Dear Parishioners,
Today we celebrate the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and we also give thanks for Father’s Day. We are reminded that fathers carry a unique gift, privilege, and responsibility: to reflect the voice of God the Father in the lives of their children. To live out this calling well, it is fitting that they turn to our spiritual father, St. Joseph, for his intercession.
Pope Pius XII said, “If Joseph was so engaged, heart and soul, in protecting and providing for that little family at Nazareth, don’t you think that now in heaven he is the same loving father and guardian of the whole Church, of all its members, as he was of its Head on earth?”
With this confidence, let us turn to St. Joseph today for all fathers in our parish. I invite you to join me in praying this Consecration to St. Joseph, who watches over us with a tender, paternal love and continually draws us closer to his Son, Jesus Christ. With that confidence, we pray:
O Glorious Patriarch and Patron of the Church! O Virgin Spouse of the Virgin Mother of God! O Guardian and Virginal Father of the Word Incarnate! In the presence of Jesus and Mary, I choose you this day to be my father, my guardian, and my protector.
O great St. Joseph, whom God has made the Head of the Holy Family, accept me, I beseech you, though utterly unworthy, to be a member of your “Holy House.” Present me to your Immaculate Spouse; ask her also to adopt me as her child. With her, pray that I may constantly think of Jesus, and serve him faithfully to the end of my life. O Terror of Demons, increase in me virtue, protect me from the evil one, and help me not to offend God in any way.
O my Spiritual Father, I hereby consecrate myself to you. In faithful imitation of Jesus and Mary, I place myself and all my concerns under your care and protection. To you, after Jesus and Mary, I consecrate my body and soul, with all their faculties, my spiritual growth, my home, and all my affairs and undertakings.
Forsake me not, but adopt me as a servant and child of the Holy Family. Watch over me at all times, but especially at the hour of my death. Console and strengthen me with the presence of Jesus and Mary so that, with you, I may praise and adore the Holy Trinity for all eternity. Amen.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Bill Duffert