South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 2, Ed. 1, February 2020 Page: 13 of 36
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February 2020 I South Texas Catholic 13
St. Joseph,
'Terror of Demons'
Michael Golla Jr.
Contributor
"Sagrada Familia del pajarito" (Holy Family with bird) c.
1650, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo
s I discerned my vocation over the years, I
asked myself, “Who could I learn from to be
t W a good man?” In my pursuit of the answer, I
joined the Marines, but did not find it there.
K So, I turned to academia to find the answer.
In college, I learned much about the Church
and our glorious history as Catholics.
The Church dedicates the month of February to the Holy
Family. As I considered this, one member of the Holy Family
stands out to me as an example of a good man - Saint Joseph.
He was the earthly adoptive father and protector of Jesus and the
virtuous husband to Mary. Although he remains silent in sacred
Scriptures, he has accumulated many titles.
One day when I was praying the Litany of St. Joseph, I con-
sidered what kind of a person one would need to be to earn the
title “Terror of Demons” as St. Joseph has? He would need to be
a righteous man and a good man, one who protects his family
from the evils of the world and would not allow sinful actions
in his home.
I can only imagine the frustrations of the devil once he knew
that it was St. Joseph who would be defending the baby Jesus
from the dangers of the world.
He obeyed the angel when he was told to accept Mary as his
wife, and when he was told to flee to Egypt. Most people would
not have put as much faith in their dreams, but St. Joseph’s faith
allowed him to understand that these messages were more than
dreams.
Imagine a street of houses, and every house has a family living
inside. The father of the family guards the gate to the home where
the family resides. Now imagine a demon walking down this street
looking for a family to corrupt with sin and pain. Upon coming
to the Holy Family, this demon would confront the “Terror of
Demons” at the gate. The devil would tell himself, “I dare not
go into this gate for the guardian of it would have me facing all
the powers of Heaven, and I would never enter.”
For me, this is the kind of man St. Joseph is and the kind of
man I want to be in my vocation. The search I began as a child has
led me to this understanding, that a man who loves Christ as St.
Joseph does will be the good man we all should strive to be.
(Michael Golla, Jr. is a seminarian with the Diocese of Corpus
Christi. He is currently in his second year at Theological College
in Washington D. C.)
t VOCATIONS
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Cottingham, Mary. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 2, Ed. 1, February 2020, newspaper, February 2020; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1337868/m1/13/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .