- Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight
Catholic Fatherhood: Raise Confessors and Doctors of the Church
Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight
Inspired by Pope Francis' declaration of 2021 as the 'Year of St. Joseph,' The Daily Knight will produce weekly articles to share and clarify the vocation of 'Catholic Fatherhood.' Our mission, at the Sacred Military Order of Knights of the Republic and the Most Victorious Heart of Jesus, is to defeat modernism, the synthesis of all heresies, in the domestic church (the family), the parish, and society at large. Building your domestic church is the quintessential foundation for fostering the faith and rebuilding Christendom.
Prayer to St. Joseph by Pope Leo XIII:
To thee, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also. Through that charity which bound thee to the immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which thou embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg thee to graciously regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with thy power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful Guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be propitious to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness; and, as once thou rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by thy constant protection, so that, supported by thy example and thy aid, we may be able to live piously, to die holy, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.
~ From the Raccolta #476 & Enchridion #6.
Raise Confessors and Doctors of the Church
Fathers, as the Prophets of the home, have the divinely inspired duty to inculcate the Word of God into the family life. Our Lord, before his glorious and triumphant Ascension to HIs Kingdom, commanded the Fathers of the Church: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19). For the future of nations that will descend from your offspring, it is your duty to teach them the commandments of Christ.
Like the nations that descended from Adam and Noah, the kingdoms from Abraham also embraced the world and the fallen nature of man. As the priest Simeon prophesized is the temple to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph, "Behold, this Child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel: and for a sign which shall be contradicted" (Luke 2:25-26). In fact, the Child (the Incarnate Word) already accounted for the fall and providence of many nations, before and after the flood, and was contradicted from the time of the rebellion of the fallen angels, corrupted into human nature through the serpent in the garden. But, the promise made "to Abraham and to his posterity for ever," which was realized through the Incarnation of the Eternal Word in the Blessed Virgin Mary, that through Faith we may become the spiritual descendants of Abraham and partakers in the promise. For St. John wrote "But as many as received Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God: to them that believe in His name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:11-12).
As a Catholic Father, your posterity must show in the promise to Abraham and be born, through Faith, of the will of God. In a previous Catholic Fatherhood article, Catholic Fatherhood: Raise Your Children To Be Saints (knightsrepublic.com) , the degrading level of grace and sanctification, due to the fallen nature of man and sin , is clearly evident in the progress of generations. For Catholic Fathers to raise future saints of heaven, they have to be holier saints and more united in Christ and His Divine Will. Without the Divine infusion of life altering grace, most evident in the conversion of St. Paul, most saintly clergy, blessed priests, and venerable religious descended from holy parents, who immersed their children in a strong Catholic formation. The same degraded descent is evident in the nations that descended from Adam, Noah and Abraham. As nations and kingdoms become further and further removed from the Word of God and His sanctifying graces, society and culture erode into perversion and decadence with little to no divinely inspired virtue. Therein lies the importance, upon the external souls of your posterity for all the ages to come, that your children are raised, not only in the Faith, but to be future holy Confessors and Doctors of the Church to anchor future generations to the promise of Abraham.
Knowing and understanding the Credo, including the catechism of the Church, is not enough to exemplify the faith; even Lucifer knows and believes those truths. "Teach ye all nations" and save souls is what our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us before His Ascension. As for Confessors, the Lord said: "nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid that shall not be known. That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the house tops" (Matthew 10:26-27). Like your Faith, our Lord commanded it to be placed on the lampstand for all to see and "He sent them [His disciples] two and two before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come... Go, behold I send you as lambs among wolves" (Luke 10: 1-3).
For Doctors of the Church, St. Paul instructed Timothy to "preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine" (II Timothy 4:1). Our Lord likened them to "the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and trodden on by men. You are the light of the world," that brings and clarifies the Eternal Word to the people of the world (Matthew 5:13-15). The Word of God cannot be subjugated or hidden for "a city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16-17). Doctors cooperate with God to bring His light to the world, and the "Nations shall declare his wisdom, and the Church shall show forth his praise":
"The just will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that
made him, and he will pray in the sight of the Most High. He
will open his mouth in prayer, and will make supplication for his
sins. For if it shall please the great Lord, He will fill him with the spirit
of understanding: and he will pour forth the words for his wisdom as
showers, and in his prayer he will confess to the Lord: and He shall
direct his counsel, and his knowledge, and in His secrets shall he
meditate. He shall show forth the discipline he hath learned, and
shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord. Many shall praise
his wisdom, and it shall never be forgotten. The memory of him shall not
depart away, and his name shall be in request from generation to generation.
Nations shall declare his wisdom, and the Church shall show forth his
praise." (Ecclus. 39: 6-14)
To fight the degradation of man and the world, Christ needs holy Catholic fathers to unite in Him to raise future saints, Confessors and Doctors of the Church, to stand as "the light of the world" and to save souls. Through the sacrificial work, subjected to the Divine Will, of such holy saints, "the memory of Him shall not depart away, and His name shall be in request from generation to generation." Holy Catholic fathers, as on offering to Christ, can provide the Confessors and Doctors to build the next thousand year reign of Christendom and Holy Mother Church.
In Christ Crucified and the Most Victorian Heart of Jesus.
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