A story for every day...

To give alms to a poor person to honor the poverty of the Patriarch Saint Joseph, is an excellent practice that attracts abundant blessings.

An indifferent, incredulous man was about to die; he was about to die with blasphemy on his lips and despair in his heart. His wife, an angel of piety, prayed and wept at his side; a priest, a friend of the family, also prayed and wept, and God seemed not to hear them. However, death was coming fast. “Go quickly,” said the minister of religion to the grieving wife, “go find a poor man and give him alms in the name of Saint Joseph, for the conversion of your husband.” She ran all distraught through the streets, met an old man covered in rags, gave him a large alms, telling him to pray for the conversion of a poor sinner who was about to die; and at that very moment the sick man had taken the priest’s hand, kissed it with tears, and asked for his forgiveness. The conversion was sincere and edifying. A few hours later, this man entered into the glory of God, saved by the alms given in the name of Saint Joseph, and by the prayer of the poor man, and his wife, weeping, looked up to Heaven where she had the confidence of finding one day this beloved soul.

Charity rewarded.

A priest recounted:

On Monday of this week, September 27, going to the railway station of Avignon, after a day spent in the countryside, I suddenly realized that I had lost my wallet. Seized with a sudden terror, I searched myself in every way and several times, to make sure that really had disappeared from my deepest, most interior pocket, this wallet exceptionally filled with considerable values and very important papers. After a moment of reflection, of which God alone could measure the supreme anguish, I turned to Saint Joseph and to the Holy Family. I said to them in all simplicity: “Please help me find my wallet.” I recollected myself, praying especially to Saint Joseph to come to my aid. Disturbed, but not desperate, I remained there motionless. Night had fallen. It was impossible to take again the way I had just traveled for this evening… At the same moment, I saw coming to me, through the numerous visitors who were stirring in the waiting room, a well-known person, my dear nephew, a young man who had led me to the city. My heart was moved to understand that Saint Joseph had granted my wish and that the Holy Family had taken pity on me. With an angel’s smile, this young man showed me the lost wallet that he had, by happiness and by a divine protection, found under his feet, in the country vehicle that had carried us, and from where it could have fallen easily on the public road at night. I lacked the words to thank him; my look and my deep emotions told him enough. His eyes filled with tears, and so the uncle and the nephew gave thanks to God for a favor which my grateful heart will never lose the memory of.

For the love and glory of the Holy Family, and to propagate a pious practice in His honor, I will tell you, my most reverend Father, to what I believe I should attribute such prompt and benevolent assistance.

In all my travels, I feel the need to give alms to the first poor person I meet, in order to obtain a special blessing from God, and I feel a deep satisfaction in doing so in the name of the Holy Family. If the poor person is a child, I give it in the name of the Child Jesus; if it is a woman, I give it in the name of the Blessed Virgin; if it is a man, especially an old man, I give it in the name of Saint Joseph. But the height of my joy is when, in the course of my journey, especially at the beginning, I was able to give alms separately in the name and in honor of the three persons who make up the Holy Family.

Now, on September 21, I had the good fortune, upon my arrival in a nearby town, to place a modest alms in the thin hands of three old women, with the formal intention of honoring the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Oh, how generously the Holy Family gave it back to me, on the evening of that same day, by making me find so promptly and providentially what I had lost. I have no doubt that it is to the Holy Family that I owe, as a reward for a triple alms made in its name, the benefit that I make it my duty to point out to the piety and gratitude of every soul devoted to Saint Joseph and to the Holy Family.

B…, priest.

It is an excellent idea to unite to our prayers a costly act: the sacrifice of something dear to our hearts adds an irresistible weight to our supplication.