Ebukuya Food Programme

PRAYING TO ST JOSEPH

Entering the study of Pope Francis to conduct an interview, an Italian journalist happened to see an unusual statue of Saint Joseph. “I noticed” he records “that this is not the usual Saint Joseph with staff in hand, looking thoughtful. No, here Joseph is lying on his side, asleep.” Pope Francis explained to the surprised journalist: “The statue comes from South America, I don’t remember if it’s from Argentina, Chile or some other country. I like it very much, because Joseph received the most important and decisive messages -- for Jesus and for the whole Holy Family – in dreams.

The journalist goes on: “I looked more closely and I saw that under the statue there were a lot of folded papers with phrases in tiny handwriting. “These are”, Pope Francis explained, “my prayer intentions. I put them all here. I write my requests on them, and Joseph thinks about them; he can sleep on them! My gesture means: pray about this problem!” See, the statue now begins to rise up. No, not by some miracle, but because of the intentions I slip underneath it. I would like to tell you something very personal. I love Saint Joseph a lot, because he is a strong silent man. Like any carpenter, Joseph is a bit slow to hear the requests, but sooner or later the grace will arrive, always!”

Our Mill Hill Novena to St Joseph

The journalist might also be surprised if he happened to visit the chapel here at our Mill Hill St Joseph’s House during the month of March. He would see (as in photo) three large baskets of small envelopes in front of the statue of Saint Joseph with the child Jesus in his arms. The envelopes, around 5,500 of them this year, are the petition envelopes that people send in for the Novena to St Joseph and the special Masses that are celebrated all through the month of March. The envelopes come from all parts of Ireland and beyond, revealing great devotion to Saint Joseph.

What is being done is not very different from what Pope Francis does, as described above. But with our statue, St Joseph is standing up and looking down lovingly on all the petition envelopes and on the people who sent them to us. Someone jokingly remarked that if St Joseph was sleeping, he would have a very comfortable bed with all the envelopes!

You, our readers, are familiar with what happens, as many of you have been doing it faithfully year after year. A person writes the petitions on a piece of paper and places the paper in the small petition envelope and seals it - see envelope in photo. When we receive the petition envelopes, we place them in the baskets and put them in front of the statue of Saint Joseph.

During the Novena, we are very much aware that you are ‘making’ the Novena with us and for us, as we ‘make’ it with and for you. Every day during the Novena and in the Masses all through the month of March, we pray to St Joseph for all your intentions with great trust in the power of his intercession. The petition envelopes are shredded unopened at the end of March.

Masses during the 9 day Novena and also the rest of March

“The envelopes come from all parts of Ireland and beyond, revealing great devotion to Saint Joseph”

Gratitude

We are very grateful for the donations that people send when they send their petition envelopes for the Novena. We also want to say thanks for the donations that you send with the names to be remembered in November Masses for the holy souls. And finally, we need to mention the donations sent during the month of December for the Christmas Triduum of Masses. We are full of gratitude for your faithful support year after year.