Re: Devotion to St. Joseph in the 21st Century
Fr:
Fr. Donald H. Calloway, MIC (2020). Consecration
to St. Joseph: The wonders of our Spiritual Father. Stockbridge, MA: Marian
Press, pp. 4-5 (caps & parenthetical remarks mine).
“… Without
exaggeration, the Church has done more to promote St. Joseph in the last 150
years than in the previous 1,800 years of Christianity! But why now? Why St.
Joseph?
“There are many reasons, but I believe there
are two that are especially important.
“FIRST, we need the SPIRITUAL FATHERHOOD of
St. Joseph to help us PROTECT MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY. Marriage & the
family have always been under attack, but in modern times, the threats have
reached extraordinary heights. Many people no longer know what it means to be a
MAN or a WOMAN, let alone what constitutes a MARRIAGE and a FAMILY. Many countries
even claim to have redefined marriage and the family. There is a great
CONFUSION on these matters, greater confusion than in any previous era of human
history. The Servant of God Sr. Lucia dos Santos, the longest-lived visionary of
the Fatima apparitions, knew the seriousness of the times and made a powerful
statement about this issue. She wrote [before her death in 2005 to Cardinal
Carlo Caffarra, then Archbishop of Bologna, Italy in response to his request
for her prayers for the Pontifical Institute of Marriage and the Family that
Pope John Paul II asked him to establish]:
The final battle between the Lord and
the kingdom of Satan will be about
marriage
and the family.
“To combat & overcome Satan’s deceptions,
the Church needs St. Joseph. His example & protection are the only way out
of the confusing mess we are in. Who else can we turn to who can help us
understand what marriage & the family are all about i9f not to the HEAD OF
THE HOLY FAMILY and the TERROR OF DEMONS!
“SECOND, the entire world needs to be
RE-EVANGELIZED, including the vast majority of baptized Christians. Saint
Joseph was the FIRST MISSIONARY. Today, he desires again TO BRING JESUS TO THE
NATIONS. Many nations & cultures that were previously Christian have fallen
away from their Christian roots & are on a path of self-destruction. Countries
once established on Judeo-Christian principles have become overrun by
ideologies & organizations that seek to strip society of all that is
SACRED. Without a major turnover, civilization itself I going to SELF-DESTRUCT.
“In an apostolic exhortation on St. Joseph
in 1989, St. John Paul II reminded us of the necessity of invoking St. Joseph
in the work of re-evangelizing the world. He wrote:
This patronage must be invoked as ever
necessary for the Church, not only as a
defense
against all dangers, but also, & indeed primarily, as an impetus for her
renewed
commitment to EVANGELIZATION in the world & to RE-
EVANGELIZATION
in those lands & nations where religion & the Christian life
were
formerly flourishing & we now put to a hard rest.
“Now
is the time to consecrate yourself to St. Joseph! God is telling his Church
that, in order to defend marriage & the family, elevate morals, recover
lost ground, & win souls for Jesus Christ, we need to bring ST. Joseph onto
the BATTLEFIELD….”
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