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THE TRANSFORMING POWER
OF ST. JOSEPH CONSECRATION
by Devin Schadt
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| Approximately twenty years ago, our two-month-old Anna Marie was fighting for her life. Due to nurse neglect, she had suffered ten hours of apnea, depleting her oxygen levels so severely that she suffered repetitive seizures. The EMT unit intervened, placing Anna Marie on temporary life support, rolled her across the hospital’s tarmac, transporting her into a helicopter that transferred her to a children’s hospital in Peoria Illinois. I packed some clothes, a book and made the two-hour drive in the middle of the night begging God that she would survive.
During that helicopter flight she suffered three clinical death experiences and permanent brain injury. Anna spent the following two months on life support.
Kim, my wife, arrived a day later at Anna Marie’s ICU chamber. Anna, swollen from the intravenous medication, was on a mechanical ventilation machine, which allowed her lungs to function enough to live… barely.
My wife was devastated. At that time I was focused on launching my own graphic design start-up, was involved in youth ministry, and working around the clock at my current job. Kim, looked at me, and with a plea of desperation asked me to “come home and be a husband and father.”
But I was… at least, I thought I was. The truth was that I was only filling that spot, checking the box of “husband and father,” believing that it would take care of itself.
Long story short, I heeded her request and was intentional about fulfilling my vocation, but soon realized that I didn’t understand what it meant to be a great father. Unfortunately, I misunderstood fatherhood to be a second-rate vocation–something that happens to you, rather than you choosing it.
The world offers prestige, prominence, power, profit, pleasure, and possessions, while fatherhood appeared to be banal, lackluster. Additionally, the Church rarely canonized fathers as saints, and even more infrequently canonized a man precisely for his fatherhood.
I asked God to give me His vision of fatherhood. He introduced me to St. Joseph, the man who became the father of Jesus Christ.
St. Joseph showed me that a father is not merely biological, but spiritual. Any man can be a biological dad, but it takes a real man to be a spiritual father. Though the sacred scripture appeared to say so little about this man who never spoke a word, Joseph’s example speaks profoundly of the greatness of fatherhood.
St. Joseph was an icon of God the Father; a living, breathing human reflection of God’s fatherhood to his son Jesus. St. Joseph was guardian of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who rather than lusting, sacrificially loved the Holy Virgin. St. Joseph protected his family from Herod and his murderous plot to kill the Christ child and thus became the savior of the Savior.
St. Joseph taught me that to be a real man is to be responsible for those entrusted to my care: my wife and children; to protect, provide and be the priest of our family. A priest is one who sacrifices. A father is the priest of his family who sacrifices himself to ensure that his family become saints and arrive at their heavenly homeland. After all, what greater goal is there?
St. Joseph gives every father hope that his vocational path is the road to greatness and sanctity. A true father becomes a saint by doing his best to raise saints. He doesn’t have to be successful in this mission, just faithful to the very end.
"And as for you brothers, never tire of doing what is right." 2 Thessalonians 3:13 |
| DEVIN SCHADT
Devin Schadt is the executive director of the Fathers of St. Joseph, an apostolate that labors for the restoration, redemption, and revitalization of fatherhood. Devin is the author of Joseph’s Way: 80 Days To Unlocking Your Power as a Father; CUSTOS: Total Consecration Through Saint Joseph; and is the creator of the video-devotional system LEAD: The Four Marks of Fatherly Greatness. Devin lives with his wife and five daughters in the Midwest. Learn more at FathersOfStJoseph.org and on YouTube.
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| | Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
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So blessed to be united in building the Kingdom, |
| Greg and Stephanie Schlueter
Image Trinity | Mass Impact
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"The future of humanity passes by way of the family."
~ Pope St. John Paul II
We are families seeking to make our homes places of ever-deepening encounter with Jesus Christ.
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