I came to Canada in September 2000 and since then I have moved twice. My first house was a townhouse and after a year, I moved to a raised ranch type house. After 5 years, I moved to a 4 level back split house which is just about 5 blocks away from where I used to live.
I didn’t have any problems selling the 2 houses I lived in. When they were both up for sale, I did not bury a St. Joseph statue upside down as was customary. But take note that in both cases, I sold the 2 houses only after 10-12 days at the price I wanted.
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.
First, I 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 wiped a bit of the Holy Oil of St. Joseph on it (don’t ask me why, I just felt like doing it) and then I prayed a nine-day novena to St. Joseph. Of course I prayed to God first and asked Him to answer my prayer in accordance with His will. And the result: 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.
As Francis X. Weiser pointed out in his book, “The Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs”, if these rituals are practiced in the right spirit, that is, based on the belief that saints in heaven pray and intercedes for us, and without what he calls “unreasonable superstition”, our belief in the saints’ patronage 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 performing a ritual reinforces faith, the bottom line is having the faith that God hears our prayers, that the saints are there to pray for us if we ask them and that the answer to our prayers is on its way, according to God’s time and God’s way.
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