Go to Joseph

Wednesday, my life was in complete turmoil. I didn't have rent or the prospect of rent. I didn't know where my family and I were going to live, or what it was that God wanted us to do. I prayed that morning that God would transform my will to be in union with His will, and that He would show me very clearly what He wanted for us to do.  Then I read the daily mass readings, searching for inspiration.  I didn't find anything.

I made sure that I went to Mass that afternoon.  The passage from the old testament was about the great famine which occurred in Egypt during the time that Joseph was the Pharoah's right hand man.  Pharoah told the Egyptians that were starving to go to Joseph and ask him for whatever they needed.  Then I listened to the homily, and I still wasn't hearing God.  We stayed for adoration afterwards, and I was meditating upon everything and THAT is when it hit me.

God was telling me to GO TO JOSEPH! Where was I at? St. Joseph's parish. All of the answers that I'd been looking for were right there. My landlords were there, and I spoke to them, explained our situation. They not only told me to pay what I could when I could regarding the rent, but helped me to find a job that same day. It was Wednesday, a day which the Apostolate for Family Consecration spends honoring St. Joseph. On Friday, my mother called and the words out of her mouth were just that - Go to Joseph.

Saint Joseph is a saint I have only recently begun to get to know. I've known of him, anyone who knows the story of Christ's birth knows that Saint Joseph was the earthly father God chose for him, but I've not spent time getting to know him.  The Apostolate was the first place I ever heard anyone talk about the usefulness of going to Saint Joseph as an intercessor.  In 2010, I began to pray to Saint Joseph but when we moved from Texas and our lives turned upside down I stopped those prayers.  God is telling me, and I think it's a message for everyone, to Go to Joseph.

Saint Joseph was a man who was perfect in his stewardship. God placed into his care the baby Jesus and his beloved Mary. Saint Joseph ensured that those two not only got where they needed to go in safety, but that they were the better for the journey.  He was perfect in his discernment - wisely discerning that Mary's pregnancy was truly from God, discerning when to leave Bethlehem and when to safely return to his homeland. He was perfectly obedient. The moment God gave him an instruction, he followed it without hesitation or question.  He is a model for all Christians, and a model of what a father ought to be like.  He is what I hope to become.

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