May 1, 2017

"Human work, and especially manual labor, receive special prominence in the Gospel. Along with the humanity of the Son of God, work too has been taken up in the mystery of the Incarnation, and has also been redeemed in a special way. At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption."

—St. John Paul II, in Redemptoris Custos, 1989. Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, coinciding with International Workers' Day.