Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father

by Donald H. Calloway

God the Father loves you. He loves you so much that he sent his Son into the world to save you. But saving you is not all the Father sent his Son to do for you. He sent his Son to save you and make you a child of God. Through Jesus, you are able to have a filial relationship with God the Father. Through Jesus, you can cry out, “Abba, Father!”

St. Joseph was chosen to stand in the place of the Heavenly Father according to the demands of Jesus’ human nature.

In his book True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis taught that Mary is the surest, easiest, and fastest way of going to Jesus.

He might even add St. Joseph to his famous phrase, and say, “To Jesus through Mary and Joseph!” Jesus wants you to know and love his mother and his father.

In our day, marriage and family are under attack. Jesus and Mary want you to be consecrated to St. Joseph because there is no father or husband who knows more about the sacredness of marriage and the family or the self-sacrificing love required of fathers and husbands than St. Joseph.

The earthly father of Jesus never did anything without seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Holiness is living in intimate, loving communion with God. More specifically, holiness is observing the two great commandments of love of God and neighbor, avoiding sin, leading a life of virtue, and abiding in sanctifying grace. None of this is possible without the Holy Spirit in your life.

holiness is only attained by those who pray and have an active interior life, ignited and sustained by the Sacraments, fueled by prayer and a life of charity.

Saint Joseph was not a priest, yet he is holier than all priests, including the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Vianney.

Membership in the family of Nazareth — accepting St. Joseph as your father, Mary as your mother, and Jesus as your brother — is the surest, easiest, and quickest way of becoming a member of the Trinitarian family in heaven.

Jesus is not offended when people entrust themselves to Mary and Joseph. How could he be? He is the first one to have entrusted himself to them!

as Head of the Holy Family, St. Joseph was the head of our Head.

Saint Joseph is a new Adam. Saint Joseph is, after Christ, the new head of the human family. As such, we are obliged to obey the Fourth Commandment in his regard: “Honor your father and your mother” (Ex 20:12). Failure to love and honor St. Joseph is an offense against God. In fact, the fatherhood of St. Joseph is so important for us that our spiritual growth depends on it.

Our first father’s disobedience caused the downfall of all creation and kept us from entering heaven. Saint Joseph’s fatherhood, on the other hand, elevates us and helps us to enter heaven.

Since every man is the king of his home, St. Joseph was the king of his house.

After Christ, St. Joseph is the greatest of all the patriarchs; he is the greatest of all fathers!

he is more faithful than Abraham, more obedient than Isaac, more generous than David, wiser than Solomon, in a word, as superior in grace as he is close to the source, Jesus sleeping in his arms.2

There has never been a man more in love with a woman than St. Joseph was in love with Mary.

He [Joseph] thus becomes the icon of the bishop, to whom the bride is betrothed; she is not at his disposal but under his protection.

Saint Joseph’s role of naming the Savior is an extremely important one. It is meant to signify to the world that St. Joseph is the legal father of Jesus.

In Latin, the title given to St. Joseph to signify his role as foster father is Filii Dei Nutricie. Literally, it means “Nurturer of the Son of God.” As you can see, the title foster father is a very poor translation from the Latin original.

Spiritual fatherhood, like spiritual motherhood, endures forever.

If you are a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, 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.

Theologians define the virtue of justice as “giving to another his due.”

Do you treat members of your family with love, respect, and dignity? What about your neighbors, co-workers, and everyone else with whom you daily interact? If you are an employer, do you offer a just wage? Remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

Lust is the predominant vice at work in the hearts of men today.

Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it ... It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure.

Supernatural prudence is different from human prudence. Human prudence guides a person to avoid difficulty, suffering, and hardship. Supernatural prudence, on the other hand, does not seek to avoid suffering. Supernatural prudence embraces the cross out of love and always strives for the greater good.

Before the mystery of co-redemptive suffering was unveiled to souls, St. Joseph lived it out of love.

he desired nothing but the things of heaven.

To be courageous is to love the good more than you fear evil and suffering.

What about you? What are you afraid of? Losing your job? Sacrificing your good name and worldly honors? Saint Joseph sacrificed everything for love of Jesus and Mary. Your spiritual father was a poor man and of no esteem in the world.

Did you know that St. Faustina also had visions of St. Joseph?

Fulton J. Sheen spoke of three rings in marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering.

A Christian’s relationship with God is a spiritual marriage. It, too, requires mutual love, sacrifice, and faithfulness.

If you want to be like St. Joseph, however, you must learn patience.

Exercising patience does not mean that a person will be free of the anxieties of life.

Exercising patience and mercy always brings about good. The lovingly patient and merciful person is always victorious, in this life or the next!

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

You will never find true happiness in material goods. Those who allow their relationship to God to depend on whether they have worldly things are destined for unhappiness.

He [St. Joseph] lived content in his poverty.

The devil hates an honest and diligent worker.

Though divine, God humbled himself, became a man, and worked like a man.

Hard work benefits the person, the family, and society.

He did it because he wanted to sanctify work and teach us that work is honorable and pleasing to God. However, neither Jesus nor St. Joseph were workaholics. Workaholics are of no benefit to themselves, the family, or society. God does not delight in a workaholic.

There is no need for you to bury a statue of St. Joseph to sell your house. Burying a statue of St. Joseph in an effort to sell a home is a modern phenomenon. Saint Teresa of Avila and St. André Bessette never buried statues of St. Joseph. Statues, unlike medals, are not made to be buried. Statues represent a person, and are meant to be venerated above ground, not buried in the ground.

Saint Joseph is your spiritual father, not a trinket.

Saint Joseph is the saint of the hidden years of Jesus. This reality is incredible to ponder.

If you walk with St. Joseph, you will find less and less pleasure in filthy and perverse films. Such “entertainment” will repulse your soul. Music that is foul, degrading to women, and offensive to God will not appeal to you either.

In order for your home to stand on a firm foundation and be unshakable, your family needs St. Joseph. He will teach your family the importance of prayer, mutual respect, purity, honesty, forgiveness, love, and, most importantly, placing God above all things.