St Joseph: Terror of Demons—Fr. Eric Anderson

[Music] [Music] welcome back everyone we're ready to hear uh father eric anderson so i'm just going to introduce him as he's at saint stephen's catholic church up in portland and my old pastor and old parish we're looking forward to hearing father eric speak he's uh he has hosted the last two minutes conferences at his parish uh the last two so he's been a great support uh so let us welcome father eric thank you thank you thank you well let us begin with a prayer and nominee patrice that philly is free to sancti amen may saint joseph the spouse of your most holy mother be our aid of ourselves lord jesus we cannot obtain your grace please grant it to us through his prayers this we ask of you lord jesus living and reigning with god the father and the holy ghost everyone god eternally amen and nominee patricia said philly is free to sancti amen well good afternoon everyone good to see you i see many familiar faces out there and well it's a beautiful day outside we have a lot to be thankful for we have a lot to pray for and saint joseph is is really just a perfect intercessor so uh as i was preparing this talk i thought wow nobody had taken the uh nobody had taken the title of the conference yet for their for their talk title so i thought i would go ahead and and take that so the title of this talk is saint joseph terror of demons and in reflecting upon this first i'm going to first i'm going to tell you a little story from the life of saint joseph it is said that along the way to egypt joseph was troubled by intense bouts of crying on the part of the baby jesus well venerable maria cecilia bae who wrote the book the life of saint joseph she reports that this that the the bouts of crying the intense bounce of crying on the part of the baby jesus caused joseph serious distress during their travels he thought at first that the infant's tears must somehow be occasioned by some physical sufferings due to the cold but he didn't realize that although jesus was indeed suffering indeed suffering considerably by these instances his tears were occasioned rather by the sins of men at any rate she writes joseph felt disheartened and he also began to weep especially whenever he found mary doing the same and she made it clear to him however that she and the divine infant were weeping because of the offenses that were being committed against the heavenly father and she furthermore prevailed upon joseph to unite his tears with those of jesus and thus to offer them up to the eternal father in supplication for the conversion of sinners joseph thanked mary for her admonitions and thereafter he complied fervently with them amid copious tears well mother maria baye says that upon arriving in egypt and as they entered the city the idols to which these blinded people rendered their adoration fell toppling to the ground and this caused a considerable stir among the inhabitants since no one had any idea what could be bringing this about how could they know that it was the true god himself who was thus destroying their false gods as he entered into their city and then venerable mary of agrada also writes about this she writes that when the holy family reached the inhabited country of egypt on entering the towns the divine infant in the arms of his mother raised his eyes to heaven and raised his hands to the father asking for the salvation of these inhabitants that were held captive by satan and immediately he made use of his sovereign and divine power and drove the demons from the idols and hurled them to the eternal infernal abyss like lightning flashed from the clouds they darted forth and descended to the lower most caverns of hell and darkness and at the same instant the idols crashed to the ground the altars fell to pieces and the temples crumbled to ruins now the cause of these miraculous events were known or the cause of these miraculous effects were known to our lady for she united with her she united her prayers with those of her most holy son as co operatrix or operatrix of his salvation well saint joseph also knew this to be the work of the incarnate word and he praised and exholed him in holy admiration but the demons the demons although they felt the divine power they knew not whence this power proceeded they knew not where it came from well venerable mary of a greater continues her account the egyptian people were astounded at these inexplicable happenings although among the more learned ever since the sojourn of jeremias the prophet in egypt an ancient tradition was current that a king of the jews would come and that the temples of the idols would be destroyed yet of this prophecy the common people had no knowledge nor did the learned know how it was to be fulfilled and therefore the terror and confusion was spread among all of them as was prophesied by isaias and there we have some accounts of the holy family entering into egypt now you'll often hear about you'll hear uh you'll hear the account if you pray the seven sorrows and joys of saint joseph and the little meditation for each of the seven sorrows and joys it mentions the toppling of the idols in egypt and you wonder well where does that come from well it comes from here we have throughout you know throughout the history of the church we have accounts like this that tell us um these little details so you'll often see these types of details these types of stories portrayed in art if you go to a you know if you go to any of those great museums where they have collections of sacred art and you'll have all these stories that either come you know from from here or from the golden legend of jacob is for rajinae or some of the uh some of those other types of of of stories and legends that have been handed down and it's good for us to know these stories and as catholics it's good for us to know these stories so that we are you know that we're literate in the tradition we know the tradition we know the stories we know the legends uh so that as we go and we you know happen to be traveling and you go into a museum and you see oh yes oh yes the toppling of the idols in egypt oh i'm very familiar with that and you're not thinking well what's going on there i have no idea because i've never heard the story it's good for us to to know these stories well venerable archbishop sheen comments on this as well and he says by his presence in egypt the infant savior consecrated a land that had been the traditional enemy of his people and thus gave hope to other lands that would later reject him the exodus was reversed as the divine child made egypt his temporary home it said that the holy family there was there for seven years seven years mary now sang as miriam had done while a second joseph guarded the living bread for which human hearts were starving those are the words of venerable archbishop sheen yeah we think about that our lord our lord completes things in this uh brings things to fulfillment by either undoing what had been done uh or going back to the scene of something and and bringing it to completion so we see that uh here in in egypt the exodus was reversed as venerable sheen puts it so what do we see here we see that the lord's presence terrifies demons and they flee and are cast into the abyss so where does this power come from well the power is from god i think we all understand that but recall that jesus is true uh jesus is true god and he is also true man and he is and it's good during this season of advent that we just recall that he's one person with two natures divine and human not two people but one person one person with two natures now notice that you'll notice in the story if we look back that he prayed to his father in heaven and he raised his hands and his eyes to the father in heaven this is an important point because the father is the key as we look to saint joseph as the terror of demons the fatherhood of saint joseph then is an important key to understand why he is the terror of demons so let's just consider i'm i'm presuming many of you out there are our fathers and so consider that as a father you have spiritual authority over your wife and over your children you have spiritual authority over your sons until they reach the age of 18 and you have spiritual authority over your daughters until they get married regardless of how old they are so uh when your daughter you know when your daughter gets married then you transfer that uh spiritual authority over to her husband which is why the father walks his daughter down the aisle and literally hands her hand into the hand of the man who will be her husband that's a transference of that spiritual authority now while this may uh be a contested um idea in in our society today the demons do not contest it they know they know that a father has spiritual authority of his daughter until she gets married even if she's older the demons know that and they also know that once a boy turns 18 he has to he has to take authority for himself if he if he's still living at home well you know he has to take authority for himself at that point he needs he needs to get his life started for his own sake because the father no longer has spiritual authority over him but this this is really going to be a key to understanding why saint joseph is the terror of demons so all of that was a little bit of an aside but it is important to making the point what authority does saint joseph have over our lord jesus christ now certainly he has authority over him as the head of the holy family and at least until the boy turns 18 but how do we understand that that a man could have spiritual authority over god that's that would be a little bit more uh confusing for us to clarify and uh i can't tell you that i can clarify it exactly but we can at least explore it we can explore this idea so what authority does saint joseph have over jesus who is god well first of all let's just take a look at the fatherhood of saint joseph often times he's referred to as the foster father of jesus but the but uh fathers and doctors of the church assert that he is the true father he's the true father of jesus and that that takes a little bit of uh that takes a little bit of instruction for us to get there so here's how we understand this st joseph was a virginal husband of the blessed virgin mary both of them were virgins their marriage was virginal they did not exercise the use of their marriage their marriage was not ordered toward the procreation and education of offspring in the same way that other marriages are and yet there is a child that is the fruit of this marriage as a child that is the fruit of this marriage the child is god and he was made incarnate of the blessed virgin mary by her spouse the holy spirit so mary is the spouse of god and the person of the holy spirit now mary can only have one spouse she can only have one spouse so saint joseph stands in the place of god the bridegroom in a unique way however it is similar to how every man stands in the place of sacramentally every man who gets married stands in the place sacramentally of jesus the bridegroom for his for his wife the bride and the bride stands in the place of the bride of christ the church sacramentally so if we can understand that then we can understand how saint joseph then stands in the place of the divine bridegroom of mary now christ is the true bridegroom of every sacramental marriage and and we should understand that that a marriage is not between two people it's between two people and god that god is the spouse and husband and wife mediate god's love to one another the man stands in the in the place sacramentally of jesus the bridegroom and the woman in the place of the bride of christ the church so saint joseph then is truly her husband but in a virginal marriage because mary can take no other husband according to the flesh mary can take no other husband according to the flesh having conceived already once virginally through the holy spirit and she remains a virgin so saint joseph also remains a virgin well the question is then whose child is jesus is jesus only the son of mary well what then about saint joseph is he the father of jesus or is he merely the foster father of jesus now we can look at any mother and father and see that they cooperate with god to bear children no mother or father create together they do not create their children husband and wife do not create their children only god creates the child only god can create something out of nothing man can only procreate he creates with god cooperating with god but god is the primary factor in the creation of every human soul god alone can create a soul out of nothing therefore god is the true creator of all children through the cooperation of their parents now saint joseph did not cooperate in the conception of jesus but he did cooperate in the fatherhood of jesus as any man does with the children that are born into a marriage saint joseph and the blessed virgin mary were married with the blessing and the command of god now god took on human flesh in the incarnation the marriage of joseph and mary was entirely ordered toward the incarnation the purpose of their marriage is that it is ordered toward the incarnation and there's no other purpose for their marriage this according to father joseph mueller i think it's joseph mueller anyway it's father mueller anyway he wrote the book the fatherhood of saint joseph this is an old book but it's really it's fascinating in speaking about how joseph is father so basically this is coming this is coming from him so there's no other purpose for their marriage saint joseph is the virginal father of jesus he's not the natural father of jesus he's not the natural father of jesus but he's the virginal father of jesus yet he did cooperate with god in the process he didn't cooperate with god physically he cooperated with god morally and spiritually through his own virginity now mary conceived only by the overshadowing of the holy spirit upon her so she cooperated morally and spiritually in the conception of jesus while retaining her virginity saint joseph became the father to the son of god through obedience to god by entering into the marital contract i hope this is really keeping you awake after a good lunch because i realized after lunch i remember in college at my class after lunch i would always fall asleep so um i i hope if nothing else you get a really good nap out of today but uh also you know this this this really engages the mind and it might tire your mind that makes you fall asleep or it might engage you and keep you awake but you can always watch the video later this is the type this is the type of thing we just oh we should do that actually this would make a great philosophy night we have a monthly philosophy night at the parish and uh this would this would make a good one things that really get your mind sort of working okay well let's get back to our let's get back to our um our teaching here all right so st joseph cooperated with god not physically but morally and spiritually through his own virginity as mary did married didn't cooperate physically and conceiving the child in the natural way but she did cooperate morally and spiritually by saying yes right she assented to that and so by the marriage of saint mary and saint joseph they enter into the marital contract and that too provides for for uh the fruit of the marriage so we continue with father mueller here according to the well-known words of the apostle saint paul and the generally accepted juridical views the body of the wife belongs to the husband with a view to procuring of new life and the lawful fruit of the womb belongs not only to the wife but also to the father even if he did not cooperate physically in the conception but saint joseph did cooperate spiritually and morally by offering to god his own virginity and his own fidelity to guard and protect to provide for his wife and his child and to educate the child now according to according to saint augustine and saint thomas aquinas and other great theologians the virginal marriage between joseph and mary was ordained by god toward the incarnation of the eternal son of god in such a manner that the child jesus would be the proless or the offspring of this marriage and it is generally agreed that the fruit of a marriage can only can be only a child who is the result of that marriage and to whose origin and existence or to whose origin or existence both husband and wife have cooperated in their respective manner for as saint thomas wells says a child conceived in adultery or a child unrelated to that marriage and adopted later is obviously as all agree not a pro-less not an offspring of that marriage but since the child jesus is the pro-list the offspring of the virginal marriage between joseph and mary therefore joseph and mary have both of them cooperated to bring about the human existence of jesus the human existence he is god from all eternity but he takes on human flesh in time from the flesh of the blessed virgin mary so mary and joseph have both cooperated to bring about the human existence of jesus not mary alone not mary alone but also joseph for what is done unilaterally by one spouse cannot be ascribed to the marriage as such if if a child if a child comes about through one spouse then it cannot be attributed to the marriage now saint joseph did not again cooperate as a physical cause therefore it was a moral cooperation on his part okay father mueller continues mary and joseph cooperated by contracting their virginal marriage by their mutual chaste marital love by their holiness culminating their total obedience surrender to god and by doing so they supplied the condition or better the disposition by which god's all-wise merciful decree the incarnation of his son in the purest womb of mary was irrevocably bound up just as in the natural order the production of new human life is bound up with marital the marital act thus the child jesus as the offspring of that virginal marriage was truly the child of husband and wife of joseph and mary and as mary was the mother so was joseph in a true sense even if only analogously he was the father so that's the first point we need to make so joseph joseph then we can truly call the father of jesus as as he is called in in the scriptures when mary and joseph find jesus in the temple after three days lost mary says oh i forget exactly but you know where have you been your father and i have been seeking you sorrowing and she refers to him as his father now of course then he refers to a different father did you not know that i must be about my father's business and and she pondered over those words but nevertheless he went home and we are told that he was subject to them and so here's where here's where we can start to understand why saint joseph would be the terror of demons because our lord jesus christ was subject to him well let's look back at let's look back at egypt then as they were going into egypt and the idols toppled and the demons knew not whence the power came wence is one of those uh old words that means from where hence means well what is answering this whence is from where wither is to to to where whither uh whither thou goest where you're going or whence thou hast come where in the past it's good these are good words it's good to it's good to use these words so i was reflecting on this this morning and i happen to be looking at this little bottle of holy oil from the uh from the um what do you call it the oratory of st joseph in montreal and as you'll see oh by the way hello to the people in the camera i don't know how you all get in there but uh you'll see here a picture of saint joseph and this is a statue from the oratory of saint joseph montreal and you'll see here that joseph is holding the baby jesus in his arms is that okay does that work that way oh okay well here you can zoom in on this well anyway just trust me this the the statue has baby jesus in his arms now to look at the statue you see a little child with a crown on his head and then you see this big man with a crown on his head and if you didn't know let's just say that you were well let's just say that you were a uh um well a stupid demon and you see this man with a crown carrying this little boy with a crown and then meanwhile you're wondering whence this power has come well you would look at this man and you think oh he must be a powerful man. not knowing that it's the baby who holds the power but nevertheless this baby who holds all the power is subject to this man wearing the crown therefore this man has spiritual authority that comes from the boy and perhaps that would be the way we could understand this that a father has spiritual authority over his sons saint joseph has the spiritual authority of his son we could say that while his son is is a baby and while his son is a minor really i think the key to our understanding of saint joseph as the terror of demons you've probably heard that uh you know praying the rosary i'm sure father calloway probably talked about that today they're praying the rosary or if he didn't you know that he talks about such things the rosary is is known as a great weapon in the spiritual battle and uh and it is because our lady having been conceived immaculate from the very first instance of her first moment of her existence that never never for a moment was she subject to the devil never for a moment was she under his uh control under his power and so saint john vianney says that the blessed virgin mary is invisible to the devil because she's immaculate and uh therefore you're in under a spiritual attack or if you're wishing to you know put on the armor of god you start praying the rosary and and because mary is invisible the devil knows not where she is but he's afraid that his head is going to get crushed so he flees and that's one of the reasons why we understand that the rosary is such a powerful a defense in the spiritual battle now saint joseph is not immaculately conceived we we understand that mary alone in a unique way is immaculately conceived in the first moment of her of her existence but there is a speculation and there are certainly fathers of the church who have said that saint joseph was while not immaculately conceived that he was immaculately born in other words that he was that he was sanctified in the womb like saint john the baptist now this isn't this isn't catholic dogma and it is one of those speculative teachings and yet it is it is taught by some prominent church fathers so it is something that can be speculated it's something that can be debated but is not defined if that's the case then we could understand how the devil would be confounded by saint joseph as saint john the baptist who was sanctified in the womb and born without original sin you know saint john the baptist was you know a force to be reckoned with we all know that or i mean well if you don't know that trust me it was a force to be reckoned with but i would guess that st joseph was too and he's and he's known as uh well in ireland he's referred to as the real quiet man john wayne was in that movie the quiet man filmed in ireland with uh maureen o'hara and uh but saint joseph when he arrived when he appeared at knock at the shrine of knock in ireland never said a word in fact none of the uh none of the images there of mary joseph saint john um and the lamb of god it was it was silent for hours and and but they weren't as statues because they were breathing and they were moving as though alive but they didn't say anything so saint joseph is referred to there as as the quiet man the real quiet man of ireland well uh i'm i'm sure some of you have had the experience of um you know just getting that look from your dad that you know that knows that uh something's going on and and and maybe you learned that all you need is that look to know that you better shape up well uh we can presume that uh perhaps saint joseph knows how to give that look and the demons know that they're in trouble well let's continue then with a comment from a great theologian by the name of suarez on the uh on the verse he was subject to them coming back from the temple after having been lost for three days and that and the mary and joseph find him in the temple he goes home and he's subject to them this is what one of the great theologians by the name of suarez has to say on this passage this sentence signifies that jesus actually did rather than what he was obliged to do for so in other words he was obliged to be subject to them as all children are but he actually was as opposed to most children who sometimes are and sometimes you're not and and i'm sure you know if you have children what i'm talking about jesus actually did rather than what he was obliged to do for in truth on account of the dignity of his person he was in the proper sense subject to no man for to indicate but to indicate the high position of saint joseph it was sufficient that christ considered only and specifically in his human nature in origin was by right to be subject to him in his human origin though exempt from it by his divine nature he wished to be actually subject to him and to render respect and obedience to him as to his father and superior so we understand that difference between the humanity and the divinity of christ that in his divinity he is equal to god the father and the holy spirit in his humanity he's inferior to his own divinity and that's sometimes i think something uh that can be a little confusing as we as we read some of the scriptures and and our lord jesus christ is praying to the father as to his god and it can be a little unclear well isn't he god well yes he's god he's always in the presence of the beatific vision but in his humanity he's inferior to his own divinity and we get that from the athanasian creed that he is equal to god in his divinity and inferior to god in his humanity so with that in mind then in his humanity he is subject to saint joseph he is subject to a man who is his father in his divinity he is not subject to anybody all right pope leo the 13th writes saint joseph is distinguished above all others by that august divinity which i'm sorry by that august dignity which consists in this that according to the divine plan he was the protector of the son of god the father of jesus in the opinion of man the natural consequence of which was that the word of god humbly submitted himself to joseph obeyed his commands and paid him all the respect the children owe to their father okay well let's continue then back to father mueller saint joseph is seen to have a special relation all his own to god the father so earlier we spoke about how every husband stands in the shoes of the divine bridegroom jesus christ but saint joseph we would say stands in the shoes of god the father in a unique way i mean every every every dad is going to be looked upon at least by his little ones as having a god-like presence and status if only they would if only they would always think that but they do think that when they're little and it's very sweet as a priest you know the little ones the little ones uh will sometimes think that the priest is god because that that's uh it's a it's a visual um identification that they make that man who's up there doing all this godly stuff so so children understand that especially about their dads this is why it's so important that children are raised by their father and their mother it's really important that they have that complementarity of father and mother just as our lord is given mary and joseph a father and a mother and this is why it's not just enough for mary to have the holy spirit as her spouse but to have holy holy joseph stand in the place in of her spouse and in that human earthly way all right so again and again messengers come to him with instructions and directions from the heavenly father this is back to father mueller again so the heavenly father himself sends instructions to saint joseph by means of messengers by means of angels so so saint joseph is seen to be the temporal visible representative of the eternal father so the father in heaven is eternal but saint joseph is a temporal representative of him in time not eternally saint joseph did not exist from all eternity but in this time he is a temporal and visible representative of the father now surely also jesus and mary regarded him as such a representative and therefore would render the most prompt and willing obedience to his wishes and commands and thus the paternal authority of saint joseph is a reflection a faint yet wonderful reflected image of the infinite authority of the heavenly father now this was written in the early 1950s i think today people have a difficult time with authority and obedience we we have a concept of it but in reality we have a very difficult time and you might even ask yourself well why is it that all of these uh why is it that all of these kids are out there protesting well they've been taught to do so they're just doing what they've been taught to do uh our our school system our family structures uh our media have have taught them to respect no one nothing and to to protest they're just doing what they've been formed to do and this is many generations in the making many generations in the making of generations that have been indulged spoiled um and and taught to be rebellious by rebellious parents and this goes back at least at least four generations if if not if not more if any of you have uh if any of you familiar with um father chad ribjer has a great talk called the sixth generation and he goes back through the last six generations talking about you know each what each has passed on to the next and uh anyway it's a fascinating talk it was based on an article he wrote in latin mass magazine in 2012 but uh to to read it now eight years later you know it's it's just right on and we could even say that you know all the the protests and everything that's going on today that we think is so incredible uh you know we should have expected it it's it's just been it's just been in the works for a long time all the more amazing to think of the obedience that our lord gives to saint joseph all the more amazing to think about and we really we really should be cultivating that sense of obedience in our lives today subjecting our wills to those who are our superiors and subjecting our wills uh for the good like in a marriage for instance uh you know husband and wife uh understanding how to subject your will to the other for instance and here's a good example i mean any i think anyone can understand this let's say that you're uh let's say that you're driving someplace and you know the best way to get there you've driven it a million times you know the best way to get there you'll save three and a half minutes by going this way rather than that way but then there's this scenic drive and take an extra hour and well you really you know you really want to just get back but there's no sin involved whether you take the scenic route or whether you take the most efficient route uh but nevertheless perhaps your wife would like to take the most efficient route and and you really just want to take that scenic drive because you've had it at work you need some you need a break your wife wants to get back for something or vice versa you want to get back for something and she wants to take the scenic drive maybe that maybe that would actually be the more the more uh common situation well there's no sin involved and it's very good to just submit yourself to the will of another and just do it the other way or maybe you know the best way to get a job done and you're trying to teach your son how to do something or maybe sons your dad is trying to teach you how to do something and of course you think that you know the best way because you're 12 and you've uh you've got you know the experience to know the best way to do something and meanwhile dad you know he's talking about the way something was done 50 years ago but but it's good to even if you think you know the best way to do something there's no sin involved so just do it the way the other person wants you to and it's good for you it's good for you to subject your will to another person especially one who has a superiority over you it's it's good to do so and so we we consider that obviously jesus knew the best way to do everything right but in his humanity he still had to learn that's kind of a mystery that's hard to kind of grasp with our minds but you can imagine the patience that he had in learning from saint joseph and the importance of learning from saint joseph not only for his own sake but for saint joseph's sake i mean kids think of that when your dad is trying to teach you something it's it's very important that your dad is able to hand something on to you and when you get older you're going to think why didn't my dad ever show me anything well because you wouldn't let him or you'll think boy my dad sure showed me a lot and i so value that because it's probably the way his dad showed him and the way his dad showed him and i'm passing on something that's been in the family for a long long time and as you get older you'll value those things much much more now if saint joseph then is a faint yet wonderful reflected image of the infinite authority of the heavenly father then what we're going to move to next is this idea of the hypostatic union and i did mention this already that we have the second person of the holy trinity the son of god is one person with two natures so he's not a human person and a divine person he's one person who's human and divine both and that's what we call the hypostatic union the union of two natures in one person the union of divinity and humanity in one so the hypostatic refunian the hypothetic union then refers to the union of god in man we say then that mary and joseph belong to the hypostatic order so the order of the hypostatic union this again might be a new concept mary and joseph belong to the hypostatic order because they were instruments in bringing it about that the eternal son of the father should take on human flesh as the fruit of their virginal marriage they were instruments in that not physically but morally morally and spiritually and again we go back to suarez who writes the following i do not think it at all improbable that the task or the office of saint joseph in as much as it belongs in some respect to a higher order can be called more perfect than the office of apostles for as i understand it certain offices in the kingdom of god belong to the order of sanctifying grace and in this order as i understand it the apostles ranked highest and needed more extraordinary graces and gifts of wisdom than others did so we think about that you know the apostles who were beginning everything and who are were closest to the source they received more extraordinary graces saint saint peter could say well i have no silver or gold to give you but i'll give you this in the name of jesus christ arise and walk and the guy got up and walked so saying peter had that grace but there are offices that belong we continue with suarez here but there are offices that belong to the order of the hypostatic union which in is in its kind more perfect as i have said when speaking of the dignity of the mother of god and the mother of god is more perfect than an apostle now in this order though in the lowest place i find the office of saint joseph and thus it excels all offices precisely because it belongs to a higher order so the office of saint joseph is of a higher order than the the apostles the apostles have extraordinary graces by um let's see the the apostles belong to the order of sanctifying grace but joseph and mary belong to the order of the hypostatic union now in this order though in the lowest place i find the office of saint joseph and thus it excels all offices precisely because it belongs to a higher order therefore saint joseph was careful to state i'm sorry therefore saint thomas was careful to state that the apostles ranked higher than others because their office belongs to the new testament but the office of saint joseph does not belong to the new testament nor strictly speaking to the old testament but the office of saint joseph belongs to the author of both of them both the old and new to the cornerstone who has made both one it's a wonderful thing to think about so if you know if you think about the most powerful saint to pray to you know maybe you have favorite saints to pray to saint anthony maybe you pray to saint jude maybe you're saying pray to saint patrick or any number of uh obscure saints um or popular saints maybe uh we think about praying to saints peter and paul but really you know saint the blessed virgin mary who has um superveneration super uh what do we call that um you have uh dulia and uh hyperdulia right so um she has a super veneration above all saints but saint joseph you know saint joseph may not compare to saint mary in terms of uh being immaculate being perfect but he was put in charge of her he has authority over her and he has authority over god himself in the holy family so to pray to saint joseph of the order of the hypostatic union we really need to be confident in praying to him uh and any of you who have a devotion to saint joseph will attest to this saint joseph will give you gifts that you don't even ask for you you might ask for a little something and he'll give you this this big thing that you didn't even ask for you didn't even think you needed it until you get it and then you think wow this must be from saint joseph thank you saint joseph and you have more confidence to pray to him again and again and again well many of you already know that the devil is terrified of the blessed virgin mary we spoke about this before saint john vianney again has said that because she's immaculate she's invisible to the devil and that's why when we pray the rosary that he trembles and departs for fear that she will crush his head now this is due to her being immaculate but also due to her inclusion in the order of the hypostatic union now saint joseph although in the lowest place in the hypostatic order is included in the order of the hypothetic union and for this reason for this reason our lord jesus is obedient to him so for this reason also the devil flees in terror from the presence of saint joseph who is the terror of demons i would guess that you've heard some or all of this from father callaway today i was saying mass and hearing confessions so i haven't heard his talk but i know that he is promoting consecration to saint joseph and i would definitely recommend that you do so uh i'm sure he gave you all sorts of reasons for doing so we consecrated the parish of saint stephens to saint joseph last spring although the previous spring we had consecrated the parish to the immaculate heart of mary and you might you know you might think well can you consecrate yourself to both well really the consecration of mary leads the consecration of saint joseph i mean it uh mary is the closest among human creatures to god but saint joseph is the next closest and really if you think about it we come well we we come to jesus through mary saint louis de montfort says that you know god sent us mary god sent us his son through mary the first time therefore we will always receive the son through mary but saint nobody comes to mary without going through saint joseph because he's the head of the holy family so if you want to get to mary you have to go through saint joseph if you want to get to jesus you have to go through mary so it follows that if you want to get to jesus you have to go through saint joseph and for this reason and many others we call saint joseph the patron of the universal church the patriarch the father of the universal church now if we think about it this way the church is the family of god therefore saint joseph has a special role as the patron or the father of the church and of course we understand that he is representing god the father and in a lesser way than the father but nevertheless we can turn to him for fatherly help and it is pleasing to the eternal father that we should do so you know if the eternal father gives us saint joseph as the father then it would really be an insult to god to refuse to go to saint joseph and on the other hand it'd be very pleasing and be you know a great compliment to god uh praising the good work he has done in saint joseph all right well let's vouch safe to return whence we came you might recall that we began this talk by the entrance of the holy family into egypt venerable mary of a greater rights that when the holy family family reached the inhabited country of egypt on entering the towns the divine infant in the arms of his mother he raised his his eyes and lifted his hands to the father asking for the salvation of these inhabitants who were held captive by satan and immediately he made use of his sovereign and divine power and he drove the demons from the idols and he hurled them to the infernal abyss like lightning flashed from the clouds they darted forth and descended to the lower most caverns of hell and darkness and at the same instant the idols crashed to the ground the altars fell to pieces and the temples crumbled to ruins but the demons although they felt the divine power they knew not once this power proceeded but we know we know that that is they looked upon this little family traveling into egypt and they saw that little one with a crown upon his head and even if he didn't physically have a crown he morally had a crown on his head and they saw that great big man carrying him and all of his authority and dignity and the demons must have thought that it was joseph who drove them out and i would vouch safe to say that they still would think that so let us turn to saint joseph the terror of demons and let us pray now the litany of saint joseph and i apologize i don't have it in english we'll play it we'll pray it in latin quiries own christian have mercy on us feely rate emptor mundi deus the response now will be joseph castissime yosef obedient [Music] [Music] is [Music] so [Music] you

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Length: 60min 17sec (3617 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021