TO THESE MEN, I ENTRUST MYSELF AND MY LOVED ONES...

Melchior Paul von Deschwanden's Saint Joseph and Jesus with John the Baptist

For 2021, I am entrusting myself and my loved ones to the care of St Joseph and St Andre Bessette, who is famous for being "the wonder-worker of St Joseph". I have always known very little about St Andre, but his loving smile has drawn me to him as well as his reputation for being powerful in Heaven, and I am devoting some time to studying his life and the myriad miracles he worked. 

St Andre Bessette

And I am asking the intercession of the late Father Peter Carota who passed away in 2016. I believe Father Peter is a Saint, and he may even be the patron saint of real estate deals. 

Father Peter Carota 

Before he entered the priesthood, Father Peter was a hugely successful realtor. And I have seen some spectacularly dazzling answers to prayer after Father Peter's help has been invited. I had a brief correspondence with Father Peter before he became deathly ill, and I embarrassed him with the profuse praise I poured on him in this post.

I have to confess that I am not commending my most pressing needs to St Joseph because we are in the Year of St Joseph, rather I feel in my soul a deep call to do so. 

At this time of writing, I have completed 5 days of a novena to St Joseph. Catherine Collins and two other dear female friends have joined me in offering this novena. Catherine had the idea of starting the novena on January 1st and ending on January 9th so that the date and the day of the novena are the same. And thus we dedicate the first nine days of 2021 to St Joseph. 

In years past, I have had a fickle devotion to St Joseph, I have prayed to him when I have not been able to use my own devices, but I used find that his intercession came with splinters of unforeseen suffering and that would deter me. Now, however, I think my soul is stronger to the sting of splinters. Or, at least I hope it is.