If you look back on my posts, I spoke of St. Joseph.
I do not care for the situation of burying poor St. Joseph upside-down to sell a house though I have talked to many people who were successful doing such a thing. Seems sacrilegious to me and very disrespectful to the foster father of our dear Lord.
Well, if you remember, a seminarian had asked me to keep his St. Joseph statue for him after having lunch at our home and seeing I did not own one. Normally, I would have refused such an offer fearing it might get broken or something but knowing that I had consecrated the family to St. Joseph it appeared Divine Providence had stepped in to help and who am I to say, "No, thank you." to GOD!?!?!?
St. Joseph.
The quite, loving, foster father and husband.
A friend told me to write down my requests, needs, concerns, etc and place them under the statue.
I thought about it and understand when you ask, present a concern, need, or anything else to your father or husband, as a woman, one should be humble enough to submit to the head of the household or authority and trust the their decision.
So, I started writing.
I am surprised St. Joseph didn't tip over from my pile of sticky notes under him.
I left it all alone.
Didn't even peak for 8 months at what I had written.
My prayers had been answered but COMPLETELY OPPOSITE of ANYTHING I wanted when I wrote them down.
Throughout the past year, I have experienced emotions and situations I never thought possible.
I thought, "What in the world? Here I am trusting and trying and have been for a really long time. This is really discouraging!!" I won't go on any more with that.
At one point, I even though, "St. Joseph! You are going back to the person you came from!!!"
No, I couldn't do that.
Through, heroic prayers from my family and friends, I dearly hope I (we) have emerged on the other side . . . . of . . . . well, whatever.
I saw this seminarian last Sunday.
I wanted to see him but couldn't bring myself to go and talk to him. What would I say? Take that statue back? Thank you? What??????
I left Mass and sat in my car waiting for my children.
I see in my rear view mirror . . .OH MY!
A person in a cassock!!
It is HIM!!
I am happy to see him and very grateful for everything.
We start to talk.
I did tell him the above story.
He laughed out loud and I knew instantly he knew what I was talking about!!!
Then he said, "When you pray to St. Joseph, you just have to hang on for the ride!"
WHAT!!!!
I then laughed out loud and a year of tears seemed to leave with it.
I said, "WHY IN THE WORLD DIDN"T YOU WARN ME WHEN YOU GAVE ME THE STATUE?!?!?!?!?"
We laughed and talked more about many things.
My friends, I have learned to trust in Divine Providence. I thought I did before but just when you think you do, God will ask the question, "Do you really?" Like he did with Peter who denied Christ 3 times.
The evil one would like us to loose all hope and despair while God is answering, correcting, admonishing, whatever it is.
We must not give in to this despair. If we do, then we are like Judas and hang ourselves.
A quote I read pretty much sums it up:
Diabolical forces are formidable These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow"
So, as this dear seminarian so eloquently said after our conversation, "Yes, when we pray to St. Joseph, we must be prepared to sit back and enjoy the ride!"
Think of ALL that St. Joseph encountered while protecting and caring for the child Jesus and the Blessed Mother.
So little is written of him. He is the truly quiet saint. Not even a single word is written in the bible that he said, however, he protected and provided for the Holy Family.
AMAZING!!! He was even born WITH original sin!!!
No wonder, Holy Mother Church in wisdom and grace has placed St. Joseph as protector of our families and patrons of a holy death.
Satan and ALL of his evil companions are out for your soul and those of your families. . . . Now and at the hour of our death.
Please St. Joseph. Intercede for all families and especially those who are in their final agony.
Thank you also for helping myself and my family.
Next time, I will be sure to "HANG ON and ENJOY THE RIDE"!!!
St. Joseph, Pray for us.
Please in your kindness and charity, pray for our seminarians, priests and all religious.
And for ALL those who suffer satan's assaults.
And one last one. . . . for this dear seminarian who asked me care for his statue.
