Thank You Joseph!

As a man I'm often talking about the things that are dear to my manly heart, none more dear to me than my mother, the first woman I've ever loved and who taught me what love is. I'm also drawn to speak about the great love of my life, my wife Deb and I would be remiss not to speak of someone to whom all men should look upon as a great model of what it means to be a man, and that is St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since we have just celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph, it is appropriate for me to mention him here.

We are told in Sacred Scripture that Joseph was a righteous man. There are no recorded words of Joseph in Scripture but we know that he must have loved God very much., after all, God chose him among all men to be the foster father of His Only Son, and to be the husband of Mary. No doubt Joseph also was a man of virtue, a descendant of King David, and he was betrothed to Mary. As the husband of Mary, Joseph gave to her son Jesus the lineage of His Birthright as the Descendant of the line of David. Joseph was chosen also to be the protector of the Child and His mother and surely Joseph loved God above all things and did God's will without hesitation. Joseph was the model man, the model husband and the model worker. He was the closest man on earth to Jesus, and loved Mary above all creatures and was loved by her and Jesus perhaps more than any other man who has ever lived. Living too so close to the source of all Grace, Joseph was purified and strengthened by that Grace and as those devoted to Christ, strengthened in all the virtues. So too can we become like Joseph if we but draw closer to Christ and His Blessed Mother.

I too in a very special way look to Joseph, for in a similarity that I am blessed to share with this humble saint, in my vocation of marriage, a calling to be not merely a husband, but also to be a father and specifically a step dad or as I would like to think more appropriately, a foster father since Joseph was a foster father to Jesus. I have been blessed and honored to love protect and help my wife Debra raise not one son, but two sons, and like Joseph, I looked on her two boys and love them as my own.

This past weekend we celebrated the Solemnity of Saint Joseph on Sat March 19th. After having prayed the Novena to St. Joseph, I have promised to make a more determined effort to call upon him more in my prayer and spiritual life and to model him in my own life. I do this for I see the need to be more like the righteous man that sought God's Will in all things and to strive to be like the man named Joseph who loved God above all, and loved and cherished Mary the mother of Jesus after that. Good St. Joseph, protect and defend all families and safeguard and help sanctify True and Genuine Marriage which is under attack today! It was God after all, Who chose the model of the family in which to raise His only Son Jesus. In this we have the perfect model of family, the Holy Family. In this family God chose a pure humble woman, a good and righteous man in which to raise a child, His only Son. It is by virtue of the Holy Family, we see the exemplar structure of how all families are to be.

Jesus Mary and Joseph, Sanctify the Family in which you have shown us that it was in the family, where the Domestic Church first took root!