Could a consecration to St. Joseph save the family?
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, sat down with ChurchPOP English editor Jacqueline Burkepile to discuss his new book, Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father.
Fr. Calloway also just released an audio-version of the book, which includes the Litany of St. Joseph in song, both English and Latin.
What is Consecration to St. Joseph?
“Consecration to St. Joseph is kind of a supplement the Consecration to Our Lady,” Fr. Calloway explains. “If you think about it, we’re consecrated to Jesus by our Baptism. He’s Our Lord and Savior. And we entrust our lives to Mary because she’s our Spiritual Mother.
“What about St. Joseph? He’s our Spiritual Father and the patron of the Universal Church. So if we love him, honor him, and want to be like him, we’re going to become really close to Our Lord and Our Lady, and we’re going to grow in holiness.
“So that’s what Consecration to St. Joseph is: it’s entrusting our lives into the hands of our our Spiritual Father, so that he, with Our Lady, can help us grow in holiness. And I think now is the time for this.”
Listen to his full interview below:
Click here if you cannot see the video above.
Fr. Calloway later explains why he decided to write this book.
“Today, people are super confused about marriage, what it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman.
“We’ve got gender ideology–people don’t even know what bathroom to use today,” he said. “We need the head of the Holy Family—Our Spiritual Father, St. Joseph to help us restore order to things.
“By bringing him into this crisis and confusion we’re having, we can learn what it means when we say that the man is the head of the home. And that’s scary language today.
“People are like, ‘Whoa, what are you talking about?’
“Well, we have to understand it in the right way: He’s a servant—he’s one who sacrifices. What woman wouldn’t want that? What woman wouldn’t want a man who is like that? [A man] who is a servant-leader, and humble and loving, and yet, strong and not afraid to make a decision.
“I unpack that from the Litany of St. Joseph, because that litany has his virtues—his main virtues: most chaste, most prudent—all these virtues that I unpack.
“My goal is to help families understand what it means to be a family.
There’s a lot of Our Lady and Our Lord, too.
I unpack that to help us to kind of get back to things that we’ve forgotten: spending time together, praying together, recreating together. We don’t’ think about that much, but it’s not like the Holy Family was just in a corner all day praying in their house in Nazareth…they had fun. They had to do things that were fun!
“It’s important for families to be given “The Model” of what it means to be a prayerful, joyful, fun family, and that’s Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”
“Pray for me: the devil doesn’t like this at all. There’s been a lot of attacks and a lot of craziness that’s come up. But get excited for it. You can do it as individuals, as parishes, and even as a diocese.
Pray that the pope declares a “Year of St. Joseph.”
“We’ve never had one. We’ve had Marian years, Year of Mercy, Year of Prayer…but never a Year of St. Joseph,” Fr. Calloway said. “Next year—2020—(when the book comes out Jan. 1) is the 150th anniversary of when Bl. Pius IX declared St. Joseph patron of the Universal Church. So if we do this on a grand scale, I think the impact could be huge.”
Click here to order Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father.
[See also: 8 Little-Known Facts About St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus]
[See also: 7 Little-Known Prayers to St. Joseph Every Catholic Should Know]