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I didn’t grow up with any special devotion to St. Joseph, but since this is his year, I was inspired to take a closer look at him—especially since I work with Toni Austin.
She has a relationship with him, and every morning in the handicraft room where we work at St. Mary’s, we start the day with a prayer to him, entrusting our intentions to him.
Then when the handicraft room needed a good paper cutter, we prayed for it through the intercession of St. Joseph. Shortly after this, one appeared in our donation center, just exactly the kind we had in mind. I took notice.
Then I discovered Fr. Don Calloway’s book, Consecration to St. Joseph. I read it and I was inspired to consecrate myself to St. Joseph.
I picked the first St. Joseph date that was available—January 23rd, the Espousal of Mary and Joseph, an ancient feast that dates back to the 15th century. So I started the 33-day preparation on Dec. 22nd—the Wedding of Mary and Joseph. This is the best book I’ve read in the past year.
For each of the 33 days, Fr. Don talks about a different line of the Litany of St. Joseph. The one I found especially powerful was “Terror of Demons”. It is a title of a warrior.
Fr. Don states, “The last thing Satan wants is for men to be presences of St. Joseph, to increase the presence of St. Joseph in the world.”
This line stunned me, for I suddenly realized that my father was a St. Joseph. For like St. Joseph, my father was a layman and God fearing, and he lived his fatherhood with strength and determination.
My father’s goal was to get his six children to heaven, and he entrusted his family to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
As a child, I watched him pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. My father was a man of prayer and this is where he got his strength. I learned a profound lesson—that true masculinity is rooted in the humility of knowing that you need God.
Dad was a great provider and protector, and he loved us all dearly. He was a lot of fun and took us on family vacations. He was also a builder, carpenter, and plumber; he could fix anything. He made all my Barbie doll furniture, which I treasured greatly.
My father grew up in a poor section of Topeka, Kansas, and he had an intelligent mind.
After he returned from serving in World War II, he took advantage of the GI bill and went to college. He later got a Masters and then a PhD in Animal Science and became a professor at Michigan State and worked with dairy farmers.
But Dad’s Catholic faith was the most important thing to him. He and Mom brought us up in the Catholic traditions.
We went to Sunday Mass, monthly confession, and Forty Hours Devotion, and prayed the family rosary during May and October and while traveling in the car. Moreover, my parents sacrificed so that we could all go to our parochial grade school.
Dad even had home Masses and invited the nuns that taught us to attend. Like St. Joseph, my father was the pillar of the family, and Satan is powerless in his attacks against a family when a father takes his role seriously.
Also like St. Joseph, Dad had a great love for Our Lady. Before he proposed to Mom, he prayed a 54-day rosary novena in petition and gratitude. Then on their wedding night he suggested to Mom that they pray for vocations. Growing up, I had no idea they had done that.
The first born was my brother David, who became a priest. The second was me, who became a member of Madonna House. The next four found their vocations in marriage.
Dad was active in the parish. He was generous to the poor and taught us to tithe. He belonged to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and regularly visited someone in a nursing home who had MS and would take him out.
Later, after I left home, Mom was part of a women’s Charismatic prayer group. One time, at Mom’s invitation, Dad attended. The ladies prayed over him and one of them had a word for him—that the Lord was inviting him to start a men’s prayer group in the parish.
Dad took it seriously and spoke with the pastor. He had wanted just a simple men’s prayer group, but the pastor wanted a Knight’s of Columbus. Dad humbly did what the pastor wanted.
Dad was quite a leader and through his prayer and hard work, the Knight’s of Columbus group he started thrived.
He could sell anything if he believed in it. He even got the men to sign up for a weekly hour of adoration.
Yes, my father was quite a remarkable man, and I realize that I am very blessed to have had a dad who passed his faith and strength on to me. Dad prayed daily for me. I know my vocation originated in my father’s heart, and for that, I am forever grateful.
But, until this Year of St. Joseph, I did not realize that my dad was such a holy man as well as a wonderful father.
