Fr. Ruiz: St. Joseph, Protector of the Holy Family and Tradition [Transcription]

[Stone]

“ST. JOSEPH, PROTECTOR OF THE HOLY FAMILY AND OF TRADITION”

The Catholic Trumpet | April 2, 2025

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent
03/23/2025
Father Ruiz

We are in the third Sunday of Lent.

Reading of the Epistle of the Apostle Saint Paul to the Ephesians:

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.”

Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke:  “At that time Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb: and when he had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke: and the multitudes were in admiration at it: But some of them said: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And others tempting, asked of Him a sign from Heaven. But He seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say, that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub; by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth. But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him; he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Dear brethren, we are on the Third Sunday of Lent, but this week we have celebrated the feast of Saint Joseph, and this is also the month dedicated to Saint Joseph, the month of March. So I'm going to talk especially about Saint Joseph, protector of the Holy Family, on this day.

And Our Lord says at the end of the Gospel, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it”. That could refer to the Blessed Virgin, who, as this woman said, praising her, saying, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts that breastfed you.” But Our Lord says, that's fine. But it is more important to be faithful to these graces, than just the fact of having received the grace of being the Mother of God.

And then you could say the same about Saint Joseph, who was also the adoptive father of Our Lord. So, if Saint Joseph, after having received so many graces, as well as the Virgin Mary, had not been faithful, and had not put into practice the word of God, then what use would all these graces be to him? Even if these graces are great, they do not bear fruit, if one does not take advantage [of them], if there is no such fidelity to these graces.

So we should not be dismayed so much about the graces that God gives us. Yes, they are real, but if there is not a response from us, a practice, a fidelity to the gifts of God, then we are going to lose [the graces] and they will not bear fruit. So it is not enough that we have received the graces of God. We see this in the Virgin Mary, even the Virgin Mary, even Saint Joseph, what God really expected from them is that they were faithful to the graces received.

So that is what we celebrate about Saint Joseph, that he was a faithful soul, and that above all he was the protector of the Holy Family. So he was the head of the Holy Family, and because he was the protector of the Holy Family, he was also a protector of the Church. Today, naturally, logically, he is the protector of the Church.

So why is he the protector of the Church? Well, because Jesus is the head of the Mystical Body, that is, the head of the Church. Jesus Christ is the main part of the Church, he is the head of the Church, and Mary, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, who is also in the Mystical Body, has the second most important place. Some compare her to the neck of the Mystical Body, because it is the neck that has all the influence over the head on the body.

So the Virgin Mary is also a very important part of the Church. So if Saint Joseph protected Jesus, he was the protector of Jesus, he was the protector of the Virgin Mary, because it is normal that by protecting them, he was protecting us. We depend [the most] on the head, and the neck of the Mystical Body, which are Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. So he is the protector of the Holy Church, because he is the protector of the Holy Family.

And this mission of Saint Joseph can be seen throughout the life of Our Lord, throughout the life of the Blessed Virgin, how Saint Joseph was faithful, and that being the husband of the Virgin Mary, he was in fact the adoptive father of the Child Jesus, because the Virgin Mary was his wife, and that what was born in her, even if he was not the real father of the Child Jesus, in any case he was the adoptive father, because the Child Jesus was born from his wife. So the Virgin Mary was his wife, and she belonged to Saint Joseph; thus, it was Saint Joseph's field, and in this field belonging to him, the Child Jesus was born.

So he was also the father, that child was also his property, and even if he was not the real father, he was the adoptive father. So for the very fact of having power over the Holy Family, for the very fact of being the protector of the Holy Family, he is the protector of the Church, and he is the protector of all the souls that have been saved thanks to the Redemption of this Child, of Jesus, and to the mediation of the Virgin Mary.

So he was involved in all this, in all this work, and it was a most Holy Soul that has left us an example of fidelity. Just as the Virgin Mary not only received thanks from God, she was also perfectly faithful to all the graces that God gave her, and so Saint Joseph was also faithful, and thanks to his fidelity, we have benefited, because if Saint Joseph had been unfaithful, or the Virgin Mary had been unfaithful, what would have happened to us? Perhaps the Redemption would not have been carried out, perhaps the Church would not have been founded, because their fidelity involves all of us, and everything that Saint Joseph did has to do with what is happening today in the Church.

[St. Joseph’s fidelity] is not a separate event that has nothing to do with us. No, what Saint Joseph did had consequences, had great consequences. For example, he was the protector of the Holy Family, because he protected Our Lady and the Child Jesus. During the persecution of Herod, he protected them, he saved them, he took them to Egypt, and thanks to him they were saved.

Today we can also invoke him so that he saves the Church, the Church of Christ, the Church of the Virgin Mary, so that he helps us, that he protects us, in these times of darkness, in these times of evil. The Church is persecuted, sometimes in a way, so to speak, that is not physical, but a moral persecution; persecution not only by the enemies declared by God, but also by the bad ecclesiastics who have occupied the Church and who persecute Tradition.

We, who want to preserve the Tradition of the Church, and what it represents, what the Church really represents, is the Tradition. So, where is the Church? Well, where is the Tradition? So, if the men of the modern Church, and the modern clergy, no longer keep the complete Faith, perhaps some do, others don't, we don't even know what to think, but they no longer keep the Mass as usual. The truth of the doctrine of the Church is questioned, even the Pope himself questions many things, he leads the Church to apostasy, even though in the Society of St. Pius X,  Pope Francis taking the Church to apostasy and everything else, is being denied. So, he leads it [into apostasy] little by little, gradually, but that is the direction he has taken it.

So, St. Joseph protected the Holy Family from persecution, and we can also invoke him in that sense, because we are being persecuted, whether we like it or not, those of us who want to be faithful to Tradition will be persecuted. We have been persecuted within the Society, and also outside. There are also those who still create problems for us, but we have to be calm, because those who want to preserve the whole of Tradition, not partially, not only intellectually, but also practically, as Our Blessed Lord said, “Those who listen to the Word of God and practice it.” It is not only those who listen to it, not only those who receive the graces of God, to know how to be a Christian, but also those who practice it. And that is what St. Joseph taught us, and what we intend to do with his help. And that is why the Church is being persecuted. And currently Tradition, and the few who remain [faithful to it], some in the resistance of the SSPX, which today they call “Resistance”, but it is nothing other than the same Tradition, which does not want to mix, which does not want to degrade, so that is what the Church represents in a more definitive way.

Also, St. Joseph fed them with his work, that is, he was a provident Father, not only Protector, but Provident, because he provided everything the Holy Family needed, both when they were in Bethlehem, when they were in Egypt, or when they were in Nazareth, St. Joseph took care of earning bread with his work, with his efforts, the bread with which he fed the Holy Family, Our Lady and the Child Jesus. So he was a Father who gave food, who gave daily bread. So in the history of the Church, we see that many saints, especially there is what St. Teresa of Ávila said, who said that she had never asked anything of St. Joseph, that was not granted.

And she founded many convents, she founded many communities of Carmelites. She said that whenever she had a need, because to found a convent you need money, you need food, you need means, she said that whenever she went to St. Joseph, St. Joseph helped her and always listened to her.

So we also certainly need the protection of St. Joseph, when the world, the devil, chases us, and creates problems for us.  But we also need to live. So in our needs, we must invoke St. Joseph, for our material needs. But not only that, because St. Teresa said that there are saints that one invokes especially to obtain a grace, or a benefit, but for St. Joseph, he is a universal saint, meaning that he can be invoked for all kinds of needs. So not only for material, but also spiritual, and all kinds of needs, you have to invoke St. Joseph. He is a provident Father. Since he was a provident Father of the Holy Family, he is automatically a provident Father of the whole Church. So he is a provident Father of the whole family of the Church. And who are we? Those who have Faith, who want to have all the Faith of the Church, not partial, not half, but all of it. So St. Joseph is a provident Father with the people who want to preserve this food of the Faith.

Because Jesus is the true food of the souls, and those who receive Him cannot receive Him in any other way than by the integrity of the Faith. Because if they have a half-Faith, then in reality they cannot receive Him. Our Lord demands total Faith, total Faith.

When someone corrupts a truth of the Faith, they no longer have Faith, like some heretics, even if they said “they believed in everything else”, but they denied a single truth of the Faith, then they no longer received, they no longer had the spiritual presence of Our Lord, and they were no longer spiritual children of St. Joseph. So the spiritual food that St. Joseph also provides for the Church, is not the food of the soul, the graces that we receive. He is very close to the Virgin Mary, he is very close to Jesus, and he can obtain those graces that we need today to resist [errors], to be faithful, to preserve all of the Faith in its integrity.

Because we also live in an era in which Faith has become a sentimental question, a pious question, a question of “feelings”. But Faith is above all teaching and doctrine. So, today modern Catholics no longer know what the food of Faith is, and what it consists of, and how this food should be received, how it should be preserved. So, for them, what counts is something else.

In Christian life, they are very interested in a charity that becomes automatically sentimental when it is not doctrinal. The charity that is not doctrinal is not a solid charity, it is not even Charity. So, we need to have that appreciation of doctrine, of Faith, and to have the sense of priority, the priority of doctrine. In the Christian life, many believe that the priority is to be pious, to say the rosary, to be good people. No, the priority of our religion is the doctrine. First of all, we must know, accept, and preserve the doctrine. Feeding this doctrine, deepening it, is the main thing in the Church. It is the main thing in our Christian life.

If we only believe that a certain piety is enough, then what do you believe in? Who do you believe in? We must have the Faith, we must have doctrine. What did Our Lord say? [“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”] That is doctrine. So, when the enemies of God want to corrupt this doctrine, they are corrupting the Church.

And if they succeed in getting someone to lose their Faith, then that person loses Charity, loses grace, and loses Heaven. Everything, everything. So, everything depends on the doctrine.

Although, there are people who are a little less instructed, they will nevertheless never deny the truths of the Faith, which they hold firmly and clearly.

So, we need to have that notion of the primacy of doctrine in the fight for Tradition. Right? Because right now, there are some who believe, some priests who are advocates of this notion, that all that matters is to have a nice Mass, to have nice ceremonies, but the doctrine is no longer there, there is no longer any doctrine, or if there is, it is very partial.

And there is no longer any talk of the matters of faith which are questioned today, which is the first duty of priests, to denounce those who are corrupting the Faith. It is the first duty of the priests.

For those who want to sanctify their souls, everything depends upon doctrine. A soul cannot be sanctified if it has a faith that is deformed, that is corrupted. It is not possible. And our prayer is not pleasing to God if we do not have the true Faith. It is not accepted by God, not received. So, if we want to do good works for the Church, if we want to convert souls, if we want to do beautiful ceremonies, to practice the virtues, the commandments. Well, first we have to have clear the doctrine, the [clear] teaching of God.

So, Saint Joseph cannot help us if we do not want to have and accept that food of the Faith, first, of the doctrine of the Church. Let us not have illusions, because there are many people who have a sentimental devotion for Saint Joseph, for the Virgin Mary, and the only thing that interests them is to feel beautiful when they pray, to have “good feelings”. But that is secondary, because there can be no proper prayer without a conception of the correct Faith, as it should be.

So, today they are destroying the Church, why? Because they have destroyed, first, the doctrine, and then everything else. So, that's why the Second Vatican Council began to corrupt the doctrine, and that's why the whole Church has been affected. But we can turn to Saint Joseph to restore the Faith in souls, the one who gives us the food for his intercession, for his help, so that the souls regain the meaning, the doctrinal meaning of what the Faith is. The liberal Catholics are not interested in doctrine, they are interested in the facts, they are interested in having peace, security, but without problems. They are interested in those things, but they are not interested in the doctrine. To restore the Church, it always begins with the doctrine. Everything else comes automatically, but always, first, with the doctrine.

Our Lord, the first thing He did was to preach. In his public life, the first thing He did was to preach. But what did he preach? Well, his teaching, his doctrine, his truth. So, all that is doctrine. And that's why the Church can be restored. There is no other way. So, Saint Joseph, the provident Father of the Holy Family, who gave them the physical bread, but also preserved the doctrine of the Faith in the people who invoke him. Just as in the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus, they did not need the help of Saint Joseph to have good doctrine, but he took care of them, he protected them. So, Jesus Christ, who is the truth itself, the Virgin Mary, who is full of grace, the soul that had the greatest Faith in all of history, well, if he protected them, he will also propitiate in us that practice of the Faith.

Also, Saint Joseph aids and consoles us in our difficulties. The persecution is a protection. The food is a providence. But when there are penalties and there are jobs, help is needed, [and he is our] consolation. And Saint Joseph was also, for the Holy Family, an assistant, an assistant. And you have to imagine how difficult the trip was when they went to Egypt. The Virgin Mary, who had just had the Child Jesus, and the Child Jesus being a little baby, well, he relieved them on that trip, he provided them the help so they were able to rest, so that they were not so burdened by the work and consequences [of their hasty departure into Egypt].

And Saint Joseph was there with his strong arm to assist them. So we must also invoke Saint Joseph in our penalties, in our jobs, because sometimes it can happen that we are sad, or undergo desolation, and Saint Joseph can lift our spirits and we must turn to him to help us, so that we reach the end, right? So, that we reach the end of the journey, right? So that we reach the end that God is preparing for us in the afterlife. And it sometimes happens that there are people who get stuck on the road because they get discouraged, because they lose confidence and they lose hope, and they even lose faith.

There are some who move away from God because they do not want to overcome all the difficulties that it implies to have the Faith, to be a Catholic. So Saint Joseph is there for us to invoke him. Let us remember everything that he did for the Holy Family and how the Holy Family, the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, [were so important] because God wanted them to be here in this world so that the Church could exist, so that they could sanctify the Church.

So it is normal that Saint Joseph also protects us, the members of the Church. We must invoke him and we must believe in his protection, in his power. As Saint Teresa of Ávila said, “He is a saint who can be invoked in all kinds of needs and he is a saint who, if he is invoked will always listen to you.”

I would also like to give some quotes from the Popes who have encouraged, who have promoted the devotion to Saint Joseph. In past times, there was always a devotion to Saint Joseph, but more so in the last two and three centuries, there has been a flourishing in the Church, a special devotion to Saint Joseph, and the Church has also approved and promoted this devotion to Saint Joseph. For example, Pope Sixtus VI made a Mass and an office of Saint Joseph, which did not exist before, so it means that in these times God wants us to have more of a devotion to Saint Joseph. Also, when Our Lady of Fatima appeared, there was a vision in which Saint Joseph was seen with the Child Jesus who blessed all these people who were there, and Saint Joseph blessed them. So, Saint Joseph in these times, apocalyptic times, also has a special mission, and that is why he must be invoked more. Also, Pope Benedict XIII in 1726 added the name of Saint Joseph to the Litany of the Saints, which was not there before. Pope Pius VII added his name in a prayer a cunctis. Pope Leo XIII, who was a great devotee of Saint Joseph, developed the doctrine of the patronage of Saint Joseph and theology on holiness and the prerogatives of Saint Joseph. Pope Leo XIII explains this much better [than me]. He asked for all to pray in October, the prayer [to St. Joseph] “we have recourse to you in our tribulations…” after the Rosary, that it be said always in the month of October after the Rosary, this prayer. In the Society of St. Pius X, Archbishop Lefebvre wanted it to be said all year, always after the Rosary, the prayer is said to Saint Joseph. It is the same [prayer] we are currently saying as a novena for 30 days, which we are doing today in order to find a benefactor to help me buy this house. So, in the Society of Archbishop Lefebvre, he wanted it to be said always after the Rosary, the prayer to Saint Joseph, and it is always said.

Then, also Pope Leo XIII composed a form of consecration of the family to Saint Joseph, which he himself wrote and this formula can be used to consecrate families to Saint Joseph. Pope Benedict XIV also promoted his cult, and also said that if Saint Joseph was a putative father of Jesus, therefore he is also a father and patron of the Church. Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. Pope Benedict XV spoke of the unlimited powers of the Holy Patriarch. He instituted the Feast of the Holy Family, which in fact is also of Saint Joseph.

In the 20th century, due to the Industrial Revolution, many people began to work in factories, to work in industries, and there were not as many people who in other times worked in the field. There was a social phenomenon of the working class, which multiplied a lot during this time. During this time, Pope Benedict XV insisted that Catholic workers put themselves under the patronage of Saint Joseph, because Saint Joseph also worked, Saint Joseph also had to support his family. The Catholic workers should not be manipulated by Communism, by the communists, to make the struggle of classes, but they must work honorably to the model of Saint Joseph and not be involved in revolutions. Then Pope Pius XI in the 20th century put the action of the Catholic Church against Atheist Communism, put it under the protection of Saint Joseph, then Saint Joseph is also combative, combative against Atheist Communism. That action of the Church against Communism, Pope Pius XI put it under the special protection of Saint Joseph, but what the Popes have done and have said about Saint Joseph is much more. This is just a general idea, but there is much more that the Popes have said and that could be known about Saint Joseph, there is much to learn, and there are books that explain to us, for example, there are many different statements that the Popes have made, and it is good to get a book that talks about this topic.

So, in this month let's try to invoke Saint Joseph, we invoke him at the level of the Church, we invoke him at the level of the world, so that he protects us from all the current evils, and that he saves the Church, as he saved it, he saved the Holy Family during the persecution of Herod, so let's ask Saint Joseph to save the Church in these times of crisis, of lack of Faith.  Let’s also ask Saint Joseph, invoke him at an individual level for our personal needs, our family needs, our spiritual needs, let's invoke Saint Joseph, who is the model of an inner soul, of a holy soul, of a soul that never offended God. Although Pope Francis said on one occasion, and I think he has repeated it, that Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph also had to fight every day against their defects, their human defects, as if they were sinners, as if also Virgin Mary had in herself the effects of original sin, which is a heresy, so what Pope Francis said was scandalous. Saint Joseph was a very holy soul, of the first order, because there are saints who had moments when they were bad but then converted, but saints like Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, are saints who were very innocent. And so it is really very serious to talk about them as if they had sins, had defects, had passions. Other saints maybe yes, but those who were very close to Our Lord cannot be judged like that, right? Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist also, right? They are the ones who were really close to Our Lord, and it is a very serious offense to question St. Joseph’s holiness and above all the Virgin Mary’s.

It is already a heresy, but they are no longer afraid of heresy, modern ecclesiastics are no longer afraid of heresy, because today the doctrine in the Church has gone to a second term, and some do worry a little, but they do not worry enough, and they do not worry about everything, because the Faith is whole, you cannot sacrifice something. So, if something fails, then that one is no longer Catholic.

So, let's ask this month, Saint Joseph, let's not forget to invoke him, we can pray, because we are already saying the prayer to Saint Joseph every day for this novena, but we can continue and I encourage the faithful, although it is not an obligation to say this prayer to Saint Joseph whenever they say the rosary, after the rosary, to say the prayer to Saint Joseph, as Archbishop Lefebvre asked the Society, and that it is a good custom, especially during this [time] when the Church is being persecuted. We have to turn to Saint Joseph, our protector, protector of the Holy Church, and let's ask him also, not only because he was the putative father of the Child Jesus, but also he has a great dignity because he was the husband of the Mother of God, and that is not spoken about enough, Saint Joseph, husband of the Mother of God, that is a great title, a great title for Saint Joseph, who was the husband of the Mother of God, that he intercedes before the Child Jesus, but also for the Virgin Mary, and that he obtains the blessings, the prayers of the Holy Virgin.

We ask for the needs of the Church, we ask Saint Joseph for the needs of Tradition, and that he free us from the heresy, that he free us from the liberal spirit that is there today in the Church, and in Tradition, and that even in the Resistance, what we call “Resistance”, sometimes there can be some abnormal things. Then we must ask Saint Joseph that as a Provident Father to help us, protect us, and correct us with the protection of the Virgin Mary, for which he will intercede before her too.

Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.