March 19, 2010: Charismatic Conference Mass on Friday at 3PM

I was invited at a dinner the other day by a couple who has been married for over 25 years. And I listened to the husband say, "You know, all I know about St. Joseph is that he was the husband of Jesus and the foster father of Jesus. Other than that, I really don't identify with him or connect with him." This is probably true for many of us. I had devotions to Blessed Mother, St. Therese, St. Bernadette, and Father Seelos, but I didn't have devotion to St. Joseph until after Katrina.

After Notre Dame Seminary was damaged, all the seminarians were relocated to St. Joseph Abbey in Covington for 4 months while our seminary was repaired. When we returned to the seminary in January of 2006, we dedicated the year to St. Joseph, asking him to help rebuild the seminary. Certainly the physical plant needed much work, but what was more in dire need was our morale at the seminary. Katrina has stirred up a lot of things in us seminarians, and it was affecting our resolve to priesthood. We stormed the heaven for the intercession of St. Joseph. We honored and thanked him for his intercession at the seminary by setting up St. Joseph's Altar.

When I look back at my seminary years, I notice that St. Joseph was the one who was guiding me. I had two spiritual directors during my seminary days, both named after St. Joseph--Fr. Joseph Benson and Fr. Joseph Palermo. For the past two years, I have been appointed as the chaplain for our all-girls' high school, St. Joseph Academy which is run by Sisters of St. Joseph.

For that reason I really rely greatly on St. Joseph for those who seek my confessional. When husbands, fathers, and men say to me in the confessional that they have fallen short in being a good husband, in being a good father, failing to be kind, gentle, patient, humble, and chaste men. Without a fail, I give them this penance. Please go over to the statue of St. Joseph in our church, put your hand on his feet, and ask him, "St. Joseph please help me to be the good and holy man that God called me to be." Often the men receiving this penance would say, "Father, I really don't know St. Joseph." And I would reply, "Well, this is the better time than never to get to know him. He will help you greatly."

Sometimes mothers and wives come into my confessional and complain, "Father, my husband use fowl language in front of our children, or he is so insensitive, or I caught him on the computer looking at something that he shouldn't have." And invariably I tell them, "As your penance, could you go over to the statue of St. Joseph, put your hand on his feet, and ask him to give your husband the necessary virtues to become better and holier husband and father?"

No wonder saints have relied on St. Joseph throughout our history. One in particular, St. Teresa of Avila found him to be her most important patron. She said,

"I took for my advocate and lord the glorious St. Joseph and commended myself earnestly to him...I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which He has freed me, both in body and in soul...
I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to this glorious saint, for I have great experience of the blessings which he can obtain from God. I have never known anyone to be truly devoted to him and render him particular services who did not notably advance in virtue, for he gives very real help to souls who commend themselves to him...If anyone cannot find a master to teach him to pray, let him take this glorious St. Joseph as his master and he will not go astray."

Wow, if St. Teresa of Avila, who is one of the 13 Doctors of the Church, recommends St. Joseph to us, we do well to take her advice.