What do you say to a person who feels St. Joseph let them down?

thereseozi · #1 Mar 20, '12, 3:32 pm

I have a relative who has been praying to St. Joseph for help with their mortgage company. (It is a serious situation and they could lose their home.) Yesterday was St. Joseph's Feast Day and my relative received a letter in the mail from the mortgage company. She thought this was a good sign since it was St. Joseph's Feast day but it was a letter of denial from the mortgage company. My relative feels very let down by St. Joseph and wants to say "thanks a lot". I don't know what to say. It surprised me because St. Teresa of Avila highly recommended St. Joseph to everyone since he is a powerful intercessor but this happened. How should we try to understand? What would you say to your relative in this situation?

Therese

PerfectTiming · #2 Mar 20, '12, 3:42 pm

Your relative is being superstitious, it is that simple. They got their hopes up by thinking a coincidence was some great sign and now they're disappointed. I understand they are in a serious situation and in those situations it's normal to seek hope, as your relative did. But St Joseph is not to blame.

Veronica97 · #3 Mar 20, '12, 3:46 pm

When we ask the saints for intercession, we must always keep in mind that they will pray for us, but they won't pray for something that is not the Will of the Father. They are in Heaven and are incapable of wanting anything other than what God wants. Therefore, your friend must take this as a "no" from God Himself. The "no" is not to punish your friend or his family. It may be because God wants your friend to downsize and consider what his NEEDS are, rather than his wants. Perhaps God is testing your friend to see if he is faithful or if he will "jump ship" when the going gets tough and be angry with God. Perhaps God has a BETTER house for him, maybe in another neighborhood or city or even another state. There are all kinds of scenarios, but the bottom line is the "no" is what is best for your friend at this time. I'm sure it's extremely stressful for your friend right now, but this is where "one day at a time" comes in. We do the will of the Father in each moment of each day--following His commandments and loving Him and others. He asks nothing more of us. We either love God and trust Him to give us what we need or we don't. God is not a "sugar daddy" who gives us everything we want--He is our loving Father and creator, and being a father sometimes he must say "no".

maryjk · #4 Mar 20, '12, 3:51 pm

The same thing that I tell my son sometimes.

"Sometimes the answer is no."

God and the Communion of Saints aren't miracle dispensers. It is very possible that God has other plans for your family member.

George Stegmeir · #5 Mar 20, '12, 4:27 pm

Unfortunately, in contemporary American society, one often needs a good lawyer in addition to prayer.

DaveBj · #6 Mar 20, '12, 4:32 pm

With God, as with earthly business, sometimes it's better to cut out the middlemen and go straight to the source.

Gods_Peace · #7 Mar 20, '12, 4:40 pm

Keep holding on, maybe he has a better plan in mind.

stjoe4u2 · #8 Mar 20, '12, 5:14 pm

Agreed, St. Joseph must have something far better in mind!

Keep praying to St. Joseph! I have kept a written record of my petitions over the last several years that I have asked St. Joseph for. To this date, only one petition has not yet been granted. I am thinking that he is working on something even better for me. The answer may not be "No," but rather, "Not Yet."

St. Joseph, a man of great prayer, is also a man of action. Instantly following the Lord's will when he knew it. Your cousin should do what he can and ask St. Joseph to help him.

Whatever he does, encourage him to be persistent in his prayers. I know how it is to pray your heart out, and St. Joseph, like Our Lord, seems to be silent. It is then, I have found out by experience, that they are working the hardest for us. They won't be silent forever.

In the meantime, we will pray for your cousin to good St. Joseph.

stjoe4u2

Patsy Lou · #9 Mar 20, '12, 5:47 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by thereseozi

I have a relative who has been praying to St. Joseph for help with their mortgage company. (It is a serious situation and they could lose their home.) Yesterday was St. Joseph's Feast Day and my relative received a letter in the mail from the mortgage company. She thought this was a good sign since it was St. Joseph's Feast day but it was a letter of denial from the mortgage company. My relative feels very let down by St. Joseph and wants to say "thanks a lot". I don't know what to say. It surprised me because St. Teresa of Avila highly recommended St. Joseph to everyone since he is a powerful intercessor but this happened. How should we try to understand? What would you say to your relative in this situation?

Therese

Wait and pray as Joseph did. He was never actually quoted as saying a word in the Bible----maybe just waiting and praying is enough for her to do right now and she will find acceptance to God's Will in time.

on_eagles_wingz · #10 Mar 20, '12, 6:02 pm

Tell her not to give up! Look at Job and how he kept losing stuff yet never lost his faith. God rewarded him with TWICE as much as he had before and he was already the richest man in the land.

There always seems to be dark clouds that come before a big blessing....but that is all they are, clouds. For example, Jesus felt abandoned by the Father just before he died on the cross (Matthew 27:46). I've heard many stories of people who received big blessings that they prayed for and every time there was a big sign or signs of discouragement that came shortly before the blessing. For example, someone praying for the survival of a dying patient or a patient in a coma would receive word from the doctors that there is not more chance of recovery, but then a miracle happens.

Don't give up hope.

Phillipians 4:6:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Luke 11:5-13:
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Student09 · #11 Mar 20, '12, 7:19 pm

Others have given good answers on this thread.

I recently made a novena to St. Therese about something very important and which I was so sure was God's will - and I got a "No." But I also got something else - the ability to accept this answer as God's will and be at peace. I most definitely did not have that when I began the novena, and by the end of it, I did. So I am very grateful and do not feel in any way that the novena was somehow a "failure" or that Therese let me down.

Many novena prayers that I have seen include something like, "If what I ask for is not for the glory of God or the good of my soul, then please give me what is conducive to both." This is the spirit in which we should pray, whether or not we actually say those words.

fred conty · #12 Mar 20, '12, 8:06 pm

If is skipping a mortgage payment, they are there to make you pay as much as they can get from you in any way they can and as ruthless as they can make it for you.
Does this sound like experience? You can deal with heaven and you can deal with hell, but you can't deal with your mortgage company. They don't listen to any saint and any devil, they only listen to the rattle of money and the more rattle the more they like it. They don't care. I think it would be easier to deal with the Mophia.

The one thing left to do is get advice from an experienced broker to make the situation less harmful if that is possible.

I agree with others tho who said it may be for the better tho right now it dosen't look like it. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a fire and who knows what losses you might have there. Or a terrible accident, a traffic accident, a long term illness, and so on down the list. I would suggest that you trust Jesus, thank him for the goodness that you are blind to, and ask that he be with you in finding another home.
Always thank him as Job in the Old Testiment, "blessed be the name of the Lord."
Just trust Him and see what happens. Swallow hard, and then say, "blessed be your name and I trust you absolutely."

Just a thought that brings blessings.

Marybeloved · #13 Mar 20, '12, 11:05 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveBj

With God, as with earthly business, sometimes it's better to cut out the middlemen and go straight to the source.

This sounds very Protestant.

Marybeloved · #14 Mar 21, '12, 12:26 am

@ OP,

I understand your relative's frustration so much, you have no idea how much!
I had a truly desperate petition to St. Joseph just last week and many times this year on account of my sickly father. He has been continuously sick with one thing or the other and just really deteriorating. Last week, the problem was an infection and then total inability to eat. You have no idea how desperate I was, I literally felt myself get ulcers in my stomach! It seemed that the more I prayed, the worse the situation got. My long time spiritual advisor had advised me to do a novena to St. Joseph- that was March 9th, just in time to start one before his feast day on March 19th. I started doing it and it seemed like the most futile thing in the World, to be honest, as my dad simply was not eating or drinking anything, and was surviving only on the IV drip.

Now I'll tell you a story. Last week, on Thursday or Friday, 5/6 days into the Novena I was doing my morning prayer and I had been complaining painfully to Our Lord about his seeming deafness/indifference to my pleas and my plight. I usually speak to our Lord in the form of the sacred Heart to which I have developed a devotion and I use the Gospels to do my meditation (I'm on St. Matthew, right now). As I placed it in my lap, the Bible fell open in the Old testament. I was moved to use that page opened, as I felt perhaps it may have some answers. I then thought "No, that's silly" and had began to turn it to go to St. Matthew but something in me insisted and I went back to it. I began my meditation on it. And you know what? It turned out to be the Story of Joseph of the Old Testament.

It started with the the Pharaoh's dreams and the servants telling him of Joseph and his dream-interpreting capabilities; Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams and being put in charge of implementing it and in charge of all Egypt second only to Pharaoh; Then him storing the food and being in charge of all the store-houses of Egypt and when the famine came, all people in the world came to Egypt to seek food and when they pleaded with Pharaoh, he answered them "Apply to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you". At that point I really felt like Our Lord had answered by desperate complaints by telling me- "Apply to Joseph- For he's in charge of all the store-houses of Heaven".

I went back to St. Matthew and did my usual meditation on the Gospel- It was when the Apostles were at Sea and a storm was brewing and Our Lord came to them walking on the Sea and St. Peter tried to walk but looked at the sea and sank and cried "Lord, save me!"and Our Lord saved him and said "Ye of little faith! Why did you doubt?" and then the wind calmed down. I couldn't help but think of St. Joseph in that figure of Christ coming through in the Storm. I saw the similarity between it and Joseph foreseeing the terrible 7 year famine and saving Egypt from it. I asked Our Lord to come to me in the middle of the severe famine and the storms to save me and to send St. Joseph.

This is interesting because, after the meditation, I was moved by the OT figure of Joseph and how he'd been placed in charge of the store-houses of the kingdom and I saw in him St. Joseph, father of Our Lord. I did a search on the internet about devotion to St. Joseph and immediately came across this story about two Franciscan monks who were saved by St. Joseph (Read it here: http://www.stjosephpatronsaint.com/2...ate-monks.html ).

You can imagine my surprise when I read of the two monks on an evangelizing mission abroad, meeting a bad storm in the sea and getting shipwrecked, and finally being stranded on pieces of wood in the middle of the Sea and then how St.Joseph came to them in the Sea standing on the water and saved them!- He lead them to Shore. I just thought that was such a nice "coincidence" considering what I read of Joseph and the famine and immediately after about Christ coming in the Storm and walking on the sea!

I continued to do my Novena, of course- regardless of how pointless it seemed. I'm happy to say that My father started eating on St. Joseph's feast. He is not back to normal, but he certainly is not where he was before. I'm going to pray to him for all my future needs, temporal and spiritual, from now on. He's a great Advocate.

Please tell your relative not to give up on St.Joseph. Just because she got an unwanted letter on his feast doesn't mean that he does not have her back. In fact, precisely because she got that letter on his feast, I would take it as a sign and a gift in itself. There is something wonderful hidden in it that she will discover if she does not loose hope.

I think St. Joseph likes to stretch our patience to the utmost limits, because I've read stories where he answered only after desperate/near despair levels were reached!

He may be giving her many other beautiful gifts that she does not yet recognize. There is something in that letter that is actually wonderful. Perhaps it will lead to much better things for her and her family and her soul. Just keep faith and remember that the Lord says "Apply to Joseph" and that he has placed him in charge of all the treasuries of Grace in the Kingdom. Also, faith is for the Storms and the famine,not the good times when its easy for any one to believe. Ask St.Joseph for faith to pray and then pray- He will obtain it for you by his powerful intercession-both the Faith and the need.

Peace.

Ninian29 · #15 Mar 21, '12, 1:13 am

I have prayed the Holy Cloak novena to St.Joseph for nearly a year and a half.The last couple of years have been very difficult years for me.St.Joseph has been a Saint I never really prayed to in the past but I pray to him every day now.He does answer your prayer,but not always in the way you want.We don't always see what God does and he will only give us what is best for our souls,and to bring us closer to him.Remember it is God`s will that matters in a prayer request,not our will.Remember the Our Father prayer-"Thy will be done."
I would tell your friend to keep praying and asking God what his plan is for him/her.Also I should mention I got my prayer answered it was -keep praying and he will continue to help me-to get to heaven.Our real home..mortgaged free!