St. Joseph, King of Religious Life: Part 2

St. Joseph is also a particular model for our religious community. We are, by the essential elements of our charism, a Marian, Ecclesial, and Eucharistic community. These facets of our spirit find expression in, among other areas: our total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, daily Eucharistic Adoration, and praying for priests, respectively. In each of these, we can look to St. Joseph to learn how to live our consecrated lives in a way most pleasing to Our Beloved Jesus.
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Marian Consecration
“Saint Joseph is the model of Total Consecration to Mary…Saint Joseph is the first human person to have been totally consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary… He is the prototype, blue-print, and model for how to live a life of total consecration to Mary.” (“Consecration to St. Joseph”, p. 121-122, Wonder 3: The Consecrated Knight”, Fr. Calloway, Donald H.)

In our Marian consecration, we give our “body and soul, our consecrated life in this community, our goods both interior and exterior, and even the value of all [my/our] good actions: past, present, and future.” In other words, our whole person, just as Jesus entrusted Himself entirely to Our Lady, so too do we, and for the same end: the greater glory of God, the union of God and Man, and the salvation of souls. We imitate Christ by imitating His complete dependence upon and absolute love for His Mother. St. Joseph, as a fully consecrated oblation, gave his whole life to Our Lady and Our Precious Lord.

When we make our consecration, we are assured by St. Louis Marie de Montfort that those who make the Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary have the great privilege of participating in Our Lady’s merits, virtues, and supernatural Faith. Our Marian consecration is the gift of our self to Our Lady, and the reception of Our Blessed Mother’s goods in return.
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This was true to the uttermost heights in the case of St. Joseph. As truly Our Lady’s spouse, St. Joseph was inextricably united to Our Immaculate Mother, and devoted his entire life to loving and serving his wife and the Christ Child. In the words of St. Peter Julian Eymard, as quoted by Fr. Donald Calloway in his marvelous work, “Consecration to St. Joseph”: “Mary belonged to Joseph, and Joseph to Mary, so much so that their marriage was very real, since they gave themselves to each other…” (Wonder 4: Virginal Father of Jesus, p. 131). The reciprocal gift we all give and receive in our Marian consecration was fulfilled par excellence in St. Joseph.

​Ecclesial
St. Joseph, protector sanctae ecclesiae (another praise from his litany), is the Father of all the faithful. ​

​The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ was held tenderly in the arms of St. Joseph as a baby, and was then held by Him in His Divine arms when he died. St. Joseph protected the Holy Child from Herod (Gospel According to St. Matthew, Douay Rheims, 2:13), from Archelaus (ibid, 2:22); from nightmares, from hunger, from stepping on nails in his workshop. He was declared the patron, father, of the Church on December 8th, 1870, by the then-reigning pontiff Pius IX, but has been the defender of Christ and His Mystical Members from the very beginning. To paraphrase St. Ambrose, St. Joseph’s fatherhood over Jesus was deep, affectionate, and real. Just as St. Joseph protected Our Lord on earth, so too he protects His Mystical Body, the Church, from heaven.

It is this tender, parental love shared between St. Joseph and Our Lady over the souls of the Church in which our Sisters seek to participate. In praying for the Church we, as spiritual mothers of souls, beg also the prayers and protection of the great spiritual father of the Church: St. Joseph.
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Eucharistic
St. Joseph, in protecting and loving the Baby, Child, Young-Man Jesus, was guarding and loving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of God: the Most Blessed Sacrament. Whenever he lifted the Christ child up into the air, he was raising the Host—without the medium of a humeral or a monstrance. When he laid Him down to sleep, he reposed Him in His blanket-clad tabernacle. We just spoke of St. Joseph’s love of his son, but it was never separated from his love of his God in the person of Jesus.

We pray that our priests, being so central to the economy of grace Our Lord has instituted through His Spouse, the Church, will take as their model of love and reverence dear Father St. Joseph. To handle the Eucharist as one would handle their own precious infant, and to adore as befits their Lord and Maker. He is also our model, in adoring our Lord. Taking once again a re-quote from “Consecration to St. Joseph”, this one by St. Julian Eymard in his book “The Month of St. Joseph”: “Saint Joseph was the first adorer, the first religious…When we see how close Joseph came to Jesus, how thoroughly he was transformed into him, we grasp his true greatness, his real sanctity.” (Wonder 7: Adorer of Christ, Perpetual Adoration, p. 171). 

We ardently petition our spiritual father, especially in this grace-filled month, to grant us the spirit of profound adoration and love of the Blessed Sacrament which he possessed. That we may live in constant, intimate union with Jesus and Mary, and be transformed by them so that, like St. Joseph, we may lovingly and faithfully live out our lives of consecration according to the Marian, Ecclesial, and Eucharistic charism Our Lord has entrusted to us; for God’s glory, and for the salvation of souls.
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St. Joseph, King of Religious Life, 
ora pro nobis!