President’s Desk
MARCH, 2009

GO TO ST. JOSEPH

What a wonderful day to be writing the President's page to get caught up. It is the day before the FEAST of our wonderful patron ST. JOSEPH. As I was reflecting on him in church this morning I read that St. Joseph is the best “all around” Saint we have. I have said this to many people over the years but it really came home this morning. St. Theresa of Avila put it this way “To other saints our Lord has given power to help in one sort of need, but this glorious saint helps us in EVERY NEED.” St. Bernardine of Siena use to say “There is no doubt about it; in heaven, Jesus Christ not only continues to show St. Joseph every sign of familiarity and respect which he showed him during his life on earth, as Son to father, but adds to them with fresh honors.” It is a fact that just as Jesus Christ wanted to be subject to St. Joseph on earth, so he does everything the saint asks for of him in heaven.

We know this very well in the ministry as we have given over 100 medals dipped in the oil of St. Joseph from his oratory in Canada. This was done by Blessed Andre in his lifetime and it has been so effective here in the ministry that if someone that has carried one loses it they will come back “begging” for another.

We have had so many healings, both physical and spiritual through the intercession of St. Joseph and in a special way to St. Joseph through the intercession of Blessed Andre. My article in January tells of his intercession on his feast day and we consistently give the medals to those we pray with that come here to the store.

One of our very special success stories is Claudia Borders. Claudia had a hereditary condition that caused her heart to start disintegrating and it was at the point where she would not live much longer without a heart transplant. She learned of a stem cell procedure using your own stem cells to cure this illness. It was amazing because I do not watch TV, read newspapers or anything but I did see an article on this very thing and started encouraging her to go for it. I do not believe in stem cell research but this was from the persons own body so I felt it would be alright.

This was a long procedure but it was done in January. The doctors have told her she will be at 75% activity by Easter (I say 90%). She is so excited even though she was resigned to God’s will if he called her home. She came here within 2 weeks of her surgery and comes in often looking better each time. She is thanking God for her additional years to be able to continue doing his work here. Claudia is our representative for the Vision magazine and works on the church bulletins as well. She does a lot more in the diocese than most people know and is so very much appreciated here in this ministry as a friend as well as for her help for the ministry.

I mentioned last month that we had a person that wanted to thank everyone for the prayers for healing especially due to the fact that she did not know everyone. She would be here and one of the members would come in and I would tell them that this is Claudia and she would get so overwhelmed at the fact that people pray for individuals they do know. This is such a beautiful confirmation of the prayers that are answered through intercessory prayer in this ministry. She has said so many times, I don’t even know all who are praying for me but she made me promise to thank ALL our prayer partners for this beautiful miracle.

We very specifically asked the intercession of St. Joseph and Bl. Andre for this and so many others, it seemed a good time to share with this entire beautiful story.

Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that one of St. Joseph’s titles is the Terror of Demons. Of course, Our Lady is the #1 exorcist (as we know who is going to tromp the head of Satin) and I am sure she and St. Joseph worked together in life as they do now. We have asked for his intercession a great deal lately with the people the Holy Spirit as sent to us for prayers.

In this time we are living in we need him more than ever for all the problems we are facing. As head of the Holy Family we can all relate to him, and really should be invoking him for EVERYTHING. He is sort of a jack-of-all-trades and seriously labors overtime for each and every one of us that ask his help. He is underestimated in so many ways especially in the fact that he is the one that taught Jesus in his early years. When Jesus was preaching, teaching and sometimes criticizing people, the information he had came to a great extent from St. Joseph.

I was sharing with the ministry a new development here in that we have found a place that would be perfect for the Resource Center. The location, the size (big enough to play soccer inside) and every factor that we were looking for including offices and a place for the gift shop. We know that nothing is impossible for God so we are going to see if this is the place for Jesus, Mary and JOSEPH to be… it only costs 2.4 million dollars... God knows and so does St. Joseph.

We mentioned last month that we have a trip going to the Holy Land in October with Fr. Thomas Reeves, I can now confirm we have the Passion Play trip with our very own soon to be FATHER James as spiritual director. Now we have tentatively a new one. The Holy Father will be announcing that 2009-10 will be the year dedicated to the Priesthood and he is encouraging everyone to go to Ars to visit our Patron of the Parish Priests, St. John Vienney there. His body is incorrupt and the little place is so beautiful and very spiritual. Fr. Juan Carlos from Eloy, Az and I will be working on this trip which will be France and Italy within this year. We will let you know as we go.

May God Bless You Today and Always.

Gayle