A story for every day...

A mother of a family in Reunion Island, who had long been afflicted by several misfortunes and by a painful situation to which she saw no end, felt urged to have recourse to Saint Joseph. She had lost several children, not so much through illness as through starvation; for the unfortunate mother had only poor milk to give them, being so little and so poorly nourished herself; they had died almost all before reaching the end of their first year. The future looked as bleak as the past. The poor woman, pregnant again, wondered if she was destined to see more misfortune. She therefore resolved to turn to God through the intermediary of the one who had been chosen to care for and protect the infancy of the Incarnate Word; she made a novena and wrote a letter to Saint Joseph which she placed under the statue of the Saint. We detach a few fragments which, in their simplicity, will perhaps touch more than one soul and will be an example of that naive confidence, of that faith to which Our Lord promised miracles.

“My good Saint Joseph, father and protector of the poor, in the name of Jesus and Mary, I come to you with confidence to ask for the graces which are very necessary for my soul and my body. Through your holy poverty, deliver me from the great poverty in which I am reduced. Deliver me from my pains and infirmities which make me suffer so much. May I be able to bear and give birth to the fruit that lies in my womb, and may it receive baptism; may I have healthy and abundant milk, so that it may be nourished for a long time. Obtain for me the conversion of my family, the peace and love of God in our family, the grace to love Jesus and Mary and to be faithful to them until death. I place all my interests in your hands; be my advocate. O my great protector, do not look upon my sins and my human frailty, but deign in goodness to grant me what I ask of you.”

Barely a month passed, and her prayers were answered beyond all hope, for Saint Joseph’s generosity exceeded her requests. One day, a trunk arrives, containing a complete layette for the soon-to-be-born child, a trousseau for the mother, and then relief for the father and two other children, the only survivors. On another day, a shipment of rice arrives, which is renewed every week. Let us note a delightful particularity: above the objects sent in the trunk so well closed, there shone a medal of Saint Joseph.

The facts were so marvelously remarkable that the young woman, moved and grateful, wanted, in spite of her suffering, to go to the church to offer her thanks for these miraculously obtained gifts, and to beg her dear protector to complete her work of charity. It was indeed completed, for on the day of the child’s birth, an excellent nurse offered herself to the poor mother; she took it upon herself to feed and care for the newborn as she had fed and cared for her own child, and for free, of course. As one would expect, the child was named Joseph at baptism. He is fresh and robust and seems to promise his parents to console them for the loss of his elders. Let us crown this account with a fact which Saint Joseph wanted to gratify these poor people: the father obtained a lucrative job which henceforth shelters his family from the painful needs which have so often afflicted them.

Let us also say, in all our needs, especially in the spiritual ones, since the divine goodness has above all for the good of the soul: Saint Joseph, pray for us.