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General and CosmetiC dentistry ashly R. CoTheRn, DDs, Pa www.drcothern.com kids and was planning for retirement. He and Ernestine figured they would move to Arizona. They both loved its weather and scenery. luz’s

But in the summer of 1994, Ernestine became sick. She died of heart failure in 1995. Josef says, “I had to decide what to do with my life.” But first, he says, he had to decide who he was by himself.

He felt the priesthood tug at his heart, he says. But wasn’t that irrational? A 60-yearold man entering the seminary? Becoming a Catholic priest? After all, most Catholic priests were single men who had devoted their whole adult lives to Christ, not retired mechanics with 23 grandchildren.

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“But God wouldn’t let go of me,” he says. There was this particular Catholic hymn that, it seemed, played each time Josef entered a church, whether in Dallas or overseas. “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?” goes the song. “I will go, Lord, if you lead me.” He recalls traveling to Germany for a child’s baptism. “First, there was the song, as usual. Then I opened the missal and there were the words again, in German: ‘Whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord.’ ” So, against the wishes of some of his eight children and 20-plus grandchildren, who really just wanted him around, he joined the seminary, which also included returning to college for basic courses alongside students his grandchildren’s age.

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Since he already had taken the necessary preparations to be ordained a deacon at Blessed Sacrament, he spent just four years, rather than the typical seven or eight, in the seminary. “It is not an education,” he notes, “but priestly formation. You are changing your whole life. Priesthood is not a job or career. It is a vocation,” he says. “The other day I had a funeral, a wedding, a confirmation and a baptism — a whole lifetime in one day. I am a part of all of those families.”

Today Josef, who lived most of his life in Oak Cliff, right up the street from Blessed Sacrament, lives in the rectory at St. Patrick’s. His office overlooks the school and contains both live fish and flourishing plants some of which he brought home from Ernestine’s hospital room almost 20 years ago. Images of holy figures adorn the walls. Jesus, looking unusually happy, is not just smiling, but “excited,” Josef says.

A plaque that reads, “This is the day the Lord has made!” hangs over his desk. Some days he can still hear Ernestine ask, “Just what are you doing here?”

“I still sometimes question what I am do- ing,” he says. Once you enter the priesthood, you don’t have all the answers, he explains. You are always learning. He says he knows his mind is not entirely capable of understanding the supernatural. “God is a mystery. There is more than I can ever imagine. When do you stop learning? Never.”

He joined St. Patrick’s in 2007, when he was 70, when most people are retiring, he says, smiling as thoroughly as Jesus in the picture on the wall behind him.

He still manufactures gingerbread houses, and rightly shows off a few photos — they are majestic structures bursting with color and shimmering sugar crystals. A couple of Christmases ago he was paid a few thousand dollars to build gingerbread houses. Of course the earnings went to Catholic Charities.

Having lived a long life already, the German Shepherd (a nickname parishioners gave the priest) understands the value of each day. He knows what is important, member Jennifer Hurt says. Her son was admitted to the hospital last St. Patrick’s Day with appendicitis. Though the church was celebrating its 50th anniversary that day with a massive event attended by several bishops and past pastors, Hurt says, Father dropped it all for her family. “My daughter was at the mass that day and asked a few friends to pray for [her brother]. Father Josef overheard and left the celebration to come to the hospital. He is an extraordinary man.”

But that, says Josef, is his purpose — to share God’s love with those who are suffering, scared or unsure. That comes before anything else.

“He is always loving, always guiding and always giving of himself, “ Hurt attests.

And it is that simple: make life better for someone. “If I go to bed at night knowing I have done that,” Father Josef says, “I know I have done my job.”