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‘He became small so that God could become great’
Mary, here sleeping as St. Joseph cradles the infant Jesus in a stained-glass window at St. Patrick Church in Smithtown, N.Y., knew what she was in for when she accepted God’s call for her divine maternity.
CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz
March 19, 2026
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Photo courtesy Martyrs’ Shrine
Discipline, self-sacrifice and love.
These are all traits Catholics strive to nurture during Lent, and all were exemplified so innately and gracefully by St. Joseph, the patron saint of Canada, during his lifetime.
Edmonton-based lawyer and former seminarian Ian Mahood wrote Prince, Patron and Patriarch: The Litany of St. Joseph and the Dogma That Makes It Strong to make the case that we must boldly follow the St. Joseph model in an age standing antithetical to what he represented.
“I think for our age, oftentimes we can be self-absorbed,” said Mahood. “We can focus on our own goals, our own dreams, our own personal self-improvement. But if St. Joseph shows us anything, it's that those things don’t or aren't necessarily tied to our happiness. What's tied to our happiness is doing the will of God, which is what he did.”
Mahood, raised in an Evangelical family in Red Deer, Alta., embarked on a journey for truth that led him to Anglicanism for several years during university before gravitating towards the Catholic Church in 2014. He eventually converted and felt a pull towards the priesthood.
The earthly father of Jesus Christ naturally loomed as an important inspirational figure at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton. Mahood’s time as a seminarian – he would later discern a call to marriage and was married to his wife, Heidi, last year – gifted him the opportunity to become familiar with the Litany of St. Joseph.
This connection continued beyond seminary. One of the six litanies approved by the Catholic Church for both public and private worship, the Litany of St. Joseph has become a cherished part of Mahood’s daily prayer life.
He devotes much of Prince, Patron and Patriarch to meditations upon each of the titles bestowed upon Holy Mary’s spouse in the litany. St. Joseph is hailed as “Light of Patriarchs,” “Head of the Holy Family,” “Terror of demons,” and “Protector of the Holy Church.”
“The titles are accurate theological statements regarding St. Joseph,” said Mahood. “That means that they allow us something of a window into who St. Joseph is and how he features in God's plan of salvation.”
A striking aspect of St. Joseph’s legacy is that he is the only major New Testament figure who never spoke a single recorded word – and this silence speaks volumes.
“He became small so that God could become great,” said Mahood. “The litany ends with the line, ‘He made him lord of his household and prince over all His possessions.’
“St. Joseph, he's in charge of Jesus, and he's in charge of Mary, and those are two of God's greatest treasures, but in order to receive that, he had to let go of all the plans that he had.”
Considering that St. Joseph passed away years before Jesus began His ministry at age 30, he never saw the glory of the resurrection during his lifetime.
“We can think of his life as an extended Lent,” said Mahood. “He was preparing Christ for the Cross, which is what Lent is, right? We prepare ourselves for the Cross and then ultimately the resurrection. St. Joseph was kind of the guide for Christ as He journeyed towards the Cross, and can be a similar guide to us.”
Scepter Publishers unveiled Mahood’s book on March 3. A formal launch is slated for May.
To learn more about Prince, Patron and Patriarch: The Litany of St. Joseph and the Dogma That Makes It Strong, visit scepterpublishers.org.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
A version of this story appeared in the April 05, 2026, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "The St. Joseph Lenten model".
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