Proem
SAINT JOSEPH, patron of the Universal Church,
prince of the Patriarchs, columen mundi,
mortal man who was the preceptor of God,
in your name, just five decades of years ago,
we raised this living monument to your glory,
NOT THAT our small token could ever add thereto.
but that we had need of a model for the moulding
of the youth of the sons of this Island’s men ;
and who could we choose but you,
mould of the boyhood and Youth
of the Son of God
and of the Son of Man,
of the Boy Jesus
and of the Young Christ,
the First of the School of Joseph,
learning the Way of the Life of Earth,
conning the Sacred Classics and Scriptures
reading in the Law and the Prophets,
fathoming the Science of the Saints
of the first five thousand years from Genesis to the Machabees,
probing the Virtue of the Men of God of the People of God,
albeit this Young Learner Christ,
this First Josephian of all,
was Himself the Word,
which was in the beginning,
and was Himself likewise the Source
of all the good words
of all the good books
of all the ages.
AND NOW, through this same medium,
and following the same Josephian ideal,
in the wake of the same Star,
at the voice of the same Angel,
despite the imperfections of our merely human endeavour,
in Scientia et Virtute, our mnemonic and motto,
under your aegis and protection, Saint Joseph,
model of the world’s workers,
master of the world’s apprentices in the craft and carpentry of life
pattern of the fulfilment of Everyman’s vocation,
we also have achieved and fulfilled
our labour of the day,
these five full decades of years.
AND YOUR lilies of the valley have bloomed among us
again and again, with the times and the seasons,
and all our pupillage and tutelage,
the generations, that is, of our youth
versed in the Art of Life of the Just Man
have flourished like the palm-tree,
and have multiplied like the cedar of Lebanon.
planted in the house of the Lord,
and in the courts of the house of our God.
FOR THE WHICH benefaction and benediction,
of these same golden jubilee of the years,
verily, it is good,
in this very place and under this rounded arch of the years
to confess to the Lord and sing our psalm
Nomini Tuo, Altissime.
PRAY, SAINT JOSEPH,
accept in sign of our thankfulness
these fifty finished beads, us it were,
of our Lady’s Most Blessed Rosary
told by the successions of our learners,
and woven and wound up
with their own proper Fifth of the Joyful Mysteries :
The finding of the Boy Jesus
in the Temple amid the doctors
hearing them and asking them questions;
and all that heard him were astonished
at his wisdom and his answers.
SAINT JOSEPH, lead our learners
furthermore and evermore
to this His wisdom, so they may con His answers,
knowing there is no question nor any problem
but He is the Answer
and He is the Key;
and He is the only answer
and He alone is the Key,
in Scientia et Virtute.
SO MAY it please you, Saint Joseph,
so let it be,
ad multos annos, amen.
J. P. DE FONSEKA.
Blue and White magazine, 1948.