Consecration to St. Joseph - Crazy or Crucial? with Fr. Don Calloway

welcome to the art of Catholic guys today I am joined by father Don Calloway and we're going to talk about something that you probably haven't ever considered consecration to st. Joseph now I bet a number of you are consecrated to Our Lady when moving into this type of relationship with Jesus's earthly father just a little bit different but I think that through our conversation your eyes are gonna be open to the fact that this might be something not just interesting but essential especially given what's happening around us now father Callaway as many of you know is the vicar provincial and vocation director for the mother of Mercy province of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception it's a mouthful he's now written 14 books and is a convert to Catholicism now I met father Callaway in person for the first time when we were both speakers on a special five star a Holy Land pilgrimage with Jim Caviezel starv Passion of the Christ person of interest etc and speaking of the Holy Land I'm gonna be leaving the identical pilgrimage that same itinerary same five-star hotel same private coaches same everything in March 2021 not having to check in and out of multiple hotels and staying in a really beautiful place right next to the old city was amazing so I'm gonna do it again and there is absolutely nothing like it it's the perfect way to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and experience the exotic world and holy sites of Israel it will change your life you can find the information about that tour as well as my pilgrimage to Poland in October 2020 at Matthew s Leonard calm war by calling 206 tours at 800 206 86 87 and asking about Matthews Leonard's pilgrimages alright and just another quick announcement this is a big one as regular subscribers to the art of Catholic know last year I left the st. Paul center and launched next level Catholic Academy now the Academy is an online subscription school of spiritual theology that has quickly become thanks be to God one of the premier schools of its kind in the world now the main course in the Academy is titled the science of sainthood it's a step-by-step guide through the teachings of the spiritual Giants of our faith like Saint John of the Cross st. Teresa of ávila st. Thomas Aquinas and others that literally lays out the path to sainthood it's all the stuff you should have been taught but never were now by the time this episode airs I'll have published nearly 70 full professionally produced video lessons in the course and there are a lot of people all over the world moving through this material right now so here's the thing this Lent I'm going to offer the first 15 lessons of the science of sainthood for free yep free and trust me this is unlike any other Lenten video study you have ever done this section of the science of sainthood is called Catholic mysticism and the beautiful life of grace it's an overview of the mystical life to which every Catholic is called and it explores the public secret of the Catholic faith the fact that you and I are made not just to go to heaven but to be literally deified that's what the Catholic faith is all about and we'll dive into exactly how that happens so you can stop treading spiritual water and rock it your way to God now the video lessons will be accompanied by a beautiful brand-new workbook that I developed for personal or group study specifically for these lessons in the science of sainthood it's got st. passages scripture for Lexi o Divina written meditations as well as review and discussion questions again for personal and group study it's even got dedicated areas to take notes and journal if you like to do that so how do you participate well you can sign up for the free streaming and order your workbook at next level Catholic academy.com and remember this is for a very limited time only it's only for Lent so you want to jump on this again go to next level Catholic academy.com to sign up alright on to the interview now as I said father Callaway and I met while in the Holy Land and we hit it off immediately he is totally down to earth and very cool and his latest endeavor had been trying to gin up Catholics to not only take a hard look at st. Joseph but to consider consecrating themselves to him he's super amped about this so let's find out why today on the art of Catholic I am joined by father Don Callaway who's author speaker he's the vicar provincial the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception and it is not his first time on the art of Catholic a few years ago I had him on to discuss his book on Mary Champions of the Rosary the history and heroes of a spiritual weapon it was a great interview a great book really really interesting and I'm happy to have him back to talk about his latest endeavor which is this book consecration to st. Joseph the wonders of our spiritual father so father Don welcome back to the art of Catholic thanks brother good to be with you man it is great to have you and you know the the first time I heard about this book you and I were on pilgrimage together with Jim Caviezel and John Michael Talbot and like 250 of our closest friends the Holy Land and since it was a really big pilgrimage they would have us you know balance around the different buses so that we could meet and greet other pilgrims that weren't on our home bus this is the first time that I heard you talk about this book because you came onto a bus that I happened to be on and what was obvious to me and to everybody else on this bus to it was you were really passionate about this this project of yours and you called it and you say this in the book as well that this is the time of st. Joseph and why why is it you know what kind of kicked you into gear with this project and why do you call the time of st. Joseph yeah that's a great question and a lot of people are asking that because I am I really am adamant about that and the wreaths kind of twofold I guess one is that if you look at theology and in its history and even some of its development in regards to st. Joseph we've really only started to unpack the Wonder and the mystery of who he is on a deep level on a doctrinal theological level within the last 150 years before that not there wasn't really much done on him you know a saint here or there had a great devotion to him and encouraged devotion to him but there really wasn't a lot of doctrinal going deep into who is this man you know and and what makes him so special in Christianity so I go through that in the book and I talk about what's happened in the last 150 years from Pope's you know writing documents about st. Joseph that's never happened before how he's now his name is in the mass you know this is recent stuff and now it's it's it's being really emphasized by the church so that's one element the other is that we as you know and of all your listeners I'm sure know we're in a time of great crisis when it comes to family people are confused they don't even know what a family is anymore we've got modern families you know you can define it whatever however you want you know it's it's craziness that gender a gender ideology people don't even know which bathroom to use today it's chaos and confusion so in light of that you know we we are consecrated to our Lord by our baptism you know he's our God we worship Him many of us have done a Marian consecration of filio devotional giving of ourselves to marys our spiritual mother when this time today of this crisis in families and masculinity and femininity we need to kind of close the gap and bring in that fatherly aspect of st. Joseph to to restore order to this messed up confusion that we've got today in in in the world and and sometimes even in the church we got people saying this on one side other people saying this we need st. Joseph today to bring some order to this house and that's that's I think the second element well I it's interesting because it makes my next question to you and you're kind of touching on this already but you've talked about how we have a devotion and very popular devotions to Our Lady consecrations to Our Lady which I have done you know you guys saying the mom for you have your calm for father Michael Gately is 33 days and a lot of people have done that mind that's become pretty popular yeah but what do you say to people were like well we've already consecrated ourselves to Mary and she's greater than all the angels and saints combined what do I need to myself to st. Joseph for what's the point right so it's it's a it's a great point it's actually amazing that we haven't done this before because if you look at the life of our Lord Himself Jesus Christ the god man when he took on human nature he placed himself under the parentage of not just Mary but also Joseph and it says in the New Testament that he grew in wisdom and stature before God and man under the watchful care of his parents so if we are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ which we are in the New Covenant we should imitate him on this by giving ourselves not only to the Virgin Mary but also to st. Joseph because all children grow up best when they have a mother and a father were not members of a single parent spiritual family Mary's our spiritual mother st. Joseph is our spiritual father we need them and so we need both of them there's only so much that a mother can teach a child especially a boy and so we need a father's example to look to Jesus needed that and his human nature not as divine person as divine nature as human ages growth and development he needed that and if he needed that we need that too so let's entrust ourselves also to st. Joseph yeah it makes total sense to me that we would be consecrated to both Mary and Joseph because as you already alluded to along with Christ they make up the Holy Family I was actually married on the Feast of the Holy Family which I consider to be a great blessing but the Holy Family is what it's an image of the divine family of God you have their roles represented and Christ is obviously the son in both families and you have in addition to him being this kind of bridge between the human and divine you have Joseph is this father God figure and as st. Maximilian Kolbe beautifully theologizing about Mary how she's an icon or an image of the work of the Holy Spirit in the divine life of God in the Trinity so she's kind of an icon of the Holy Spirit and the family life is just it is a fundamental key to the spiritual life in general because we're made for family life you were never made for this divine family of God that's our ultimate destiny and we're incorporated into that family through Jesus Christ you become sons and the son as the the church fathers like to say and just as Mary and Joseph help Jesus to grow and learn as you were talking about father they're there to help us become sons and daughters in the kingdom of God as well so this makes a complete and utter sense and I think that you know when I first started reading the book I had the same question like okay I've done Mary and frankly it took a lot for me to consecrate myself to Mary just because Louie de montfort language about slaves of Mary and all the rest that kind of stuff that was great it was it was kind of hard for my still too Protestant ears to to hear but it was life changing in a lot of ways and I'm looking forward to going through this consecration to st. Joseph as well especially I think as a man yep yeah III hear you and the book is written for everyone but I think men in particular are gonna get something unique out of it because so many men today in our culture and sadly even in our church they've been emasculated they they don't know what it means to be a man and then if they try and maybe show that in some way maybe even in a strong way the culture says up that's toxic toxic masculinity don't do that and so it's like no wait a minute here you know so it's ridiculous so men have got to be strong they shouldn't be afraid to be leaders servant leaders and men who are sacrificial but men nonetheless because there's so much confusion today that I'm really looking forward to lots of men's groups doing this program aren't you tired of you know the culture making us all look like Homer Simpson's I mean it it's gotten to this ridiculous level where it's okay to just completely make fun of men and men don't even know what it turned for a role model anymore like right which minded guy are we supposed to be and st. Joseph is perfect for that so why is it that that devotion to st. Joseph took so long to get off the ground why is it that the theology about him wasn't really started - didn't start to develop until the last hundred or so years yeah well I think if you just look at it like in the early Church um there were many reasons that st. Joseph wasn't focused on and they were there were good reasons and thank God for st. Joseph's humility he's willing to take the backstage he doesn't need to be upfront you know that's why I think our Lord loves him so much because he's willing to step out of the picture so that there's no confusion so if if Jesus had it really emphasized the holiness of st. Joseph you know his disciples and apostles in the early church might have been really confused about which father Jesus was talking about right so Jesus is here to lead us ultimately to his Heavenly Father God right now it'll take time as our Lord said the Holy Spirit will come at a later time and reveal to you all things so that's why I believe now the Holy Spirit is willing to reveal to us something deeper about st. Joseph another reason that st. Joseph really hasn't been emphasized over the centuries is because the early Christians had great intentions but what they did to to to really emphasize that Mary was a perpetual virgin and that there was no conjugal union in the marriage of Mary and Joseph they therefore depicted st. Joseph as an old man hardly able to walk to be honest with you some of the icons and depictions he looks like the grandfather of Jesus more than you know there's a coptic tradition it's apocryphal all these are apocryphal by the way non canonical the church has no teaching on the age of st. Joseph but a lot of these apocryphal texts in the early church the Coptic one for example said that he married Our Lady when he was 90 years old you know just to show that man is not capable of conjugal union and it's like okay so now that we've kind of worked through that stuff when we realized look young men are just as capable of being chaste right as an as an old man you know by default but young men can actually exercise great virtue when they do it so if say Joseph is the most chaste it's a pearl ative of that virtue the most pure the most the most the most of you know then he doesn't mean he had to be old to do that right so that's why you got a lot of people now like st. Josemaria Escriva venerable Fulton sheen Mother Angelica you know they they've said that we really need to reevaluate and look at the depictions in art and in statues icons even of st. Joseph was he old or was he younger okay maybe he wasn't our lady's age but was he old well you had that great story of Mother Angelica when someone asked this calling into her show and she said well old men don't walk to to Egypt sweetie I thought was hilarious totally right that's a long walk and that's over tough terrain and then st. Joseph would have by Jewish you know rituals had to walk three times a year to Jerusalem from Nazareth that's a serious walk yeah we've driven that on buses and it's exhausting for crying out loud exactly so just something to think about so that's why he really wasn't emphasized throughout the centuries because people thought well he's just an old guy that God used really he wasn't very involved he was probably taking naps during the day anyway because he was old so they really didn't focus on st. Joseph but now that's that's that's changing yeah I loved that you have a really long quote by Fulton sheen on in this section of the book which I thought was beautiful and there was one little line a little phrase that just really caught my eye where he calls the relationship between Mary and Joseph while emphasizing this youthful aspect of Joseph he calls it the first divine romance and we tend to think of this as like you know the old man and of course he doesn't really have any interest in this young beautiful woman or you know whatever right but the Fulton sheen makes this point no he is a he's a man right he's in the the bloom of he wasn't a kid but he certainly wasn't an old man who wasn't interested in those kinds of things he was full of vigor and life and that's why you're talking about him being the most chaste spouse yeah and his many of his titles depict a man who is strong right if he's the guardian of her virgins old men don't guard anything okay so if he's the Guardian if he's the pillar a families if there's certain term terror of demons I mean you know I mean these are words that depict a man who is strong who's a force to be reckoned with and and and that's something that you know we now we've got to really look at we've got to say you know what have we really jacked that up with his image you know could we do it better you know and the white lily that the Joseph holds in so many of the statues that you see of him correct me if I'm wrong the father but that wreck that symbolizes the purity of st. Joseph as the most chaste spouse and what does that mean well he was a chaste man who was in control of his passions he didn't allow them to rule him which wise he's the the most chaste spouse and what better role model for you know men and women who were struggling to to control their passions and and frankly one of the things that occurred to me what you know who besides maybe our lady could be a more powerful ally in the fight against the demonic scourge of pornography in today's world then the most chaste spouse I mean think about that one of the reasons why men really need to develop a devotion to st. Joseph yes that's you nailed it right there and that's why I think men intuitively know this because as I travel around I'm sure as you see it as well a lot of men's groups do have like a Joseph themed men of st. Joseph or st. Joseph's group or battalion or whatever it is because they intrinsically know that and another thing I want to mention too was um sister Lucia dos Santos you know the longest-lived visionary of the Fatima apparitions she said that the final battle between good and evil will be over marriage in the family and we're seeing that played out today you know and that's why we've got to get st. Joseph right I think if we get him right we're gonna see the correction of a lot of the wrongs that are happening in in society and I think it makes complete another sense that the last battle is going to be fought over family life because again family life is the divine life of God that's why we're not born as individuals into this world even though that's what the world wants us to do they want us to you know be ourselves at the expense of any kind of conformity at all or family life and that's the imaan ik it just is yeah you know in addition to terror of demons another one of the the titles that you mentioned in the book is patron of the dying and you had this really great quote from one of my favorites saying st. Alphonsus Liguori and it says this Jesus granted to him st. Joseph the special privilege of safeguarding the dying against the snares of Lucifer just as he has also saved him Jesus from the schemes of Herod and getting back to this kind of manly vision we should have of st. Joseph he didn't live a peaceful easy life you know the guy was have he worked with his hands and he faced danger of death on numerous occasions I mean you know we tend to think that for example that the only people who are in danger of death at the slaughter of the innocents were the babies but you can't tell me that the mothers and the fathers weren't fighting to defend their children I'm sure that a lot of men and women died and at that point in time and I'm sure that you can't tell me Joseph wasn't willing to go to war for his own child you're actually given the circumstances under which this baby was born right right so it's another I think he's uniquely qualified than to help us at our moment of need when we're gonna face Almighty God which is something every one of us is gonna do and so I love this title yeah I do too and that's why I mean it's because of that title in many ways that he's everyone's personal patron because we're all gonna die right you know there's no way around that so if we appeal to him and we're calling upon him I mean wouldn't it be great to die like him in the arms of our lady and with our Lord there I mean you can't get a more blessed death you know than that and so and and it's a priest I know that many times when people are in the throes of death there is a spiritual battle that takes place I mean you you can almost see that there's a struggle going on the person either doesn't want to let go or they're very remorseful regretful and that last moment of their life and the devil is trying to take an opportunity there to get them to despair and so if we have Saint Joseph on our side we got nothing to worry about I mean he's the terror of demons one glance of his eyes one you know petition from him to his to his son our Savior we're good to go you know it's interesting glance to the eyes of one of the the coolest parts are thoughts that I saw in your book and you lay the book out in three different parts and we'll get to that in just a minute but in the second part you list out what you call the wonders of our spiritual father and Wonder number seven you said was he was a door of Christ and at the top of the page you have this this great quote from blessed William Joseph Chaminade it says what a sublime vision to have the Son of God ever before his eyes ecstasy most rare rapture most marvelous and we don't think about this very often but Mary and Joseph were in this kind of state of perpetual adoration whenever they were with the Christ child and you know I'm really blessed in Steubenville where you and I both live there are several different Perpetual Adoration chapels and I have one of my own parish and frankly I think it's one of the the greatest graces in my life to be able to frequent this adoration Chapel because I know how badly I need it weak as I am so think of the graces that were received by Saint Joseph what was empowering him to help us was this perpetual adoration he had and there's a deep relationship that he had with Almighty God who was with him constantly that it is incredible I mean there are so many meditations there and and you can go so deep with that because if Moses you know saw the face of God and came down and was glowing I mean that was just a brief period of time st. Joseph was there for like three decades I mean like thirty years we think you know then and so it's like wow and you know as theologians we'll say the closer you come to the source of grace you know that capacity and the holiness that you exude is gonna be extraordinary well there we have such intimacy between st. Joseph and Jesus that we're talking next-level holiness we're talking I mean wow you know he would have made the angels jealous you know those are some of the good titles so to speak what do you think of the title foster father of Jesus because you hear that a lot right right I mean it's a legit title it's it's part of the litany of Saint Joseph it's not one of my favorite titles I like it it's legit it's you know and and I like it because there are a lot of foster father's in the world that are great men and you know I myself was adopted but the important thing to remember is that as I say in the book it's it's more of a legal title you know that's good you know but at the same time it has to be emphasized that it's more than legality there's affection there's great great tenderness that's shown in that relationship between Jesus and st. Joseph so for example when our Lord was a little baby and he said his first word right did he look up at Saint Joseph and say foster father no he would have said father daddy you know to him and so it's tender you know so there's nothing wrong with foster father in the title as long as you understand that it's more than a legal thing that existed between them it was great tenderness and love for each other how could it not if he was everything that we that we believed him to be well you know that he was pouring himself out on that child and the feeling was very mutual yeah you talk about meditations and I would imagine that as you were researching all of this and prepping the book that there were a great number of amazing insights that you had what was the coolest thing that just you kind of came across or or the scales kind of fell from your eyes at some point when you were doing all this there was a lot of them one of them I titled it's one of the wonders was like I saw in several Saints a title that at first I thought hmm that's a little sketchy when I when I heard but it was that st. Joseph's is the savior of the savior and I'm like whoa yeah like oh boy you know here's heresy and in every potential convert just went okay go so I discovered though was they were talking about specifically was when Saint Joseph saved Jesus from Herod by taking him to Egypt and so say Joseph is not the Messiah he's not God or anything but it's thanks to Saint Joseph saving our Savior that we have what we have in Christianity I mean he saved the life of our Savior so that we could you know have the sacrificial sacrifice of the lamb on the cross to save us from our sins and take us to the kingdom of the father so that title is unique to st. Joseph not even Our Lady has that title she's not called the savior of the Savior so st. Joseph is under Our Lady's not greater than our Lady but he does have certain titles and privileges that not even our Lady has that's one of them he's called Savior of the Savior he also and this blew my mind this is incredible Saint Joseph loved Jesus with a Father's heart you and I can't do that not even the Virgin Mary can do that she loves him with the maternal heart now we can't do that either and nobody else can but see like you and I as men we love our Lord intensely we are we adore him he's our Savior we he's everything to us but we don't love him with a Father's heart I can't say to Jesus my son I can't do that neither can you Joseph can what I mean that is mind-blowing yeah I'm getting chills right now oh man you know I remember when I held my first child in the hospital and the momentous responsibilities fatherhood just kind of crashed down on me at that moment and I I can't fathom what that must have been like for Joseph as he's looking at this baby whether or not the baby was born in a manger or in a cave as we've heard on our holy way and togarmah jizz all right he had have been so full of grace obviously not in the same way as our lady but he had to have been so full to be able to take those responsibilities of the Fatherhood of of the god man and fulfill that in spite of all the obstacles that came his way it really is it's incredible to think of what he must have gone through and we kind of read the highlight reel yeah there's some good and bad things that we read about all those pretty quiet about Joseph but he had to go through all the mundanity zuv life and all the struggles of of trying to make a living and raise this child and all the rest we don't think about that but he can identify with every aspect of our lives mm-hmm yeah totally and that's what makes him so real and applicable to everyone and what I love about him too and I was I was talking to some people yesterday about this is that st. Joseph was not a Pope he was not a priest he was a layman I mean you think about it the two greatest people in Christianity outside of our Lord of course a divine person the two greatest people were lay people Mary and Joseph yeah that's great it is it's extraordinary I mean and that's why we've got this universal call to holiness we're talking if you want to live out the the call today look to Joseph yeah I mean he is such an example for everyone it doesn't matter even for me as a priest he is but it's for everyone else to the majority of people are in allez-vous keishon look to him as the model of a father and a husband and a father of Christ he's the greatest and he was a layman and I think this is actually starting to to be you know Josef's getting more and more popular I mean your book is evidence of this and you mentioned that there are men's groups that are growing up around you know here and there and in fact my last talk of 2019 was to the society of st. Joseph at a parish down in Tampa Florida where these guys on a weekly basis get together at 6:00 a.m. and it was a roomful imeem it was like a gym a kind of activity room full of guys and it was it was awesome and I think that men are recognizing especially as masculinity and manhood continues to be undermined and every aspect of popular culture men are starting to go okay who is this real man that I can really identify with and I can gain strength from and that is st. Joseph's yeah and because of that I would have to imagine that there are quite a number of obstacles that you faced and writing this I know that whenever whenever I do a talk on our lady or when I was working on my film about Our Lady it didn't matter something went wrong like some brokedown right then and there or a vagrant literally wandered in off the street twice during filming and started playing the organ it was it was crazy like this stuff just happens and so I'm assuming that you face some obstacles when you're right in this book like you don't know brother oh yeah this was the hardest project I've ever done Wow yeah and I've been a Catholic for 26 years now and a priest for 16 and without a doubt this was the most trying difficult time in my Catholic life and in my priesthood I knew that st. Joseph was special and that the devil was not fond of him but I had no idea to this degree I mean the things that happened I some of them I can't talk about it was just wow it threw me off in the sense of I almost didn't think it was gonna be completed and I actually put out a call to prayer I remember it I got it oh yeah I was asking people I'm begged people please pray for me because I am under serious serious assault here in the spiritual life and thanks be to God people responded rallied the troops and yeah so we saw it through but I'm amazed because I'm amazing we haven't had a breakdown breakdown on the communication here because you're right usually something happens no it'll be fried by the time I try to go process this YouTube right yeah you know what's awesome about those obstacles when we face them and everyone faces them to some degree or another when we're trying to do any kind of work for our Lord is that it's it's always an upward fall as long as we give it back over to our Lord he will take it and do with it what he will because it's his work at the end of the day right this is all the Holy Spirit like you know one of the I just want to go back to the book for a second and talk about another one of the the wonders that you you list in here and wonder number eight was Silent Witness yeah which you know frankly is something that the church needs a few of these days but would you please tell the story that you relate in the book I found so fascinating about it's about the sisters of Loretto in Santa Fe New Mexico and this construction of a staircase tell this story because it's such a great example of this section of the book it is amazing so several centuries ago in New Mexico there was a convent of sisters who they were building a new chapel for themselves and they hired a guy to do it and he did an extraordinary job but then you know when it was all said and done to get to the loft which was on the second floor there was no way to get up there so it was like oops what did we just I guess they just assumed they put a ladder on it and just climb up but that's that's not good for sisters who have habits it's just not you know if you fall you're gonna be in big trouble well the guy who built the chapel he died shortly after that so he was unavailable to build something to get up there so they prayed to st. Joseph we need help we don't know what we're gonna do here well all of a sudden this mysterious guy shows up out of nowhere that nobody knew and said that he was willing to build them a staircase if they just supplied him with the time and he wanted to work in private and basically that was it so as time goes by you know they're wondering what's going on they're not seeing inside because he asked to work in private and then all of a sudden the guy disappears is never seen again and there is this ex-con architectural masterpiece with no nails and a spiral staircase that almost defies gravity and and you know engineering that was made and nobody ever said that they did it and so they realized at that point they had prayed to Saint Joseph and they began to believe that it was actually Saint Joseph who came and built this miraculous staircase for them and it's still there to this day in in New Mexico and this is incredible studies have been done on it by forestry experts and everything and the wood that is used is an only a kind of wood that is found in the area of Nazareth crazy it's like what so and then yeah there's another aspect to it as well with the guy who did the studies that it goes back to the Holy Land you know like the the the grain or something like that I can't remember exactly what it was but just like unbelievable so extraordinary stuff man so coool silver yeah yeah early on in the book you you have a quote by Saint John Paul the second let me read it it says those souls most sensitive to the Divine Love have rightly seen in Joseph a brilliant example of the interior life why is it that we touched on it a little bit already but why is it the relationship with st. Joseph it's kind of a natural outgrowth of a strong interior life yeah well if you think about it I mean if he is the greatest Saint after the Blessed Virgin Mary isn't it extraordinary that we don't have one recorded word from him in the New Testament not one right so it shows that that actions do speak louder than words and he is a man who really lived that out to such a degree that we we talk about him is that model of the interior life of that intimacy with God that we should strive to have to so today in the world a lot of chatter there's a lot of talk you can tweet about anything at any moment you can tell people I'm moving five feet in an update you know look at st. Joseph he he was so holy and so close to to God and yet we don't have one word that interior life he must have been so secure so at peace and so deep in that intimacy with God that we in our modern world today we need to look at that you know like we got great guys like Cardinal Sarah talking about the need for silence to return not all this constant noise that's where st. Joseph I think is a great model for us and six great Saints like Saint Bernadette Soubirous right who saw our lady herself said if you want to learn how to pray go to st. Joseph he'll teach you and I think that's what we need today you know one of the titles that kind of ties into this that you listen the book is that Joseph is the mirror of patience and I find it interesting you're looking at in conjunction with the quote from Saint John Paul the second about the interior life because one of the many things that I discovered as I was researching and teaching the science of sainthood course for next level Catholic Academy is that once you hit a certain point in the interior life so after you've matured to a certain point and it's more or less around the time of the illuminative way the second stage the spiritual life the the two virtues that are most often attacked by the devil are patience and chastity and it makes complete sense that the that series growth in the spiritual life should be any way connected to devotion to a man who is really the very essence of these two virtues of patience and Jannetty mmhmm yeah totally and that's why you know if he is our spiritual father which he is all children are called to you know imitate their parents or to resemble their parents that well now we do this on a physical level you know if you saw my mom and dad you would immediately say you look you look like your mom and dad yes well we're not physically gonna look like st. Joseph but spiritually we should we should imitate him and that's why there's one guy in my book called the servant of God Father Joseph Kenton 'ok this is the covenant of love guy right loved that guy yeah him right so he says that the role of Marian consecration is to make us apparitions of Mary which seems odd right but what he's saying is when people see us they should see the virtues of Our Lady in us so in the book I say let's do that and let's take it one step further let's we need today in the world apparitions of Saint Joseph in his patients in his chasity in all of his virtues and that's what's lacking in the world right now are everyone but especially men to be like Joseph that's what we need it listen let me to that point let me read you from page 15 de to the litany of st. Joseph you have a quote by Saint Teresa of Avila one of my favorite favorite Saints pay attention you next level Catholic Academy people because we're doing virtue right now but she says knowing by experience st. Joseph's astonishing influence with God I would wish to persuade everyone to honor him with a particular devotion I have always seen those who honored him in a special manner make progress in virtue for this heavenly protector favors in a striking manner the spiritual advancement of souls who commend themselves to him I mean you can't say any better than that father you can't and the amazing thing I love her too she's such a feisty woman she's such a holding but she when she did her reform of the Carmelites she named I think all of her reformed convents after Saint Joseph and she actually challenged people to a test of devotion she said he is so extraordinary of an intercessor that I challenge you to put it to the test Wow and yeah and you know who did her friend Saint John of the Cross because he didn't he's and now this is the guy who's the master of the interior life right I mean one of the greatest mystics of the church but he she confessed that he did not have a great understanding or appreciation for st. Joseph but after being inspired by his friends st. Teresa of ávila he said I'm gonna do it and he did so I mean that we need to do it too well let's let's take up that challenge right now that late lay out for us real quickly again the book is called consecration to st. Joseph this isn't just a book about st. Joseph this is how to consecrate yourself to him and garner the spiritual benefits and fruits that are available to those who would do so so just lay out real quickly first of three parts of the book and a thumbnail sketch of how this works yes so it's a book do you read but a book that you do so the first section is the 33 day preparation where we go through one of the titles from the litany of Saint Joseph for those days and we unpack it and then we do some supplemental reading in the second section so in the second section I break down that what I call the ten wonders of Saint Joseph so we talked about his virginal fatherhood about his spiritual paternity about the terror of demons patron of the dying all of those kind of things and we really unpack it from what the Pope's have said Saints mistakes where is he in the liturgy are there religious communities devoted to him all that stuff it's really a comprehensive thing about st. Joseph and then the third section is the prayer because it it's great that we get to know him but we have to form a relationship with him so by getting to know him we're gonna fall in love with him and we're gonna say I want you in my life I need you in my life and be a daily companion with me of coming close bring me closer to Jesus so every day will pray the litany of st. Joseph and then at the end we make that act of consecration to him saying I'm yours I'm your son your daughter you're my father helped me through life and see me to heaven father because that's a role of every father right that's what you strive to do for your children is to get them to heaven so what was Saint Joseph that's what he wants for us he wants us to go to be with Jesus so that's what it's the whole purpose of the book well it's great and for those who haven't read a book by father Don it's he's very colloquial it's very easy reading it's like he's sitting across from you when you read a book of his and so it's really easy and yet deep and it is again it's not just a book this is what's gonna lead you into the heart of Jesus Christ which is the end of the day is what every one of us should be after if we're really serious about the spiritual life father it was a great pleasure to have you on the program again the book is consecration of st. Joseph the wonders of our spiritual father it is now available for sale you can find it at good Catholic bookstores everywhere and and everywhere else online but listen god bless you and thank you very much for the work that you are doing and I just really hope and pray that this completely takes off thanks brother I appreciate it thank you and let's pray for a year of st. Joseph's wouldn't that be awesome it would we've never had one in 2,000 years of Christianity well why don't you just send an O it up to you know to Rome and and I guess that did you you did of course you did I did I did man so it's already there you know what you don't I'm praying for - this is bold you know why not go all out right so I prayed for a year of st. Joseph but I'm actually praying that in the future we get a Pope Joseph we've never had one isn't that crazy how why not hello right I know it's like why haven't we done this well anyway there's only one of us who's eligible to be Pope here and it's not me so you know as long as we're gonna go all out father all right now you're breaking up now hey listen what's the best place for people to go what what URLs best place for people to go to learn more about you and all that books you've written and what's going on with the Marian's yeah the best place especially for that book is we got a new website it's consecration to st. Joseph gorg and the Saint part is just st so it's consecration to st. Joseph dot or you can get the book get the images that I had commissioned with the book extraordinary paintings of saint joseph and it's there that you can find out about all the other stuff too okay wonderful well again thanks so much for coming on god bless you and all your work god bless your brother thanks father I hope you enjoyed that episode and don't forget to subscribe to the show share with others and I'd especially appreciate it if you let your friends and family know about the free lint and video study that I'm offering through next level Catholic Academy comm it's the perfect way to actually get to the heart of what Lent is all about deepening your understanding and practice of the spiritual life so you can literally become the saint you were created to be god bless you

Channel: Matthew Leonard

Views: 12,642

Keywords: matthew leonard, fr don calloway, fr michael gaitley, st joseph, virgin mary, next level catholic, art of catholic, science of sainthood, marian consecration, roman catholic

Id: 4F-KquyHHvA

Length: 47min 4sec (2824 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020