The year of St. Joseph has been a beautiful gift given to us by the Church. It allows us time to grow closer to and learn more about Christ’s earthly father, St. Joseph. I have had the opportunity to do just that while at Bishop Simon Bruté and while on my summer parish assignment this past summer. When I first learned it was the Year of St. Joseph, I was struck by how little I knew about this great saint, and how I lacked any devotion to him. This led me to seek a way to learn more about him and grow closer to him. It took a while, but I finally found a way to do just that. Through one of my brother seminarians, I discovered the book Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Donald Calloway. This book has a lot of information about St. Joseph and leads the reader through a 33-day consecration in which learning about St. Joseph brings the reader closer to Christ. I chose to do this consecration for the solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19th and three of my brother seminarians joined in the consecration with me. Together we learned a lot about Christ’s earthly father and about why a devotion to him is so important. I think we all were led to have a closer relationship with St. Joseph through this consecration.

Since doing the consecration, I have continued to say a daily consecration prayer to St. Joseph and pray the Litany of St. Joseph so that I stay close to him. This new devotion to St. Joseph led me to lead a series about St. Joseph at my summer parish assignment. I gave three talks, each about a title of St. Joseph: St. Joseph Most Chaste, St. Joseph Pillar of Families, and St. Joseph Terror of Demons. This was a great way for me to continue to learn more about St. Joseph and the ways he can help me and the Church. By giving these talks, I was able to grow even more in my devotion to St. Joseph. I highly encourage all Catholics to learn about St. Joseph and grow in devotion to him. He was the earthly father of Jesus Christ and wants to lead us to Him.