It’s not difficult for parents to place themselves in the shoes of the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph. I can recall three such instances when my wife and I thought we lost our children. There was the time our youngest child wandered off the trail hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was the time our middle child, who, at three years old, decided she wanted to go to the beach after we had already returned to the condo. And then our oldest decided at 12 that running away from home would be a fun adventure. With each of these, every natural parental instinct kicked in—elevated heart rate, sweats, panic, fear, and prayers that God would help us find them.

For the 30 years I have worked with the Congregation of Holy Cross, I have admired and respected how the brothers, sisters, and priests accept their role as “foster parents” to the young people they are blessed to accompany. Following the example of Saint Joseph, these women and men have committed themselves to creating cultures of love and care.

Whether here in the tri-campus community, in the grade schools and high schools across the U.S., or in small villages in developing nations around the world, these men and women go as the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross state: as “educators in the faith, supporting men and women of grace and goodwill everywhere in their efforts to form communities of the coming kingdom.”

Just as Saint Joseph was instrumental in forming Jesus and opened himself to love God’s son, Holy Cross religious and lay collaborators continue to shape the next generation of scholars, courageous citizens, virtuous leaders, and passionate disciples God has given them.

May our personal witness reflect that of Saint Joseph and the men and women who came before us, that is, “the Lord’s…so that it becomes a prayer: a service that speaks to the Lord who works through us.”