St. Joseph: The Father No Longer “Hidden or in the Shadows”
By: Joseph Serwach
Tags: Spirituality, Christianity, Religion, Pope Francis, Catholic

St. Joseph: The Father No Longer “Hidden or in the Shadows”

The Dream of St. Joseph by Luca Giordano (1634–1705). Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s the Year of St. Joseph, a first in Church history. Pope Francis has dedicated now through December 8, 2021, to the protector of families, the Church, workers — and fathers.

“Each of us can discover in Joseph — the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence — an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble,’’ Pope said. “St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

Millions felt “unnoticed’’ or “non-essential’’ during the pandemic:

A record 35 percent of U.S. children live in single-parent homes . The pope stressed: “Children today often seem like orphans, lacking fathers. The Church too needs fathers… ‘Though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers’ (1 Cor 4:15).”

. The pope stressed: “Children today often seem like orphans, lacking fathers. The Church too needs fathers… ‘Though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers’ (1 Cor 4:15).” Humanity’s first broken relationship? Between the Father and His children. The pope added, “Being a father entails introducing children to life and reality. Not holding them back, being overprotective or possessive.”

Between the Father and His children. The pope added, “Being a father entails introducing children to life and reality. Not holding them back, being overprotective or possessive.” Questioning authority? Your relationship with your earthly father completely shapes how you see your Heavenly Father and all authority figures: God, family, and country. Trust is at an all-time low. Too many “confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction.”

Your relationship with your earthly father completely shapes how you see your Heavenly Father and all authority figures: God, family, and country. Trust is at an all-time low. Too many “confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction.” The logic of love is always the logic of freedom. The Holy Father declared, “and Joseph knew how to love with extraordinary freedom. He never made himself the center of things.”

What difference does a Year of St. Joseph make? Just ask Fr. Donald Calloway, author of “Consecration to St. Joseph’’

Father Donald Calloway, 48, is a Marian priest and native of Dearborn, Michigan, now based in Steubenville, Ohio. The author of Consecration to St. Joseph wrote Pope Francis with the request in May 2019.

Father Calloway’s own conversion story is a powerful example of a prodigal son lost — and then found — after his family found Catholicism and then brought him home.

He grew up with three different fathers before he was 9 and little to no religion. When his mom married into a military family, they began moving, ultimately being stationed in Japan when he was a teenager who “really bit onto the culture.’’

Calloway wound up a runaway, deported, dropping out of school, doing “all kinds of crazy immoral things.’’ His worst behavior seemed to help drive the rest of his family to conversion to Catholicism. They prayed until the teenager experienced his own conversion, becoming a nationally known priest and Marian father.

“I’m in awe of what’s going on,’’ Calloway said in a Facebook live stream after the announcement. “The effects of this are going to be off the charts.’’

He said he “put the book together because of crazy times,’’ and then the book was released just in time for the pandemic, making the world need St. Joseph even more.

“This is one of the happiest days of my life,’’ Calloway said. “This is so unique. This isn’t something that happens every day. We’ve got the whole church on board now… We did it. Your prayers made it happen.’’

In his book on consecrating to St. Joseph, he called on readers to pray for a Year of Joseph, but he notes some dioceses have already had their own “Year of Joseph’’ before the pope’s decision and have already “borne great fruit.’’

Calloway noted the Birmingham, Alabama diocese began the first diocese-wide “Year of St. Joseph’’ in 2018. On the final day of that St. Joseph year, major pro-life legislation passed the Alabama Legislature.

Oldest and newest prayers: The laity have always called on Joseph

One of the oldest known prayers, going back to 50 AD or earlier, starts, “Oh, St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Chris, our Lord.’’

The new year was announced on the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX proclaiming St. Joseph patron of the Universal Church. This special year lasts through December 8, 2021, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception honoring Joseph’s beloved wife, Mary.

Pope Francis grants a plenary indulgence to Catholics reciting approved prayers honoring St. Joseph. Besides the many existing prayers to Joseph, the pope wrote a new prayer:

“Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To you God entrusted His only Son; in you Mary placed her trust; with you Christ became man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen.”

The three conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence are:

Sacramental confession.

Receiving Holy Communion.

Praying for the pope’s intentions.

The indulgences are available any day but are especially encouraged on days honoring St. Joseph, including the December 29 Feast of the Holy Family, his March 19 solemnity, the May 1 Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the 19th of every month, and every Wednesday, a day dedicated to Joseph in the Latin tradition.

How to turn a problem into a possibility

The pope said St. Joseph, at the crossroads of the Old and New Testament, shows us how “to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting in Divine Providence.” Joseph also shows “the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor.’’

He added: “Our world today needs fathers. It has no use for tyrants who would domineer others as a means of compensating for their own needs.”

Pope Francis added: “If at times God seems not to help us, surely this does not mean that we have been abandoned, but instead are being trusted to plan, to be creative, and to find solutions ourselves.”

Noting Joseph’s patronage for people who work, Pope Francis said workers “are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us.” Pope Francis encourages everyone “to rediscover the value, the importance and the necessity of work for bringing about a new ‘normal’ from which no one is excluded.”

Because everyone is called to some vocation, the pope said, “Every true vocation is born of the gift of oneself, which is the fruit of mature sacrifice.”

Like each of us, he said Jesus “came into our world in a state of great vulnerability. He needed to be defended, protected, cared for, and raised by Joseph.”

God and Mary trusted Joseph, and he continues protecting the Church family.

“Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion,’’ the Holy Father said.

“It becomes an opportunity for the fulfillment not only of oneself but also of that primary cell of society, which is the family. A family without work is particularly vulnerable to difficulties, tensions, estrangement, and even break-up. How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?”

The Church has awakened the sleeping giant

In 2015, the pope said he keeps an image of the sleeping St. Joseph on his desk, adding, “I have a great love for St. Joseph because he is a man of silence and strength.”

Though Joseph is sleeping in the image on the pope’s desk, Francis said: “Even when he is asleep, he is taking care of the Church! Yes! We know that he can do that. So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and I put it underneath St. Joseph, so that he can dream about it!’’

St. Joseph shows us all how to face difficulties; the pope stressed:

“If the first stage of all true interior healing is to accept our personal history and embrace even the things in life that we did not choose, we must now add another important element: creative courage.

“This emerges especially in the way we deal with difficulties. In the face of difficulty, we can either give up and walk away, or somehow engage with it. At times, difficulties bring out resources we did not even think we had.”