Excerpted from the website of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers (www.dads.org)
As husbands and fathers you are called to holiness. It is not only priests and religious, but all the members of the Church who are called to holiness. Every person has this vocation - the universal call to sanctity. We should ask ourselves, "Am I responding to the call to holiness? Am I growing in virtue? Do I seek to be Christ-like? Am I following the example of St. Joseph?" Let's reflect on the life and example of St. Joseph, the patron and model for all husbands and fathers.
J = Joseph the Just ManSacred Scripture and John Paul II (in his apostolic exhortation "The Guardian of the Redeemer") call Joseph "the just man." What does that mean? It means that he was a holy man, a righteous man, a man of honesty, integrity, and virtue. St. Joseph is the greatest saint and holiest human being after the Blessed Mother. In fact, some of the Doctors of the Church claim that there was no grace ever given to any of the saints that was not given to St. Joseph as well.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that God gives grace proportionate to our office and to our state in life. So if you are a husband and father, you will be given the grace to be a holy husband and father. If someone is ordained a priest, he will be given the grace to be a holy priest. Think how much grace St. Joseph received to be the foster father of the Son of God and the virginal spouse of Mary, of the Immaculate Conception. St. Joseph is the greatest of saints because he was the closest one to Jesus and to the Blessed Mother.
O = Joseph the Obedient OneJoseph was truly obedient to the will of God in his life. The Angel said, "Have no fear about taking Mary as your wife." As soon as Joseph knew God's will for him, he obeyed. When the angel told Joseph that Herod was planning to destroy the child, Joseph immediately got up and began the flight to Egypt.
Some people ask if St. Joseph was old. This is due to the apocryphal writings of the early church, ancient writings which were not divinely inspired, or approved by the Church as Sacred Scripture. One ancient writing says that when Joseph married the Blessed Mother he was 89 years old, and that he died at the age of 111. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that St. Joseph was so old. (We can be assured that Mary didn't have to push St. Joseph in a wheelchair through the desert!) Actually, I believe he was young and strong, perhaps in his 20s or 30s. He was Our Lady's guardian and protector. Scripture speaks about Mary's betrothal to a "man" named Joseph. It does not use the word for an "old man," as it does for Simeon or Zachary. Even in the ancient catacomb of Priscilla, Joseph was drawn without a beard, showing him to be a young man.
Joseph was an obedient man. Whenever he was warned in a dream, he always obeyed the will of God for he never questioned Divine Providence. Even though Mary was more than 8 months pregnant, Joseph believed it was God's will for them to leave Nazareth and go down to Bethlehem. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Micah that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. Joseph abandoned himself to the will of God. Ask yourself these questions: "Am I obedient to the will of God? Am I obedient to the Ten Commandments? Am I obedient to the teaching of Christ and the Church on marriage and family life?" Go to St. Joseph to become obedient sons of the Church.
S = Joseph the Silent OneThere are no recorded words of St. Joseph in Scripture. There are words in the Old Testament for Joseph the great patriarch that can be applied to St. Joseph, but no spoken words of his are found in the New Testament. And yet he's there, a silent presence. Even his death is wrapped in silence.
There is no account as to when he died or where he was buried. He's a man of silence. A man of strength. A man of deep interior life. Silence in our life helps us develop a life of prayer. Joseph was a man of prayer who listened to the word of God. Exterior things did not distract him - he was always a man of interior life. Why? Because he lived in the presence of the Incarnate God.
We picture St. Joseph as a silent worker, as a craftsman, who suffered in silence. He did not complain, and he did not grow angry with God and say, "Why are you doing this, why do we have to flee to Egypt?" He was a man who accepted these things in silence. We should ask ourselves, "Do I have enough silence in my life? Do I spend enough time in prayer with Jesus? Do I listen to Jesus when He speaks to me during the Sunday readings? Do I spend time before the Blessed Sacrament listening to Jesus who is truly present? Do I waste my speech with empty words, or worse, is there lying, gossiping or backbiting? Or do I follow St. Joseph by being a man of virtue and silence?"
E = Joseph the ExampleImagine the kind of man Joseph was. God the Father picked Joseph out of the whole human race to be the man to raise his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. When you get a baby sitter you don't just pick anyone, even if it is for only a few hours. Imagine entrusting your only child to the care of another person. Adoption agencies are very careful in selecting those to whom they entrust other people's children. God also chooses carefully. He chose St. Joseph to be the model for His Son.
St. Joseph was an example to Jesus in his words and in his actions. He has been called the World's Greatest Father. Joseph was truly a father to Jesus in every way except for physical generation. He was the father who taught Jesus how to speak, how to read, and how to make doors and plows. Remember the saying, "Your example speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say."
Isn't that the way children think of their parents? What was the example that St. Joseph gave to the Christ child? He was the perfect example, the world's greatest father, the educator of Jesus, the mold of his manhood.
Joseph homeschooled Jesus and taught him. Even though He was the Son of God and had the beatific vision, Jesus had to grow in experiential knowledge, and had to develop into maturity. Jesus looked up to St. Joseph, even imitating his mannerisms. So, reflect for a moment, "What example do you give? What example do you give to your wife, to your children? Do you teach your children the Catholic Faith? Do you study your own Faith by reading at least 10 - 20 minutes every day? Do you make good use of your travel time listening to cassette tapes to deepen your faith? Do you go on retreat each year? Are you living out your vocation as spiritual leader of your family?"
P = Joseph the PatronSt. Joseph is our benefactor who prays for us. Joseph is the patron Saint of husbands, fathers and workers. We should always pray that we would have the same kind of death that St. Joseph had, dying in the arms of Jesus and Mary. He is the patron Saint of a happy death, which means dying in the arms of Jesus and Mary and in the embrace of Holy Mother Church. Pray to St. Joseph for the grace of a happy death.
He is also the patron Saint of the universal Church. Everything that St. Joseph did for Jesus he now does for the Church. Why? Because the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Blessed Mother is the mother of the Church and St. Joseph is the foster father and guardian of the Church.
H = St. Joseph the Helper of the Blessed MotherSt. Joseph was the virginal spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In God's plan of salvation he was a loving husband: kind, considerate, affectionate, and self-sacrificing. St. Joseph had the responsibility for spiritual leadership as the head of the family. God's message from the angel was revealed to him even though the Blessed Mother was much holier due to her Immaculate Conception. St. Joseph was chosen because he was the head of that family, just as every one of you is the spiritual head of your family.
Joseph and Mary worked as a team. The word "Team" could stand for "Together everyone achieves more." Develop teamwork with your wife. Zig Ziglar, in his book Courtship after Marriage uses the example of the Belgian horse. These huge Belgian horses can pull 8,000 pounds individually. But when two are harnessed together and trained to pull as a team, they can pull 32,000 pounds! Isn't that amazing? So when you are united with your spouse in an effort to move your family towards God, you will accomplish much more as a couple than you could on your own. Ask yourself, "Do I help my spouse? Are we working as a team to bring our children closer to God?" Your vocation is really--by cooperating with God's grace--to get yourself, your spouse and your children to Heaven. This is your ultimate vocation in life.
Fr. Francis Peffley is the pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, Virginia (www.holytrinityparish.net). He is a popular speaker at St. Joseph’s Covenant Keepers Conferences.
