Exploring St. Joseph's Role in Fatherhood and Masculinity

In this episode, we talk about:

• St. Joseph and the masculine genius
• Differences in male and female brains, and what that reveals about male and female persons
• Seven qualities of St. Joseph that can teach us about the Masculine Genius (see below)

 

St Joseph

Men have more testosterone, more intra-hemispheric neural connectivity, less progesterone, and less cross-hemispheric neural connectivity

St. Joseph was a man of:

1. Courage
2. 1. Requires aggression, lower consideration of immediate consequences; 
   2. Sometimes held in suspicion, especially when used without prudence
   3. (Takes out anger on loved ones; speaks badly about neighbors and co-workers even family or friends)
   1. Requires structured time and processing, sometimes less time with people, and sense of duty that isn’t connected to immediate relational value
   2. Sometimes laziness and lack of connection lead to isolation
   3. (Reckless waste of time; video games, partying, endless hobbies and projects around house)
3. Prayer
   1. Requires courage to not be in charge
   2. Distortion of this leads to weakness, lack of leadership, giving in to immediate gratification
   3. (Can’t recognize need to worship God, acts as if he’s the god of his own life)
4. Obedience
   1. Requires structured order on when to be aggressive and when to die to self
   2. Distortion again is weakness 
   3. (Can’t stand up for what’s right, poor example of self-care, hygiene, drive and discipline)
5. Gentleness
   1. Recognizes the gift of serving and whom he serves; holds duty in high regard
   2. Distortion is to give emphasis to the wrong things to reverence at the expense of whom he is actually called to reverence. 
   3. (Enmeshment, cares more about other people’s approval than his own stewardship of what he’s truly given charge over; pays more attention to other women or other endeavors that might be worthy in themselves but not for him)
6. Reverence
   1. Hold the big picture of the family as contrasted from the immediate family
   2. Can be distorted by misaligning allegiances and imbalance of devotion and attention
   3. (Too much obedience to family of origin)
7. Tradition
   1. Purposeful discernment that weighs all aspects of situation both subjective and objective; sometimes detached from particular relationships to ultimately serve in the bigger picture
   2. Can be distorted by selfish garnering of approval or lack of discernment
   3. (Stubborn men who are using willfulness to steamroll over spouse and family)
8. Intention

 

Resources mentioned or relevant:

• On the Masculine Genius (article for Humanum Review)
• The Male Brain and The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine
• Redemptoris Custos (Guardian of the Redeemer) - apostolic exhortation from Pope St. John Paul II
• Download The Integrated App for access to audio exercises, the Catholic Mindfulness Virtual Retreat, and more;
• Consecration to Jesus through St. Joseph; 
• Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Being Human, to keep up with all the exciting things happening at CatholicPsych.
• To find out how Dr. Greg’s team can help you, click here.
• To read the CatholicPsych blog, click here.
• For resources from the CatholicPsych Institute, click here. 

If there is a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address, please email your request to beinghuman@catholicpsych.com! We would love to hear from you.

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