St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church's Liturgy teaches, he "cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation" and is truly a "minister of salvation." His fatherhood is expressed concretely "in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it; in having used the legal authority which was his over the Holy Family in order to make a total gift of self, of his life and work; in having turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of self, an oblation of his heart and all his abilities into love placed at the service of the Messiah growing up in his house." (Redemptoris Custos, 1989, No. 8.)

​In the last couple of years, I got to know Phil Morin through the men’s group — Repairers of the Breech — and through doing Exodus 90 together. I admire his high expectations for himself in all he does. He really does excel for excellence in a lot of things he does, and that’s also in his faith life. He doesn’t make excuses for himself. He sets a very high bar, and he pushes himself to excel in holiness. I’m not saying he’s excellent in holiness, but he strives for it. I think a lot of men can be too easy on themselves, be complacent and make excuses about why they cannot pursue holiness and that’s not Phil. He really challenges himself. The other thing with Phil I admire is he’s super humble. I think humility is just an awesome thing as a father to teach your children. When someone is humble they understand their greatness is not themselves, it’s a gift from God, and if God chose to remove that, they would not have that greatness. People who are in tune with their greatness don’t give glory to themselves; they give glory to God. I see those things in Phil, and they challenge and inspire me.

My archetype father is Frank Tholenaer. He’s the guy who with his friend Gordon built the adoration chapel at St. Anthony’s Church. He was a big-burly, hard-working, blue-collar Catholic, but he loved to read — novels! — and hated TV. He was a sheet metal worker who eventually worked as a heating and ventilation foreman. He went to St. Mary’s High School in the 40s. He didn’t mind getting into the occasional fist fight. But later in life he developed a very solid, charitable faith. He was incredibly generous with his time and talented with things like home renovations. In one case he moved in and built us a bedroom in our basement. He raised five kids with his wife, Carol. They met when he was working on his car, and a bucket of gasoline caught fire, and he ended up badly burned, and Carol was the nurse in the emergency ward. They met when he was all puffy and red from this flash gasoline fire. They had a long life together, built a beautiful house in Haysborough and basically to every degree possible dedicated themselves to their parish — St. Anthony’s. He was just always available. Anything that needed doing, Frank was always there doing it, and he attended daily Mass whenever possible. (Frank died peacefully on September 26, 2008, at 3 p.m. at the age of 80)

We have been gifted by so many great men in our diocese that it is very difficult to narrow it down to just one. However, the first one that came to mind was James Peloso. He is an inspiration to me as a husband and father regarding how he brings his faith into all aspects of his life. He is active in our parish, has a beautiful family, and is transforming the world around him by encouraging Christian principles in his own place of work. Although being a business owner is clearly a stressful endeavour, he exudes joy and optimism whenever I speak with him.

​“That would be my Dad — Tim Lynn. I was raised in the faith here in Calgary. I’ve watched him grow as a man always trying to do the right thing, and he’s passed that on to me. One of the things he says that comes to mind is you have to look at yourself every morning when you shave in the mirror and like the guy that looks back. He’s always taught me to try and do the right thing, and I’ve followed in his footsteps as a police officer. I’ve always looked at that as a vocation, sharing the faith quietly with my actions and how I treat people. No matter what happened in his life, he identified as being Catholic and no situation was going to change that. We all have our struggles in life and holding on to that identity helps us to stay strong. Faith allows us to increase our resiliency or have something to fall back on when going through rough waters. And the number one thing was family. Recently we had four generations of Lynn men going to Mass. I had a picture taken because I saw it as such a blessing to see this legacy of faith.”