Joseph: He Trusted and He Surrendered

“Go to Joseph with extreme confidence, because I do not remember having asked anything from St. Joseph, without having obtained it readily.” St. Padre Pio

I had never really paid much attention to Joseph. After all, he doesn’t say a single word in the Bible. He is one of those silent characters, like Chewbacca in Star Wars, that doesn’t say much but once you get to know him, you can’t help but love him. 

I began to pay more attention to Joseph during a silent retreat more than 10 years ago. Father Nelson Fernández, one of the spiritual directors guiding the retreat, shared a story about a group of nuns that were trying to raise funds to buy the property where they had their convent, otherwise they were going to lose it. Someone from the town brought them a statue of St. Joseph, and told them that even though he didn’t have any money to give them, he was giving them the statue because maybe it would help them to buy the property. Since St. Joseph is known as the patron saint of house sellers, maybe he can help buyers too. The sisters were not sure what to do with the statue, which was quite large. They decided to just place it in their front lawn, and within the week, they had all the money to buy the property thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor. Father Nelson told us that when we are having issues with our family, our home, or anything else that it seems like God is not answering, to take it to St. Joseph. 

At that point, I began to read more about St. Joseph. I learned that he is the patron Saint of the Universal Church. This is a very important job, especially now that our church is being attacked. Have you heard of the schism of the Church that is taking place in Germany? You will not hear about this in regular news, of course, but what is un­fold­ing in Ger­many is akin to the 16th-cen­tury Lutheran Ref­ormation. Therefore, we must turn to St. Joseph and ask him to protect our Church. 

St. Joseph is also the patron saint of unborn children, fathers, workers, travelers, immigrants, and a happy death. Why a happy death? He died in the hands of Jesus and Mary. What can be better than that? I hope that when my day comes, Jesus and Mary are by my side. I must pray to St. Joseph to grant me this wish. 

St. Joseph was also a dreamer. I love this about him because I’m a dreamer too. Dreams were very important in St. Joseph’s life. He heard God’s voice in his dreams. And he trusted the message. He wanted to separate from Mary when he learned that she was pregnant, but he heard God’s voice in his dream, he trusted and he surrendered. When he was ready to return home from Bethlehem, he heard God’s voice telling him to go instead to Egypt, and once again, he trusted and he surrendered. 

Joseph teaches us to trust and surrender to God’s will. Whether his surrender took him to a Bethlehem stable or to Egypt for an undetermined length of time, he was ready to do God’s will because he trusted. 

Now, I trust that Joseph will hear me, and take my prayers to God. So I pray to St. Joseph for his intercession, and I surrender, just like he did. Even St. Padre Pio reminds us, “Go to Joseph with extreme confidence, because I do not remember having asked anything from St. Joseph, without having obtained it readily.”

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.