This year has been dedicated to St. Joseph, who is Patron of the Dying, Terror of Demons and Protector of the Church.
Wednesdays are customarily designated for Votive Masses of St. Joseph.
Lately, because of upheaval in life, I entrusted my material challenges to St. Joseph. In the past, St. Joseph has come through for me such concrete ways that I was left with no doubt that it was his intercession which helped me. Lately, I have had another, similar experience.
I am thanking St. Joseph in a special way today. I sang his Litany after Holy Mass. I also thought that a good way to thank him would be to help to spread devotion to him. The best way I can think to do that, other than my testimony above, is to clue you in about a marvelous book:
Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father by Fr. Donald Calloway
St. Joseph is a mighty intercessor. I’ve been blessed several times by his help in times of real need and stress. I have zero doubt that he was the one who intervened, so concretely that it’s amusing.
I wonder if perhaps he also didn’t tug a little at some of your hearts when you lately signed up to help me though donations. I wouldn’t doubt it.
I would be delighted were some of you, also, to become attached to St. Joseph through learning more about him and devotion to him. Fr. Calloway’s book is a great way to start.
It would also be a good gift your your priests. This book also teaches about being men. We need that in these times.
Loading ...
I likewise owe Saint Joseph a huge thanks. On his feast day last year, I received something I’d been wanting for a long, long time, and it was really beyond clear that he was behind it. Beginning with that, the last year has become a year full of healing and enormous growth, and all things I could not have done for myself. Among other things, I think he’s trying to help me learn what having a real, loving father is like so I can know and trust God the Father better. My own family is pretty dysfunctional, and my father was always very overbearing and distant, and I could never trust him. Thus, I could never really trust God either. This gift from Saint basically sent the message that he gets me and sees my heart, which has helped me see that the Father does, too. HUGE blessings this past year. So in his honor, I’m doing the consecration this year. How could I not?
I thought I’d post something encouraging, since Lent can be a bit hard and depressing….
I was walking home last afternoon and was shocked to see an ambulance and all the neighbors outside, on a street near me. I saw some kids crying, and it turned out that a young girl had been run over, right before her brothers’ eyes. I was really shocked and horrified, as was everybody else, since another young neighbor had been at fault. (Apparently he liked to hit the accelerator down the block when “nobody else was out.”) So of course I was praying up a storm to everybody, offering stuff up, calling my mother….
Well, I went back this afternoon to see if there was any news. I was dreading that all the news would be bad.
And then the girl came riding up to me on her scooter bike, safe and sound except for some bad bruising and an ankle cast. The general comment was that “she must have been made of rubber,” because it was so crazy that she was in such good shape! But of course, everybody else had been praying too… including our friends in heaven.
Thank you, St. Joseph. Thank you for praying for that girl and that young driver. And thank you to Jesus for taking the bitterness and guilt and anger out of the faces of her young brothers. There are happy endings, even in this world. God is very good, and I praise Him with all my heart.
When I bought my house, I asked St. Joseph to be the patron of the transaction. Since we are often advised to be very specific to St. Joseph, I gave him a laundry list of things I wanted in a house.
As soon as I did that, plus took the first concrete steps toward accomplishing a home buy, events started moving at breakneck speed. Within about a week and a half of taking those first steps, I had a deal on a house. The house had every item on my laundry list except one, plus other things that weren’t on the list but that suit my tastes very well. Out of five offers, mine was accepted. There were many penances along the way in the form of various obstacles, and there were times when it looked like the deal might fall through, but they were all resolved. All I had to do was hang on. As for the one thing I asked for that I didn’t get, not getting it has turned out to be better than what I thought I wanted.
After all that, I couldn’t not get the book and do the consecration.
I too would like to thank St. Joseph. He has granted many beautiful favors, spiritual and physical, over the past few years to my family, friends, & myself.
I thank God for the wonderful privileges and graces which He has bestowed upon him. And I thank God for all the blessings, graces, and favors which He has granted to the world through the powerful intercession of St. Joseph (past, present, and future).
Praised & Blessed be Jesus, Mary, & Joseph! Thank you Jesus, Mary, & Joseph! Deo Gratias!
I have Fr. Mark Goring’s book, “St. Joseph the Protector – A Nine-Day Preparation For Entrustment to St. Joseph”, for this novena time to St. Joseph’s Feast Day. He also did recommend your chosen book on his Youtube channel.
On a related note, I saw an article on LifeSite about Milo Yiannapoulos stating that he has stopped living an actively homosexual lifestyle and is consecrating is life to St. Joseph.
On a personal note, I’ve seen St. Joseph provide for some of my important material needs myself. I’ll always be grateful for his help.
Last year in spring, I decided to pray a novena to St. Joseph asking him to heal the eczema around my lips which I had been suffering for 2.5 years. I went to so many dermatologists and used different kinds of topical steroids, but nothing worked. In fact, my condition worsened. The day after the novena, I discovered via an online search that the frequent use to topical steroids was the cause. I have no doubt that St. Joseph led me to the solution to my problem. I had done many online searches in the past and never came upon this.
So I stopped and went through a painful topical steroid withdrawal, with the assistance of this great saint. Within a month I was cured and the eczema never returned. Best of all, St. Joseph didn’t just heal my chronic condition, he revealed to me its cause. Now I know that topical steroids are meant to be used only for a very short period of time and that one has to allow the skin heal itself.
Since that time I have been praying to St. Joseph.
I did the 33-day consecration in Fr. Calloway’s book. I highly recommend it.
I also recommend an old book called St. Joseph’s Help by J.A. Keller, which you can buy on Amazon. It’s filled with stories of miracles granted by St. Joseph, especially miracles of conversion of hardened sinners.
I invited my parishioners to join me in preparation for Consecration to St. Jospeh. We close with a Solemn Mass on March 19th at 5 pm to be followed by Consecration.
I agree. It is such a beautiful book. Well done Fr. Callloway!
I can never adequately express my regret at having re-awakened too late in my life to the spiritual reality that surrounds us. I am amazed and filled with joy that the Lord continued to shower me with His grace, despite my extreme unworthiness, but I can’t help but feel remorse at neglecting St. Joseph, especially, during the early parts of my marriage and the raising of our children. I know with certainty that I would have been a much better husband and father if I hadn’t been so neglectful.
Prayer to St. Joseph for a Happy Death.
O blessed Joseph who did yield up your last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me, I beseech you, the grace of a happy death. Defend me from the attacks of the infernal enemy in that hour of pain and anguish to which I now invite you, that you may assist me by your presence and protect me by your power; and obtain for me this grace. O holy Joseph, that I may breathe forth my soul in praise, saying in spirit, if I am unable to do so in words: Jesus, Mary and Joseph I give you my heart and my life. Amen.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph I give you my heart and my soul
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with you. Amen.
Thank you for featuring this book. It is wonderful just to learn more about St. Joseph. Fr. Calloway’s research is solid. This is a gift to a parched world. We did a second consecration ending January 23 this year, because the timing seemed urgent…and I believe Joseph is now helping us in our exile in Egypt. You cannot ask for better protection. And we all need some more of that right now.
Yes, after nearly two millenia of silence from St Joseph, now is his time! This is the first global movement of consecration to St Joseph in Church History, so good to be alive during this time of recognition of his universal Patronage–including the mentioning of his name in the Roman Canon of Holy Mass.
I did the 33 day consecration last year and am renewing it this year on Joseph’s feast.
Recently I found out about the prayer to the sleeping St Joseph (easily available on internet) by which you entrust your cares to St Joseph before going to sleep for the night. He takes care of everything!
I have enjoyed everyone’s stories about St. Joseph. Thanks for sharing.
I have to join in thanking St. Joseph publicly for his many answers to my prayers. I didn’t really have much of a devotion to St. Joseph until I got married. He’s not a squeaky wheel, so I hadn’t thought much about him. After my first two children were born on his two feast days, I started invoking his help. Not only did he help our marriage survive a very real threat of divorce early on, but he has intervened for me in so many ways, physical and spiritual:
A close family member, who hated to attend Mass (Novus Ordo), now happily attends the Extraordinary Form.
When I was pregnant with one of our first babies, I was incredibly stressed about our finances. I asked St. Joseph for help, and I received an unexpected $1000 in the will of a fellow parishioner I didn’t even know.
When I was pregnant with one of our middle children, we outgrew seating in our minivan and couldn’t afford a big passenger van. St Joseph helped us find a newer 12 passenger van that only had 32,000 miles on it for $8000.
Several years ago I asked St. Joseph about a business idea that would help my family out in case of an unexpected financial shock. He inspired me to begin a side project and without that side project, I don’t think we would have survived this past year when my husband lost his fulltime job. In the early days of the business, when I worried about paying this bill or that rent, I would ask St. Joseph at his altar in church, and then I would inevitably have a stellar sales week.
Finally, I have a little saint in Heaven, Little Joseph. I went into the hospital on July 7th, 2017, with severe pre-eclampsia. It was the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum. Joseph was born the next morning at 27 weeks with trisomy 13. He lived six weeks on a respirator before dying on August 22nd, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the old calendar. After he was born he was baptized and confirmed, and we offered his little life to Christ for the purification of the Church. He wasn’t an answer to a prayer; he was a gift we hadn’t anticipated. It is so incredibly humbling and amazing to watch one of your children become a saint and fly to Heaven ahead of you. It is a gift I can never repay.
The next year, one of my younger siblings came very close to dying on the feast day of St. Joseph, and the family considers it a miracle that he survived the experience.
Thank you, Saint Joseph, for all of the ways you have interceded for me, for my family, for the church. Thank you for the ways you have protected us, especially those ways we don’t know about. I pray that God richly rewards you for your kindness and vigilance!