Growing up, Father Joseph Capella was constantly reminded of his saintly namesake, the head of the Holy Family.
“My grandmother gave me a Saint Joseph medal. My parish was Saint Joseph’s in Hammonton,” the diocesan priest and rector of Camden Catholic High School recalled, explaining where his appreciation for the Patron of the Universal Church began, as he learned about “this faithful man of God.”
Still today, “there’s a closeness I feel to him,” Father Capella said. “I pray to God, through Saint Joseph, all the time.”
The Catholic Church’s Year of Saint Joseph came to a close Dec. 8, capping off a yearlong celebration of the foster father of Jesus and husband of Mary. On Dec. 8, 2020 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Pope Francis announced a year dedicated to Saint Joseph “to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal.”
That was true for Father Carlo Santa Teresa, parochial vicar at Saint Joseph in Somers Point, who was ordained to the priesthood in May. This year and his first assignment as a priest “have drawn me closer to Joseph and helped me to see him as a father and leader, committed to his own vocation and entrusting himself to God.”
He said Saint Joseph can help the faithful “be open to following God with the greatest amount of trust. By opening our minds and hearts to him [God], we allow him to work good things for and through us.”
Furthermore, Father Santa Teresa said, as the world continues to undergo a time of “uncertainties and challenges” during the pandemic, “Joseph can teach us to follow God amidst difficulty.” For Saint Joseph, he said, that included keeping Mary and Jesus safe.
Sister of Saint Joseph Dorothy Giloley, who led a retreat on Saint Joseph Dec. 4 at Christ the King Parish in Haddonfield, said, “Saint Joseph is a model for our times – a model of faith and trust in God.”
Father Capella agreed, saying that as the faithful celebrate Advent and look toward Christmas – “the season of Joseph’s great role in history” – the Mass readings recount Joseph’s Fiat (“let it be done”) and his affirmative response to God’s call to take into his home the pregnant Mary.
“He made a difference,” Sister Dorothy said. Like Mary in front of the Angel Gabriel, and Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, Joseph put himself “at the service of the entire plan of salvation,” in the words of Saint John Chrysostom.
Plus, Saint Joseph is notable for not having one word attributed to him in the Scriptures, a fact that shows him as a man who “stayed humble and in the shadows but made a lot of things happen,” said Sister Dorothy, instructor in the Diocese’s Church Ministry Institute of Camden and Catholic campus minister at Rutgers University-Camden.
Father Capella agreed, saying that in this past year, through daily prayer and classroom instruction, he and Camden Catholic staff have attempted to make Saint Joseph prevalent in students’ lives, and show them a man who “didn’t need to worry about advertising” all he did in the service of God. “He simply fulfilled his mission in a quiet, meditative and faithful way.”
The Year of Saint Joseph might have ended, but Catholics can continue to pray to him, learn from him, and follow in his humble footsteps, Father Santa Teresa said. “We can do our own part to carry Christ to all and bring joy to those we encounter.”
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
