Watching St Joseph

Last updated on: December 25, 2015 at 7:28 am by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Watching St Joseph 2015-12-25T07:28:53-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

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Gentlemen who are reading, for Christmas Day make it your point to meditate in the midst of the jollity on the patience, purity and prudence of St Joseph.

My latest article at Those Catholic Men website points us to St Joseph, the model of masculinity.

“It’s no mistake” I said to Mike, “that every Catholic church has an image of St. Joseph up front.”

Mike had come for confession and counseling over his failures as a husband and father. He had got caught up in the trap of pornography and ambition. He made some bad, short cut decisions. Stress built up and workaholism began to bite. Mike began neglecting his wife and children — regarding them as a burden and nuisance. As a result, his wife was threatening divorce. Mike came to see me because reality had hit him in the face like a splash of ice water.

“St. Joseph”, I continued, “is given to us as the model husband and father. His primary virtue is faithfulness, and from that faithfulness comes every other virtue that he displays.”

In Matthew’s gospel St. Joseph is described as “a just man”. Other versions translate the text saying he was “faithful to the law”. In other words, Joseph submitted himself to the higher law of God, and it was this essential obedience to God and faithfulness to God’s will that was the bedrock of his life. St. Joseph lived out that verse from the gospel, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his goodness, and everything else will be added to you.”

As the foster father of Jesus, St. Joseph’s faithfulness produced a list of other virtues, but there are three that we see in the Christmas stories which are especially necessary for men who wish to walk in his footsteps.

– See more at: http://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/this-christmas-become-like-st-joseph-the-faithful-father/#sthash.Tn8ZpBC9.dpuf

Go here to read the whole article.

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