I encourage you to make, with me, a 33-day preparation for consecration to St. Joseph, which will take place on May 1st (the feast of St. Joseph the Worker). I’m using Fr. Donald Calloway’s fine book Consecration to St. Joseph. Each day’s reading takes about seven or eight minutes, and I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Donald H. Calloway, author of the book.
Day Four
Fr. Calloway points out that “Jesus wants you to know and love his mother, and his father.” We can never receive too much love. Jesus loves us, his mother loves us, and his father loves us—both his earthly and his Heavenly Fathers. God has blessed me with a very dear priest-friend for 30 years (we were seminarians together). I used to spend time at his family home in Los Angeles, and truly his mother was my mother, and his father my father (especially as my own dear parents lived 3000 miles away). His father liked to wash his seven children’s cars. If he saw that Matt’s little Toyota was especially dusty, he would get out the hose, and you could hear him humming as he wiped down the hood and fenders. Once I pulled into the family driveway after a few days in Baja California, my Subaru was covered with dust. While I was inside talking to the brothers, I glanced outside to see Mr. O’Donnell hosing down my old jalopy, humming contentedly.
To know a friend is to know his father. To be a good friend is to receive the paternal love, support, and direction that a friend’s father wants to give. Jesus wants us to know and to love—to be loved by—his earthly father, St. Joseph.
Day Four
Fr. Calloway points out that “Jesus wants you to know and love his mother, and his father.” We can never receive too much love. Jesus loves us, his mother loves us, and his father loves us—both his earthly and his Heavenly Fathers. God has blessed me with a very dear priest-friend for 30 years (we were seminarians together). I used to spend time at his family home in Los Angeles, and truly his mother was my mother, and his father my father (especially as my own dear parents lived 3000 miles away). His father liked to wash his seven children’s cars. If he saw that Matt’s little Toyota was especially dusty, he would get out the hose, and you could hear him humming as he wiped down the hood and fenders. Once I pulled into the family driveway after a few days in Baja California, my Subaru was covered with dust. While I was inside talking to the brothers, I glanced outside to see Mr. O’Donnell hosing down my old jalopy, humming contentedly.
To know a friend is to know his father. To be a good friend is to receive the paternal love, support, and direction that a friend’s father wants to give. Jesus wants us to know and to love—to be loved by—his earthly father, St. Joseph.
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