22/365 St. Joseph vs. Infant of Prague

It's an older story...from a worship commission meeting.

We were sitting at the table and the fact that our school building hasn't sold came up again. Someone--I don't remember who it was--mentioned St. Joseph and maybe burying a statue of him in the garden to help sell it.

See, it's a superstition, or devotion if you will, to pray to St. Joseph to sell your house. The usual method is to bury a statue of St. Joseph in your yard and then when it sells, dig him up and put him in a prominent place in your home. Don't leave him behind! Now, the details change with the storyteller. Some say to bury him right side up. Some say upside-down. Facing towards the house. Facing away. My parents always buried him upside-down facing away--and they sold 6 houses between 1985 and 2000. They still have the cheapy little St. Joseph statue on the mantel in their living room.

Hazel was sitting there at the table and wrinkled up her nose. "That's just superstition. We shouldn't do that." She sort of pooh-poohed it with her hand and shifted in her chair. Of course it is, right? But any little bit has to help, right? I don't know. I don't think it probably matters since I'm not the owner looking to sell (although I must admit I considered burying one in my neighbor's front yard when his house went up for sale).

Later in the meeting Fr. Miguel mentioned the Infant of Prague. Now, we have one of these statues in the back of church. Many churches do. They dress up the statue in fancy little dresses (Miguel mentioned that someone at a former parish said with a sigh, "Isn't she beautiful?" when, of course, the Infant of Prague is the Infant Jesus...). A question came up about perhaps why we would have such a devotion in our parish, why that statue, why not Gertrude or Bridget or various Our Lady's? A couple of folks mentioned that the Infant of Prague had many superstitions surrounding him--most involving money.

My own grandmother told me once that if Mike and I were having money trouble, we should place an Infant of Prague statue in our front hall, facing out the door, with a dollar bill under it. "You'll never have money trouble then." I mentioned this, and Hazel perked up.

"Oh yes," she said. And she went on to describe the devotion, as she called it, in great detail. And I remember sitting there thinking about the earlier conversation about Joseph. I didn't think she was wrong or a hypocrite or anything like that. I just wondered about how things like this get started and why they continue in some houses but not others. Why do some people bless their front doors for Epiphany? Why do others say St. Theresa the Little Flower novenas? Some people I know are obsessed with the rosary. Others with the Divine Mercy whatever that is. What's with all those icons of Our Lady of Perpetual Help? St. Christopher statues? The Sacred Heart of Jesus? Praying to St. Jude and having to give something back? For that matter, I'm always singing the little St. Anthony rhyme: Tony Tony look around, something's lost that must be found! I love St. Anthony. He's good to me.

Along with the layers and layers of intricate details involving the church year, the mass, the little rules that have more to do with us than God, I love these things. I love that we develop these devotions, or superstitions. I love that my mother used to burn palms on stormy nights when my father was working. That we said a Hail Mary before we left the driveway, every time we got in the car.

I don't have an Infant of Prague. And I don't plan on moving so I don't have a St. Joseph. But when my sister started looking for a house? I lit a St. Joseph votive in my front hall. Just to keep me thinking about it.