Silent Knight, Holy Knight
Saint Joseph, show us how to embrace fatherhood
At our local “That Man is You” men’s meeting this morning, we watched a video of Scott Hahn explaining a few extraordinary details of the holiness of Saint Joseph. He titled his talk “Silent Knight, Holy Knight,” so I’m stealing that phrase for my headline above.
When I became a single father with no idea where to turn for advice, one of my first decisions was to begin the Consecration to Saint Joseph. This powerful consecration is a method where “you acknowledge that [Joseph] is your spiritual father, and you want to be like him. To show it, you entrust yourself entirely into his paternal care so that he can help you acquire his virtues and become holy.” The consecration spans 33 days and each day you “spend about 20-30 minutes a day on a short exposition on one of the invocations in the powerful Litany of St. Joseph, followed by a reading on St. Joseph, concluding with the recitation of the Litany of St. Joseph.”
After my consecration to Joseph, I grew more inclined to attend Holy Mass, felt more comfortable being there with the Blessed Sacrament, and began to show more reverence to holy objects and all things sacred. I developed a quiet confidence that I was qualified to lead my son in his spiritual journey and into manhood. It began a journey of discovery of my own full identity as a man. Not long after that, I also completed the Consecration to Mary, which is a topic for another day.
Let’s examine some of the lines of the Litany of St. Joseph (these are the various titles of Joseph) and see what we can learn about our own role as knights, fathers and protectors:
“Diligent protector of Christ” — while Jesus undoubtedly had thousands of angels ever present to protect him, God choose a single human male, Joseph, as His primary protector. When the Angel appeared and warned that Herod was out to kill baby Jesus, Joseph didn’t shrug and say “Then let the angels protect Jesus.” No, he moved swiftly and told Mary to go with him to Egypt.
“Guardian of the Redeemer” — When Jesus, at age 12, went missing from the caravan and was preaching at the temple, Joseph didn’t sit back and wait for the angels to find him. Joseph, as guardian, searched tirelessly for 3 days until finding Him.
This is the kind of focus and endurance you should emulate with your wife and children.
“Model of workers” — when you feel exhausted from working, feel unappreciated, overwhelmed, wondering if you are making any bit of difference whatsoever, think of Joseph, who had nothing to offer in sacrifice at the temple except two small turtle doves, yet his impact on the world was not measured in money.
“Pillar of families” — men, you are more than an income source for your family.
“Patron of exiles” — sometimes those of us striving for sainthood feel like exiles in our own Church of Sinners. Think of how many journeys, on foot, Joseph had to make whenever duty required it.
Finally, “Terror of Demons” — men, if you have a family, demons want to divide it up and conquer each soul separately. Read that carefully again because I am not overstating it.
Saint Joseph can be called upon to intercede and drive away demons, but with prayer & calling up Jesus, you yourself can also become, for your family, a terror of demons.
Non nobis.
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