Sell Your Home Quickly Without Burying A St. Joseph Statue
Since I came to Canada in September 2000, I have moved twice. I first lived in a townhouse and then I moved to a raised ranch type house and after 5 years, I moved to a 4 level back split house which was not really far away from where I used to live.
I didn’t experience any difficulty selling the 2 houses I lived in. When I put both houses up for sale, I did not bury a St. Joseph statue upside down as was customary. But still, in both cases, I was able to sell my house after 2 weeks at a good price.
Of course, being a St. Joseph devotee, I prayed for St. Joseph’s intercession but instead of burying a St. Joseph statue, I did something else.
I simply placed a blessed St. Joseph statue by the window in my dining room since this is the window facing my front lawn and the street. I took a bit of the Holy Oil of St. Joseph and wiped the St. Joseph statue with it. Why? I don’t know. I just felt like doing it. I then prayed a nine-day novena to St. Joseph. But before that, I prayed to God first and asked Him to answer my prayer according to His will. And the outcome: my first house sold after 10 days and my second house after 12 days!
I have nothing against burying a St. Joseph statue upside down as some people do when they are selling their house. As in all other religious rituals, I look at it less as performing the suggested ritual to exact specifications but more as a leap of faith, believing that St. Joseph will pray for us if we we ask for his intercession.
Francis X. Weiser pointed out in his book, “The Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs”, that if these rituals are practiced in the right spirit, that is, based on the belief that the saints pray and intercedes for us, and without what he calls “unreasonable superstition”, our belief in the saints’ patronage and intercession provides “great consolation in temporal and spiritual need”.
Surely, there are other factors involved in selling a house quickly and at a reasonable price such as the state of the economy, a private sale as against using a real estate agent , etc. But when it comes to praying for a house to be sold at the right time and at the right price, it’s all about faith, not in the rituals one performs.
While I believe that performing a ritual is a good reinforcement for our faith, what really matters the most is having the faith that God hears and and answers our prayers always in His own time and in His own way, and that the saints are there to pray and intercedes for us if we ask them.