When the Child Jesus turned one year old, an event occurred that left a deep impression on St. Joseph’s soul: he heard from the divine lips something that moved him deeply.

Although Our Lord had possessed the fullest knowledge from the very first moment of His conception, He desired in every way to reveal Himself to the world as a true man.

Therefore, during the first months of His life, He spoke to His parents only through interior mystical communications.

Saint Joseph heard: “Abba!”

One day, however, stretching out His sacred little arms toward His virginal father, He uttered—with a charm one can well imagine—His first word in Aramaic: “Abba!”, that is, “Daddy!”

Saint Joseph, who had a devoted and deeply sensitive heart, could not hold back his tears and, with great humility, asked Our Lady if he, too, should call Jesus “my Son.”

Mary’s answer was, of course, yes!

The Holy Patriarch realized that when the Child called him “father,” He did not do so out of obligation or convenience, but because He truly considered him a father.

There was a strong, deep, and intimate bond between the two, as if something of Jesus’ divine Soul were linked to his own, deepening the union between them.

Saint Joseph felt—and indeed was—His father more than if he had begotten Him, for they were in complete harmony of soul through this fatherhood, which was far more deeply rooted than the natural one.

Thus, every time Jesus called him “father,” a mixture of feelings arose in his noble soul: on the one hand, he felt the gravity of the calling bestowed by Providence to be the father of God; but, on the other hand, he sensed such tenderness and compassion emanating from Him that he was completely at peace, for he knew that the strength to adequately fulfill the most exalted mission of protecting Him and serving His most perfect Mother would come from his own Son.

(Monsignor João Clá Dias, EP. Saint Joseph: Who Knows Him?...)