St. Joseph, our spiritual father

It is a longstanding tradition of the Church to dedicate the month of March in honor of St. Joseph. This makes sense since the Solemnity of St. Joseph is celebrated on March 19. As I prepared to write this article for the March issue, it became evident that my topic should be St. Joseph. Let me explain.

Tom Monaghan

As you may know from past columns, I spent six and half years as a young boy in an orphanage in Jackson, Michigan, and the name of that orphanage was St. Joseph’s Home for Boys. It was run by the Felician sisters, which is an order that came over from Poland in the late 1800s and primarily (or at least initially) ministered to Polish Americans. In keeping with the traditions of Polish Catholics, they had a deep devotion to St. Joseph. For example, St. Joseph’s solemnity, which is the patronal feast day of Poland, was celebrated in a special way at the orphanage. In addition, all the boys in the orphanage took the name Joseph as their confirmation name. So from a very young age, I understood that he was a very important saint, and yet I did not know much about him and never fully appreciated him…until recently.

Just before Christmas, I had dinner with Chris Ice, who is the new president of Ave Maria University, and his wife, Mary. It was a tremendous evening, and I continue to be impressed by both of them. As a Christmas gift, Chris sent me a book that was hot off the press by Fr. Donald H. Calloway, MIC, called Consecration to St. Joseph, The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father. As the title implies, it contains a 33-day consecration to St. Joseph, which I promptly began after the first of the year and just recently completed on February 3 shortly before writing this column.

Soon after starting this book and consecration, I was struck by the power and importance of this amazing saint, who I had always wanted to know more about. In addition to the day-by-day consecration prayers and readings, this book is an amazing summary of the Church’s teachings on St. Joseph; from what many of the great Saints have said about him to the teachings of popes throughout the ages. Among his many titles, St. Joseph is hailed as the Patron Saint of the Universal Church and of Workers! I thought, this is perfect for Legates and for the month of March. I cannot begin to do justice to this book by Fr. Calloway, so I simply encourage you to read it. It is a great book for Lent or anytime for that matter. St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church…Pray for us!

TOM MONAGHAN is Legatus’ founder, chairman and CEO.