A few years ago, my brother asked my husband and I if we would like a sleeping St. Joseph statue that a friend had painted. This unique statue of St. Joseph is the same one that Pope Francis has pictured in his room and has been noted to place his prayer intentions under it. My husband and I were excited to have one for our home too. Years ago, I learned the practice of placing praying intentions under a statue of St. Joseph from a book about St. Theresa of Avila who used to entrust her community’s needs to St. Joseph in this way. He always provided for them.
For example, I once heard a story of a religious Sister who had some local men helping them with repair work and had asked them if there was anything they could give as a thank you for their work. They replied (maybe jokingly?) that a case of beer would be great. The Sister put the request under their statue of St. Joseph. One day while she was traveling by train, the Sister started talking to a well-dressed business man sitting next to her. Somehow, the subject came up about praying for the beer to give to the volunteer workers and it turned out that the gentleman was the owner of a major beer company. He happily donated a nice supply of beer to the Sisters for their workers. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?!
After we received our beautiful sleeping St. Joseph statue, we have placed many intentions under him. Every now and then we pull out the pile of intentions and read them over to see if they were answered. We happily find that many of the prayers were already answered (and can make the pile of paper under St. Joseph smaller too).
When Covid hit, we decided to pray the 33 Day Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Calloway, MIC, to deepen our knowledge about St. Joseph and increase our devotion to him. It was an amazing compilation of stories and information about him and we learned so much! We were greatly inspired and turned to him even more in such a difficult time. Each day of the consecration reflects on a different invocation of St. Joseph in his litany, such as Patron of the Universal Church, Spouse of the Mother of God, Foster Father of Jesus, Terror of demons, model of workmen, patron of the dying, etc.
All that we have learned has been inspirational for my husband and I. St. Joseph exemplifies a man who is humble, loving, protecting, obedient to God, hardworking, and a provider to his family. Imagine St. Joseph’s humility, purity and awe at being chosen as the Spouse of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and as father to Jesus, Son of God?! And how he exemplified for Jesus how to love and follow God and how to love his mother, while he protected the Holy Family in their travels and provided for all their needs.
In these challenging times and during this year dedicated to St. Joseph (Dec. 8th 2020-Dec. 8th, 2021), let us turn to him and ask him to teach us all true humility, purity, obedience to God and how to love Jesus and Mary as he did. Let us ask him to intercede for those of us who are searching for jobs, praying to provide for our families, accompanying a loved one who is dying... St. Joseph, pray for us!
Check out the newest addition to our KB & More shop! Click here for our handmade St. Joseph Chaplet.
St. Joseph please help us!