived in the Kingdom
"The Queen of Heaven, the heavenly King Jesus and Saint Joseph lived in the Kingdom of the Divine Will"; that Kingdom "is no stranger to the earth"[43].
- 16 April 1933 — volume 32Labour as a conquest of love
"When I worked with Saint Joseph to procure for ourselves the necessities of life, it is Love that hastened on"[44].
This chronology shows a figure who never ceases to grow across the volumes: first a silent presence in the scenes of childhood, Joseph gradually becomes, under Luisa's pen, the first earthly dweller of the Kingdom of the Divine Will after Jesus and Mary.
What Joseph teaches those who wish to live in the Divine Will
The interest of this dossier is not only historical or contemplative. Saint Joseph offers a practicable path to those who desire to live in the Divine Will without receiving extraordinary graces.
A model for the "little ones"
Joseph has neither recounted visions, nor recorded words, nor public mission. He has a workshop, a family, duties, material cares — Jesus recalls that he was "so poor that he needed to work to support our family"[45]. And it is in that wholly ordinary life that he dwells in the highest Kingdom. He proves that the Divine Will is not measured by phenomena, but by consent: work offered, silence kept, immediate obedience suffice to let God reign.
This lesson rejoins the title the tradition of the Divine Will gives Luisa herself, "little daughter of the Divine Will": God chooses the little ones for his greatest works. For the sequel of that pedagogy, see why Luisa is called the little daughter of the Divine Will.
Entering the Kingdom through simple acts
Concretely, imitating Joseph means offering the work at hand, accomplishing one's duty of state as an act of love, and often renewing a silent fiat. Luisa describes that movement through the prevenient act of the morning, in which the soul consecrates from the start of the day its thoughts, words and actions to the Divine Will. Joseph is its living model: each of his gestures was already that offered act. For the practice, see how to begin the prevenient act of the morning.
Asking Saint Joseph to introduce one into that Kingdom is, in the logic of the Book of Heaven, perfectly coherent: he whom Jesus called his "prime minister" may well present souls to the King he served. Traditional devotion had sensed it: Saint Teresa of Avila confided that she had never asked a grace of Saint Joseph without obtaining it[46].
A reading that remains within the faith of the Church
All of the above belongs to a private revelation. The writings of Luisa Piccarreta are not the Gospel and do not bind faith; they propose a contemplation which the Church discerns. On the exact status of these texts and their examination by the Holy See, see are Luisa's writings approved by the Church?.
The criterion of reading remains harmony with the faith. Now, on Saint Joseph, that harmony is manifest: what Luisa describes — a wholly consenting man, guardian of the mystery, obedient in deeds — is exactly what the Magisterium celebrates in Redemptoris Custos and Patris Corde. The Book of Heaven does not contradict the Gospel; it extends its meditation.
Not to be confused: the two Josephs
One clarification avoids a frequent confusion. The Book of Heaven also mentions Joseph the patriarch of the Old Testament, son of Jacob, whom Jesus presents as "the symbol of the power" that will belong to the children of the Divine Will, because he did not let his people perish of hunger[47]. That Joseph of Egypt is not Saint Joseph of Nazareth: the one is a figure announcing the Kingdom, the other is a real dweller in it. The two nonetheless meet in a single idea: through Joseph, the people receives bread — yesterday the wheat of Egypt, tomorrow "the bread of my Will"[48].
To go further
- The Divine Will — the general doctrine of the gift.
- What is the gift of living in the Divine Will? — the heart of the spirituality.
- What place does Mary hold in the Kingdom of the Divine Will? — the parallel figure of the Queen of the Kingdom.
- Doing God's will or living in the Divine Will? — the decisive distinction.
- Luisa Piccarreta — life, writings and ecclesial status.
- The Book of Heaven — the corpus in which these pages on Joseph appear.
Notes and References
Gospel according to Saint Matthew 1:19: "Joseph her husband, who was a righteous man…". Official liturgical translation.
1 7L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 24, 7 July 1928 — master page: the Divine Will reigned at Nazareth; "Saint Joseph lived in the reflections of our Will"; Jesus had him "as prime minister"; Nazareth, "rallying point of the Kingdom".
2 4 14 16 17 20 21 26 42L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 29, 31 May 1931 — "The Queen of Heaven, the heavenly King Jesus and Saint Joseph lived in the Kingdom of the Divine Will"; that Kingdom "is no stranger to the earth".
3 15 22 43L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 19, 15 June 1926 — "I chose Joseph as tutor, cooperator and overseer of the Sovereign Queen and of Myself."
5 25 40Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, 15 August 1989, n. 4: "What he did is pure "obedience of faith.""
6 12 35Gospel according to Saint Luke 2:4–7, 39–52: Bethlehem, presentation in the Temple, return and hidden life at Nazareth; "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature" (Lk 2:52).
8Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 533: the hidden life of Nazareth, a school of silence, labour and ordinary obedience.
9Sacred Congregation of Rites, decree Quemadmodum Deus, 8 December 1870, by which Blessed Pius IX declares Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church and raises his feast of 19 March.
10Leo XIII, encyclical Quamquam Pluries, 15 August 1889, on devotion to Saint Joseph and his patronage over the Church.
11J. L. Iannuzzi, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta, doctoral dissertation in theology, Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), 2012, chap. IV: § 4.1.2.1.4 "Doing" and "Living in" the Divine Will (pp. 135–136) for the doing / living in distinction; § 4.1.28 "Sacramental grace and the gift of living in the Divine Will" (pp. 187 ff.) on the complementarity of the gift with the sacraments.
13L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 30, 20 March 1932 — during the hidden life, "all good was done between Me and the Father in Heaven, my heavenly Mother and dear Saint Joseph".
18L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 17, 24 December 1924 — at the Nativity, "Saint Joseph and the angels were also praying".
19L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 27, 21 October 1929 — "No one, not even Saint Joseph knew, at the beginning of my Conception, that I was already among them."
23L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 12, 24 January 1921 — in the second Fiat, Mary alone was spectator: "even Saint Joseph knew nothing of it", until Jesus revealed it to him.
24L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 21, 30 April 1927 — "Saint Joseph alone knew what We were doing."
27 41L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 12, 25 December 1920 — Jesus regards the faithful confessor as filling "the office of Saint Joseph and of my Mother".
28L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 32, 16 April 1933 — "when I worked with Saint Joseph to procure for ourselves the necessities of life, it is Love that hastened on"; a single Fiat would have sufficed, but Jesus labours out of love.
29 30 44L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 11, 14 August 1912 — Jesus works wood while helping his adoptive father Joseph; he prolongs his life of Nazareth in every creature.
31 38L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 23, 11 March 1928 — Luisa follows Jesus in his hidden labour: "in hammering the wood, You hammer the human will"; rivers of love between Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
32 33Pope Francis, apostolic letter Patris Corde, 8 December 2020, section 3 ("A father in obedience"): "In every circumstance of his life, Joseph was able to pronounce his "fiat", just as Mary did at the Annunciation."
34Saint John Paul II, apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos, 15 August 1989, n. 3: "Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord had commanded him: he took his wife into his home."
36L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 4, 26 December 1900 — the presence of the Child keeps Joseph and Mary in continual ecstasy.
37L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 12, 25 December 1920 — Saint Joseph watches over the grotto and never deprives the Child of a little light.
39L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 20, 6 January 1927 — Saint Joseph, guardian and virginal man, "so poor that he needed to work to support our family".
45Saint Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life, chapter 6: the saint bears witness to the constant efficacy of her devotion to Saint Joseph, of whom she says she never asked a grace without obtaining it.
46L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 21, 8 April 1927 — Joseph the patriarch of Egypt, "symbol of the power" of the children of the Divine Will, who keeps the people from perishing of hunger; to be distinguished from Saint Joseph of Nazareth.
47 48