St. Joseph and Vocations

On the March 19th of every year, we mark the Solemnity of St. Joseph, foster father of the Lord. I offer for your reflection the following article. It is an excerpt taken from "Life with Joseph", by Fr. Paul J. Gorman (A priest of the New Ulm Diocese who died in 2001), published by The Leaflet Missal Company. Copies of this book may by found by contacting the Institute on Religious Life, Box 41007, Chicago, IL 60641.




The remarkable and multifaceted character of St. Joseph made it possible for him to be declared the example and patron not only of Christian families, but also of those involved in other forms of vocational or professional endeavor. Consider the following:

Totally Committed to Christ: Although a family man by divine appointment, Joseph's intimate association with Jesus and Mary during the years at Nazareth qualified him for the position of patron of those committed to Christ in the priestly and religious vocations. Who more than St. Joseph knew the meaning of poverty, chastity and obedience? Who, more than he, was totally committed to the interests of our Blessed Lord and His Immaculate Mother? Joseph was united to Our Lady by the bond of matrimony yet he, like his virginal Spouse, placed his love, life and energies at the service of the Child Jesus. At no time was there a diminishing of his gift of himself to the One who, though He was God, had accepted a position of obedience and submission to His foster-father. For Joseph, no sacrifice was too great for the fulfillment of his responsibilities toward Him whom the angel had said: "They shall call him Emmanuel, a name which means 'God is with us.'"

Like Joseph, a priest is placed in an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As he stands at the altar, he holds in his hands the same Jesus who was born in a stable and laid in a manger. At consecration time, a priest once again envelops Jesus in the swaddling clothes of the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine. He bends his knee in adoration and allowance to the One to whom he has chosen to commit himself in a life of loving service. Like Joseph, the true priest will never compromise nor diminish his total commitment to Jesus and to His Mystical Body, the Church. Joseph should always be for the priest an attractive and a powerful intercessor in his efforts to live his sacerdotal commitment with unflagging zeal and limitless generosity.

Virtues Perfectly Practiced: What is said of the priesthood applies also in general to the religious life. The evangelical virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience were practiced perfectly in the home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Holy Family therefore becomes the pattern for religious life in monasteries and convents. Those who seek perfection in a religious community should cultivate a special relationship to St. Joseph and Mary; he can--by his example and intercession--bring to those in religious life to an ever-deepening union with Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.

Look to Joseph: St. Joseph is a patron par excellence of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. In this period of vocational shortages everywhere, it never ceases to be a source of wonderment that bishops and religious superiors seem to be totally unaware of the value of devotion to Joseph as an effective means of finding worthy candidates to fill half-empty seminaries and novitiates. Instead of spending time in useless complaining about vocational problems, Episcopal and religious authorities would do well to direct their concerns--in urgent prayer--to a presently untapped source of unfailing and efficacious assistance, St. Joseph. He who dedicated his life to the service of God's Son will hardly show less interest in obtaining suitable candidates for the service of His Church. If the great St. Teresa of Avila, doctor of the Church and specialist in mystical and contemplative prayer, did not hesitate to enlist the intercessory power of St. Joseph in the work of spiritual reform of the Order of Carmel and in the establishment of many new monasteries under the powerful patronage of the Head of the Holy Family, should there be reluctance on the part of church leadership to use Joseph's help in solving the problem of a vocational shortage?