Dear Friends,
As the feast of St Joseph, the Husband of Mary, draws near, I am minded to bring to your attention the Holy Father, Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Patris corde (With a Father’s Heart) proclaiming a “Year of St Joseph”, beginning from December 8, 2020, the feast of Immaculate Conception to December 8, 2021. The announcement was to mark the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
For us Catholic Men, this announcement is significant as it affords us the opportunity to reflect for the whole year on the life of St Joseph, our Patron Saint. It also indirectly calls us to personal and group reflection on our lives as Men in the Church, society and family, in the light of the attributes of St Joseph as described by the Holy Father in “Patris corde”.
In the letter, Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. It is the totality of these attributes that enabled St Joseph to obediently consent to the will ofGod the Father to accept unconditionally, a pregnancy that was not his and went on to protect Mary and “concretely expressed his fatherhood” by offering himself in love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home,” writes Pope Francis, quoting his predecessor St Paul VI.
The life of St Joseph as described by Pope Francis, can be further expatiated in the various fields of apostolate that the Church enjoins Men to consider in our lives as part of the People of God in the Decree of the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem) in the Documents of Vatican II. With the focus now on the celebration of St Joseph the Husband of Mary permit me to quote from Chapter 3, (11) of the Decree to remind ourselves as Men in the family and fathers of the home, to some of the roles we could play in our apostolate:
- “The creator of all things established conjugal society as the beginning and basis of human society. The apostolate of married persons and families is therefore of unique importance for the Church and civil society. Christian husbands and wives are cooperators in faith for each other, their children and others in their household. They are the first to communicate the faith to their children and to educate them by word and example for the Christian and apostolic life”. (11)
- “God has given the family the mission of being the first and vital cell of society. It will fulfill this mission, if it appears as the domestic sanctuary of the Church and makes itself a part of the liturgical worship, provides active hospitality and promotes justice and other good works for the service of the brethren in need. Other family apostolate may include the adoption of abandoned infants, giving helpful advice and material assistance to adolescents, help to engaged couples in preparing themselves better for marriage, support of married couples and families involved in material and moral crisis, help for the aged, help to young people to cope adequately with their new responsibilities as they grow into their social, political and economic status (11).
The above
quotes from the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity are to help in our
reflections as men and as husbands in the building of the domestic Church, same
way as St Joseph did with Mary and Jesus
and through that, the building of true Christian communities in support of the salvific mission of the Church.
In conclusion, let us pray together with the Holy Father in the prayer below composed to St Joseph, seeking his intercession for an end to the Covid-19 pandemic and an equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccines throughout the world to benefit both the poor and the rich.
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.
Happy feast of St Joseph, husband of Mary and our Patron Saint!!
EDWARD A PRAH KSG
(PRESIDENT, ICCM-UNUM OMNES)