If one is “a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,” Fr. Donald Calloway says, “you are going to be criticized, hated, ridiculed, and mocked by the world — oftentimes by your own family and friends. Your suffering will be great, but your witness to truth — your witness to Jesus — will be greater” if you stand next to St. Joseph.
By Kimberly Bruce
For several years, my husband travelled a lot for work and was only home on weekends. It was then, for the first time in my life, that I turned to St. Joseph. I prayed for his protection of myself, our children, and our home and property each week while my husband was away. I confidently placed my trust in St. Joseph, counting on him to guard and defend what I placed in his hands.
Chosen by God from all eternity to be the head of the Holy Family, we can trust St. Joseph as a worthy advocate for our prayer intentions for our families. I look to St. Joseph for leadership, protection, and provision in my own family whenever the need arises, as St. Joseph was entrusted with these same obligations towards the Holy Family.
In a world where many families are without the presence of at least one parent in their homes, we can be grateful for the intercessory prayer power of St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, especially on his Solemnity, which this year falls on Monday, Mar. 20.
Happy and blessed children of St. Joseph
In Fr. Donald H. Calloway, MIC’s book Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade exclaims, “How happy and blessed are they whom you [St. Joseph] love and who you take under your protection!” Not only is St. Joseph concerned with the physical well-being and protection of our families, but he is most especially concerned with our safe arrival home one day in Heaven.
Says Fr. Calloway, St. Joseph “wants to watch over you and help you,” he will never abandon you, and our role is to completely trust ourselves “to his diligent care and never look back.”
As regards our Church and our faith, says Fr. Calloway, St. Joseph will teach you also how to “defend Christ zealously.” If one is “a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,” Fr. Calloway says, “you are going to be criticized, hated, ridiculed, and mocked by the world — oftentimes by your own family and friends. Your suffering will be great, but your witness to truth — your witness to Jesus — will be greater” if you stand next to St. Joseph.
Seemingly the humblest of saints after Mary, says Fr. Calloway, would make St. Joseph humbler than the angels, too. This humility would position him, says Father, as “the greatest, for the virtues are all connected, and a person’s charity is as elevated as his humility is profound.” Because of his profound humility, demons fear St. Joseph. (He is even called “Terror of Demons” in the Litany of St. Joseph.)
As the most chaste spouse of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Christ’s foster father, St. Joseph holds in his hand a lily, “a sword of purity,” says Fr. Calloway, able to “conquer every form of filth and darkness.” Saint Joseph is, therefore, a perfect saint to call upon when praying for one’s spouse, children, or anyone caught in the throes of darkness and in need of spiritual healing or conversion.
Saint Faustina saw him
Saint Faustina was even gifted with a vision of St. Joseph in which he urged her to have a continual devotion to him. In her vision, St. Joseph promised his “special help and protection” to those who would recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, and Memorare to St. Joseph prayers once a day, invoking his intercession (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1203).
First among the saints, holiest human person to ever live after the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph demonstrates how to be a saint. As St. Faustina relayed, one’s personal sanctity “can be wholly useful to the Church” because “the sanctity or the fall of each individual soul has an effect upon the whole Church” (Diary, 1364 and 1475). Therefore, said St. Faustina, “I strive for the greatest perfection possible in order to be useful to the Church” (Diary, 1475).
Saint Joseph, Terror of Demons, Pillar of Families, and Protector of the Holy Church, pray for us!
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