Section 4 | Rule 9: Concerning the Need for the Custos to Love Himself that He May also Love His Wife

Let the husband understand that he is to love his wife as Christ loves her (see Jn 15:13)). Therefore, God wills always that a man receives and trusts in His fatherly love, and by doing so learn to love himself as God loves him. In a contrary manner, the evil spirits are always bent on disrupting and undermining the Custos’ trust in God the Father. Without trusting that God the Father loves the man as His own son, the man will eventually lack love for himself; and as his love for himself is diminished, or absent, he will become less capable of loving his wife; and she will begin to starve emotionally and spiritually and eventually–if left unchecked–interiorly resent her husband, believing him to be pusillanimous, which could plant within her heart the seed of infidelity.

Let the Custos know that to the degree that he loves himself as God loves him, is the degree that he will be capable of loving his wife.

Devin Schadt | Executive Director of the Fathers of St. Joseph

Ite ad Joseph