Icon of the Father: 33 Days to Entrustment to Saint Joseph

Joseph of Nazareth, man of humility and silence and also of tenderness and abiding love, was chosen to be the earthly father of Jesus Christ and the husband of Mary, the Mother of God. He was the custodian, therefore, of the greatest and yet most hidden mysteries of God, the veil drawn over the most sacred marriage of God and humanity, which he sheltered in his pure and masculine love. And this custodianship over the household of the Holy Family prepared him, in God's plan, to be a custodian also over the universal family of the Church. It is therefore a healthy and spontaneous impulse to desire to entrust ourselves to such a father, who in the transparency of his heart allows the light of the one and eternal Father to shine through him, and thus to filter more tangibly into our own hearts and lives.

In this book, I seek to provide a complementary image to my previous book on entrustment to Mary, developing on the relationships that have deepened through the contemplative love and prayer that Sheltered within Her Heart sought to open up. As that book sought to be only an aid to a deeper entrustment to Mary, and, with her, in her, and through her, to the immeasurable love of the Trinity himself, so this book seeks to be only an aid to growing in understanding of, and reverence for, Saint Joseph, and thus an invitation to deeper relationship with him. Through both of them, Mary and Joseph, we find the Trinity's life in a particular way made accessible to us, unveiled before us, and inviting us. What Mary illumines from the perspective of femininity, Joseph illumines from that of masculinity. Thus these two books can be understood as a diptych, a two-paneled image centered upon the hinge-point of Christ.

Joseph finds himself caught up in a mystery that so far surpasses him, and yet which cradles him with incredible tenderness and intimacy, and all the resources of his humanity are harnessed in sheltering and loving the Blessed Virgin and the Child conceived and born of her. Thus he is a custodian of the mysteries of God, and he invites all of us to "step into his shoes," to learn to love as he loved, and indeed also to entrust ourselves to his care, to be sheltered and loved, fathered and protected by him, just as were Mary and Jesus.