Blessing and Protection for You, Your Marriage and Your Family: Consecration Through St. Joseph

Binding the Strong Man

The evil one knows that the secret to redefining and maligning marriage and the family is to use the world, sin, and distractions to remove, paralyze, detain, and discourage the human father from living his unique vocation as protector, provider, and domestic priest, as guardian of the mystery of the Trinity in the family.

Indeed, “no man can enter into the house of a strong man and rob him of his goods, unless he first bind the strong man, and then shall he plunder his house.” If the devil can successfully bind the strong man of the family, he can plunder the goods of his wife and children. If he can plunder the woman and child, society is all but abandoned, defenseless, and easily sifted by the devil’s designs.

Society goes by way of the family because of its power to be a perpetual reminder of the Trinity; and the family goes by way of the human father (statistics, experience, and history testify to this truth). If the world is to be converted and the Church renewed, fatherhood must be redeemed.

Unfortunately, fatherhood has become a lost art. Few understand the vital nature of the vocation of fatherhood; and fewer comprehend its unique role and essence; and even fewer embrace this heroic vocation and live it in such a way as to have lasting impact on the generations to come.

St. Joseph Our Hope

More than ever, the human father needs a sure guide, a wise mentor, an experienced father, who in the face of horrific evils, has “raised” his family to sacrificial holiness. The human father needs a father who will show him the way to correspond to Christ’s command to be a perfect father on earth like the Father in heaven.

Humanity is experiencing a universal famine of fatherhood and needs a father to feed them the experiential knowledge and wisdom of the full vision of fatherhood as exemplified by St. Joseph.

St. Joseph “is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season”; he is the father who can mentor, guide, and lead the human father to be a father on earth like the Father in heaven.

Although St. Joseph’s renown was initially shrouded, over the last two thousand years his noble distinction and preeminence among men has gradually emerged.30 His hiddenness serves as a fitting allegory for the current state of fatherhood. As St. Joseph has been eclipsed, in a similar way the modern father and his vital role has been eclipsed. Indeed, it seems that in our age God is revealing St. Joseph’s vital role in the economy of salvation for the purpose of awakening mankind to the necessity of the human father.

Pope Leo XIII proclaimed, “Fathers of families find in St. Joseph the best personification of paternal solicitude and vigilance.” Indeed, St. Joseph was solicitous for his family’s needs, while also being ever vigilant to defend his family from the evil one. According to Pope St. John Paul II, St. Joseph “is a perfect incarnation of fatherhood in the human, and at the same time, holy family.”

Indeed, Joseph pursued sacrificial perfection and prepared his family to offer themselves in perfect sacrifice.

The Purpose of This Consecration

The aim and purpose of this consecration is to help inspire men to “go to Joseph,” discover in him this “perfect incarnation of fatherhood,” and aspire to follow this sure guide.

The goal of this devotion is to entrust ourselves completely and the same manner that Mary and Jesus did. This is nothing new. Indeed, it is the very spirituality of the Catholic Church, which his holiness Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1870, namely that St. Joseph is the patron (father) of the universal Roman Catholic Church, entrusting her to his faithful care.

By consecrating ourselves to St. Joseph in this manner, God will draw us into the mysteries of Mary and Jesus, mysteries that this just guardian witnessed firsthand, mysteries that will inspire us to donate our lives and our fatherhood to Jesus, and ultimately to God the Father.

In other words, St. Joseph will teach us how to love, protect, and guide our families by teaching us the way he defended, loved, and provided for his own family.

Consecration Prayer to St. Joseph

O St. Joseph predestined and chosen by God from among men, you received the glorious honor of being the chaste guardian of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Enflamed with divine love, you received her as your beloved wife, and through her, God bestowed upon you the most privileged distinction of being the virginal father of God the Son.

As a living reflection of the Heavenly Father, you protected the Christ Child from Herod, thus becoming the savior of the Savior. You accepted Jesus’ humble submission to your fatherly authority and thus became the master of the Master. As a hidden king you conferred upon Jesus the Davidic kingship and thus became the king of the King of Kings. With untiring joy, you labored to nurture the human soul and flesh of Jesus, giving bread to the Bread of Life.

Most gentle and generous father, look upon me, your indigent child, and see that I too need your care and protection. O chaste heart that burned with love for Jesus and Mary, teach me, your humble servant, to be devoted entirely to Mary and to worship the Lord Jesus with my entire being that I too may become a living reflection of God our Father.

O master of the interior life, you faithfully and promptly fulfilled the divine commands. Your humble obedience has elevated the vocation of fatherhood as a certain means to sublime sanctity and eternal glory. Desiring to follow your holy example, I embrace my vocation to be a most chaste husband, a living icon of God the Father, and a just guardian and guide that my family may become like yours, a Holy Family.

Therefore, most glorious and humble spiritual father, today before the heavenly host I surrender myself, my marriage, my fatherhood, my family, my labors, my merits, all that I am and have, unreservedly and totally to you, and consequently to Mary my Queen and most holy Mother, that you may always be my parents in the order of grace and that I may forever be your son. As you and Mary consecrated the Son of God to God the Father, consecrate me also, that I may be set apart for holy service to God most high. I beseech you, as you prepared Christ for His ultimate sacrifice, prepare me also that I may attain the fullness of divine sonship.

Most humble, silent, and hidden father, I surrender all to you that my fatherhood may glorify God the Father of glory in this age and the age to come, forever without end, Amen.

Excerpt from Custos: Total Consecration Through St. Joseph, Devin Schadt, Tan Books; Stewardship Mission of Faith