Emulate St. Joseph in Small Ways

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 19, 2026

Solemnity of St Joseph

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031926.cfm

2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16   Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29

Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22    Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

When reflecting on St. Joseph, I like to think about what I have in common with St. Joseph.  Both of us are men. Both of us were blessed with beautiful wives, and both of us remained loyal to those wives. Both of us were foster fathers to a child, and both of us protect our families.  St. Joseph protects Jesus, and as a deacon, one of my roles is defender of the Blessed Sacrament. The similarities end there.

St. Joseph is the husband of the Queen of Heaven and Earth; I am not.  His wife was pregnant when he got married; mine was not. He is the foster and adoptive father of our redeemer, the King of the Universe; my adoptive daughter is royalty, but only in my house.  St. Joseph's lineage to King David survived through a humble, hidden branch of David’s family.  My ancestors came from Canada. St. Joseph is never quoted in scripture; his silence is powerful.  I have a hard time knowing when not to speak!  The list goes on!  Anyway, let’s move on to some of the virtues of St. Joseph.  As we go through this list, let’s think about how well we portray these virtues ourselves, which ones we are great at, and which ones we need to work more on. We are supposed to emulate the Saints after all.

Just/Righteous: Described in Scripture as a "just man," he committed to doing what was good and following God's law, rather than merely following human rules.

Obedient and Faithful: He listened to God and acted immediately, such as accepting Mary as his wife and fleeing to Egypt when the angels told him to do so.  

Chaste and Pure: Known as the most chaste spouse, he loved Mary and Jesus with a pure, selfless love, creating order and peace in the Holy Family.

Humble and Hidden: He lived a life of humility, avoiding the spotlight and serving God and his family in obscurity.

Provider and Worker: As a carpenter, he demonstrated the dignity of labor, working diligently to support Jesus and Mary.  St. Joseph is even known as the Model for Workers.

Courageous Protector: He acted swiftly to defend the Child and Mother from dangers like King Herod during the “Slaughter of the Innocents”.  He is even known as the Terror of Demons!

Patron of a Holy Death: His life of piety and devotion to Jesus and Mary makes him a model for the final moments of life.

I try to emulate St. Joseph in my own small ways.  I have a Prayer to St. Joseph, the Worker, at my desk in Canton.  I try to remember to say that each day so that I may thank God for the successes in my workday and offer my failures to God in reparation for my sins and those of the world. I prayed to St. Joseph a lot when my father was in Hospice care. I knew my mother would be with my dad when he passed, and I wanted him to die peacefully for her sake as well as his.  Late one night, he just stopped breathing. He passed very quietly with her by his side.  St. Joseph’s intercession aided us at a very difficult time.

St. Joseph is a key saint in my Saint Posse, assisting me as a father, husband, deacon, and employee.  How can he assist you in your life?

I’ll end with this prayer from Saint Bernadine of Siena to St. Joseph:

Remember us, Saint Joseph, and plead for us to your foster-child. Ask your most holy bride, the Virgin Mary, to look kindly upon us, since she is the mother of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns eternally. Amen.

First Year Reflection

May 18, 2020, marked our one year anniversary for our ordination into the diaconate.  My brother deacons and I were asked if we would write a reflection on what our year was like for the Fall River diocesan deacon newsletter.  Here is a brief synopsis of what my first year as a deacon was like.

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It was the Grateful Dead who put it so eloquently when they said “what a long strange trip it’s been”. It just hasn’t been very long at all, only one year,  but what a year of strangely wonderful blessings it has been!  We are supposed to count our blessings so here goes!

Blessing #0 - The friends I made through this process.  I was ordained with 8 other men who I now consider “brothers” in Christ.  The journey was awesome and they made it even better.  This friend list also includes everyone else involved in this ordination process, teachers, priests, bishop(s), deacons, leaders, mentors, and speakers.  Zero is not a typo,  I’m a programmer so we always start with zero, plus, that’s why the Roman empire fell, there isn’t a zero in Roman numerals!

Blessing #1 - My church assignment. My family was truly blessed to be assigned to the church we currently attended Holy Family in East Taunton.  We were blessed that the current Deacon, Bob Craig, volunteered to step aside so I could remain there and that was my first huge blessing as a deacon.

Blessing #2 - Ministering the Sacraments.  On May 19,  a day after our ordination, I ministered my first Sacrament, the Baptism of baby Harper Lilley!  The family knew it would be a day after ordination and they were very supportive and excited with me!  Since then I have been able to minister at 11 other Baptisms as well as two Marriages and a whole bunch of Masses.  Indeed the sacraments are awesome and being able to minster them is wonderfully humbling!

Blessing #3 - Ministering at Funerals/Grave sides.  August 19th, the funeral of our Director of Religious Education.  This was one of the most difficult blessings I have partaken in.  Karen was such an integral part of our parish and a mentor to many, myself included.  Karen’s husband Paul is a Deacon in the Boston diocese and played a big role in my Diaconate.  Our parish was very close to both of them.

Blessing #4 - Serving on the altar with children.  My daughter Faith, who we adopted from China in the Fall of 2009 had been asking to be an altar server for a long time.  My son Adam volunteered to “come out of retirement” to help her.  We finally figured out all the logistics so my wife had a place to stand and sign for her (my daughter is deaf) and in July she served her first Mass with her big brother and dad! 

Blessing #5 - Eucharistic services at Life Care in Raynham.  Being able to visit the residents at Life Care has taught me a deeper respect and love of the Eucharist.  I have seen many of these residents break down into tears when receiving the Eucharist as it may have been weeks since they last received.  The enthusiasm and love which they receive our Lord, regardless of their current circumstances in life has been uplifting!  I hope we can return to this ministry sooner than later!

Blessing #6 - Being a Deacon in a Pandemic. In March the world flipped on its head and serving as a deacon changed a bit.  I found myself behind a camera, trying to stream live adoration and doing live stream stations of the cross from my dining room table.  The live stream of virtual adoration/rosary on Tuesday night did not go well for a while.  In the fourth week of failure, I went home to give up.  A big blessing came from one of our parishioners.  She wanted to thank me for my perseverance and added that her husband had passed away a few years ago and she had also lost a daughter and was alone now that she has been in lockdown.  She said she very much looked forward to the live stream and to the humor I added during all the failed attempts.  That changed my mind, I resolved to get it working, and we did, the next week and future weeks went well!

Blessing #7 - Catholic Trivia night!  My wife Allison got the idea after our Friday night stations of the cross live feed attendance fell off significantly after Lent.  We were wondering what we could do to stay in touch that would be either interesting or educational or fun!  The Holy Spirit blessed her with an idea that could be all three!  We started a Facebook live stream of Catholic Trivia from our dining room table and have been doing it for weeks now!  We even had a special “call-in” guest who went live with us in June, Fr. Kevin Cook, our last pastor who is now in Seekonk.

Blessing #8 - Preaching.  I feared this part of it the most but honestly, through prayer, adoration, and asking the Holy Spirit to guide me it has gone pretty good.  Sure, when I’m up there I sweat (sometimes a lot) but my comfort level has increased and I was actually looking forward to preaching again for the June 21st Masses after a couple of months off.

Blessing #9 - Adoration and benediction.  Wow, I can’t put this one into words but when I lift Jesus in the monstrance for benediction it is such an amazing, humbling and wonderful experience, one I had never even considered until I did this the first time.  The feeling, the warmth, the humility, the emotions I felt that night, and every night after is one you can only understand by doing benediction, praise God we deacons can!

These are by no means an exhaustive list of all the blessings I have received during my first year and I am certainly looking forward to what future blessings being a deacon in the Fall River diocese has to offer!

Receive the Holy Spirit

May 17th - Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051720.cfm

In our first reading, we see that Philip, the deacon, was the opening act for Peter and John.  He went down to Samaria, got the crowd riled up for the word of God, and once finished, Peter and John show up, and they do something fascinating.

We see that the people to whom Philip was preaching to “had only been Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but had not yet received the Spirit.” So what exactly were Peter and John doing?  They were conferring on them the Sacrament of Confirmation - the Sacrament that completes their Baptism so that they may fully receive the Spirit.

As a matter of fact, if you research the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church you find this very reading at the bottom in the “In Brief” section, CCC 1315:

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

Another interesting discovery requiring just a little digging tells us more about Philip. Philip was one of the deacon’s mentioned in last week’s first reading from Acts 6:1-7.  He didn’t lay hands on them but he could baptize.  We can see this in Acts 8:26 where Philip baptizes the Ethiopian.  He was only a deacon and like today in time could not confer the sacrament of Confirmation.  That’s where Peter and John come in.  We know that they are Bishops because when they choose a successor for Judas, the betrayer in Acts 1:20 we read:

 For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.’

  And:

‘May another take his office’.

Ok, so that’s not very interesting to my point here is it? May another take his “office” actually is a big deal. If you take another translation that is older (Douay-Rheims Bible) Acts 1:20 reads:

For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his bishopric let another take.

Peter and John were amongst the twelve so they were indeed considered Bishops of the very early church, and like today in time, the Bishop is the “ordinary” minister of Confirmation.

So the next time someone asks you where the sacraments are in the bible you can answer this one!  By the way, Acts 1:5 is another good spot to see Confirmation in action!

That leads us to a nice segue into our second reading from 1 Peter 3:15-16:

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

As confirmed adults (well, if you are confirmed already) the responsibility lies on your shoulders to learn more about the faith so that you may teach others.  You don’t have to teach religious education but you do need to be ready to teach when the opportunity presents itself.  It could be to family, to coworkers, people you meet, anybody really but you have to have the knowledge.  

Our second reading also tells us we need to teach “with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear”.  We see this kind of teaching in today’s psalm where the psalmist is lovingly telling the listeners about what God has done for them.

Our first step towards this should be prayer.  This is how we “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts” as the first letter from Peter today reads.  If Christ is not Lord in our hearts then how can our hearts work with our minds so that we can properly teach about him?  

Ask the Holy Spirit for assistance because there is a lot of bad theology out there.  When in doubt refer to the sacraments in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well.  Google carefully!  A good search might be “CCC Confirmation” and the first couple of links I saw were from www.vatican.va.  That’s definitely a reliable source, the Pope is there after all!  

Books can be valuable too but if you aren’t sure if it’s really Catholic look for the Nihil Obstat or Imprimatur on the first few pages, it means the book has been reviewed and stays true to Catholic teachings.  I don’t want to turn this into a commercial but you can always count on books by Scott Hahn, Edward Sri, Saint Pope John Paul II, Bishop Fulton Sheen, and the like.

Today’s Gospel tells us the best way to learn, to achieve sanctity, and to ultimately gain Heaven:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Know what Jesus’ teaches and you know what the Father teaches because Jesus and the Father are indeed one!  Each day spend some time in scripture, especially the Gospels.  Get yourself a good Catholic bible like the St. Joseph Edition or the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and read the Gospels often.  Study them.  Refer to the notes at the bottom of the page.  In doing this you will get to know Jesus, you will become a friend of Jesus and you can’t go wrong there!

As St. Catherine of Siena (Doctor of the Church) once said:

All the way to Heaven is Heaven because Jesus said ‘I am the Way’

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the guys from my Wednesday night Bible Study for making my thoughts come to fruition this week!