Good morning, Digital Neighbors!

          In Cath-O-Landi we celebrate the Solemn feast of St. Jospeh, Husband of Mary. We take a pause from our Lent practices to celebrate the foster father of Jesus and the spouse of the Mother of God.  Many Catholics only honor St. Joseph when they want to sell a house, and the rest typically don’t give him much consideration. Devout Catholics remember him, but those numbers are growing thinner and now appearing on FBI watch lists.

When it comes to St. Jospeh, patron of real estate agents, (he is not, but should be) this is the story I usually hear. Bury Joe in your yard (you must do it the correct way), pray and hope for the best.  I have spent years humorously criticizing this as Catholic Voodoo. It is not something I am going to lose sleep over, but I consider it a rather selfish practice when I hear people tell me what they did.  Bury Joe, sell the house, happy life.  What about Joe?  Most times he is left in the yard, buried, facing the right direction, and forgotten by the person who called upon his services.  I imagine St. Joseph is not put out by it, none of the saints are, for they often get treated like God.  See Audrey’s MOTW for clarity if you have doubts.

          Creatures have needs and until converted in small ways we tend to be ruled by selfishness. And once converted it needs to continue if we ever hope to arrive at the shores of sacrifice and selflessness.   Sesame Street wasn’t teaching cooperation and sharing in all those little skits without purpose. The making of decent people is no small task, and we are forgetting how what is done as a culture.  Anyway, that is topic for some other rant.