How I Made Friends with Joseph

Joseph was the man whom God chose to guard, protect, and provide for all the needs of the Holy Family. He had the privilege of living with Jesus and Mary. The Gospels don’t tell us anything that Joseph said, but we can learn from his example. As soon as he knew what God wanted him to do, Joseph did it no matter how hard it was. For example, one night an angel appeared in his dream and told him to flee. Joseph obeyed, waking up Jesus and Mary so they could escape to Egypt so Herod’s soldiers wouldn’t find them. Later on, after the danger passed, Joseph brought his family back to the land of Israel. Joseph was a devout Jew who instructed Jesus in the holy Law of their people. We don’t know when Joseph died, but it’s presumed that it happened while Jesus was still at home. Because he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, he has become the patron of a holy death.

I never asked St Joseph for anything without him coming to my aid.

St Teresa of Avila

Now that he’s in heaven, Joseph continues to help people. He does this by praying for them and bringing their needs to Jesus. I didn’t have any special devotion to Saint Joseph before I entered the convent. But there I found a devotion to Joseph with an emphasis on his role in distributing divine Providence. If we needed some material thing, the sisters would place that object by the statue of Joseph, pray to him, and sure enough he would always provide for it. Sometimes Joseph would send things we hadn’t even asked for. Once we got a big donation of ice cream called “Tub Tahiti,” and the giant size servings lived up to its name!  Gradually Joseph played a bigger part in my prayer and devotion, helping with much bigger things than ice cream. I still have a long way to go in getting to know Joseph better but he is a faithful friend and provider. He helps everyone who turns to him in their need.

Marianne Lorraine Trouvé, FSP

Sr. Marianne is the author of Angels: Help from on High and Mary: Help in Time of Need, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, all published by Pauline Books & Media.

St. Joseph was never my favorite saint. In fact, in my life he was definitely a forgotten saint. Tales of how well he “sold houses” if you planted a statue of him upside down in your front yard, certainly didn’t attract me to a devotion to him. Even the fact that great saints had absolute indomitable trust in him didn’t stir up any prayers to St. Joseph.

Now, it is amazingly true that folks in desperate straights to sell their houses, when they entrust their case to St. Joseph, do indeed sell their houses. But since I didn’t have a house to sell….

A friend of mine taught me the prayer listed on this site. It is a short meditative novena that can be said everyday. So I started to pray the prayer. It came complete with a different type of story: stories of people whose lives changed when they entrusted themselves to Joseph. I didn’t see any miracles the first few days. But I must say, looking back to that time, that I changed. Little by little my prayer deepened, Jesus became more real, just the right books fell into my hands, my epilepsy seemed more under control, my passion in the mission was rekindled, and I was put in places where that passion could create.

Sr. Kathryn James, fsp