This lively
exchange between St. Joseph and Marie-Julie Jahenny shows the
importance of perseverance in prayer.
Ecstasy date
March 18, 1880.
Marie
-Julie: “I am with St. Joseph. He says to me:
St.
Joseph: “Dear friends, I come to say a word to your hearts that
know how to love the Mother and her Adorable Son. For the father,
give him also a small part of love.” (i.e. referring to himself
as Our Lord's foster father, he also wishes to be loved by us).
Marie-Julie:
“Saint Joseph, we want to, but only on condition you accord us a
grace.”
St.
Joseph: “I can refuse nothing, I am generous, but I want to be
loved.”
Marie-Julie:
“If you give to us, it is the best way to be. Great Saint Joseph,
we have prayed with all the fervour possible. But if you do not
accord us - see, you are in our houses surrounded by flowers and the
Blessed Virgin is not (i.e. she is refering to their statues) - if you refuse us the most necessary of
graces, be sure that we will put you in penitence, away from our
homes.” (i.e., they will remove his statues!)
St.
Joseph: “I am well liked here and at all the places of (your)
friends.”
Marie-Julie:
“It is your business. If you do nothing, you will leave all the
houses. It is very generous on our part, but this is our promise. Now
do as you like.”
St.
Joseph: “I will not leave, I would rather give.”
Marie-Julie:
“You are rich: you have the whole of heaven.”
St.
Joseph: “Yes, and I was asked by many noble hearts of the Cross, by
ministers who, every morning, immolate the Lamb that I carried in my
arms.” (i.e. he heard the requests of Marie-Julie's friends, and
the priests who said Mass. They were obviously asking for something
big, but is not mentioned in the text.)
Marie-Julie:
“You must give something in return.”
St.
Joseph: “The Beloved Son and the Mother of love are even richer.”
(Possible meaning: they are richer than Him being the Son and the
Mother, and can grant the great grace that's being asked better than
he can?)
Marie-Julie:
“Yes, good saint, but you also are rich. You are our grandfather. A
grandfather loves his grandchildren, he takes them from the blows
when they want to hit them.”
St.
Joseph: “I will not refuse anything when the Holy of Holies will
give me His treasure.”
(i.e. reveals his power of intercession is
still very great and can obtain graces for us if the Father was so
willing to make him the foster father of His Divine Son.)
Marie-Julie:
“If you do nothing, Saint Joseph, we will love you, but not as
much.” (I.e. if do not obtain the grace we ask for, we won't love
you as much!)
St.
Joseph: “I promise to assist you in the hour of death, and that you
triumph in battle.”
Marie-Julie:
“Thank you ... We need something else, you know well.”
St.
Joseph: “Tomorrow the Holy Church celebrates my birthday.”
Marie-Julie:
“We will pray to you.”
St.
Joseph: “My children, make me known more.”
Marie-Julie:
“Provided that you give us grace.”
St.
Joseph: “I promise to comfort you.”
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Ecstasy
date April 1, 1880
Marie-Julie:
“I contemplate St. Joseph. He says he will stay a very short time.
As long as you like, good Saint.”
St.
Joseph: “Yesterday ended my beautiful month. (i.e March was now over) Thousands of faithful
have honoured me and you, too ...”
Marie-Julie:
“Saint Joseph, have you been very faithful to what we all asked?
This is your month. We have made novenas to ask for our Easters
(pâques ?)... and you did nothing.”
(Note:
obviously Marie-Julie and the Friends of the Cross were completing a
special devotion during Easter and praying for a special request all
the month of March, but weren't answered yet.)
St.
Joseph: “The 'Easters' are not finished yet.”
Marie-Julie:
“No, but I fear that you will forget.”
St.
Joseph: “I forget nothing.”
Marie-Julie:
“If you do not give them to us, see you are well decorated, you
have the crown of the Sacred Heart; well! I will put you out. (i.e she is talking about his statue). You
are sure to get out as soon as Easter is finished. I leave you thus
so far. Good Saint, you will leave! And still I will wrap you in a
handkerchief so that you do not see the place where you will be or
where you will be put. You see how the need I have is extreme. If you
do nothing, you will go behind all the saints, your face turned
toward the wall. We will not pray to you any more.”
St.
Joseph: “I will not be hidden, I want to stay with the children of
my Son.”
Marie-Julie:
“It is your business, good Saint Joseph. If you want to stay, give
me the grace. This is what I have to say.”
St.
Joseph: “I do not refuse anything.”
Marie-Julie:
“The other saints will remain. I will put one in your place if you
do nothing.”
St.
Joseph: “I never said I will not give anything.”
Marie-Julie:
“But you do not say I will give something.”
St.
Joseph: “I have my Son in my arms; for Him you will respect me.”
Marie-Julie:
“It is not I who will carry you out, but I would remove the Child
Jesus. Believe me, I will not put my treasure (i.e. the child Jesus) in penance. Make up
your mind good saint. You do not tell me? You do not seem to me to
say 'yes'.”
St.
Joseph: “I will not be the cause.” (Possible meaning of St.
Joseph here: if their request is not answered, it won't be because
he refused it. There will be another reason why it may be refused.)
Marie-Julie:
“Do not talk as Saint Joseph! You are our grandfather. A
grandfather loves his grandchildren. He carries them with him, saying
his rosary, leaning on a stick. Saint Joseph ... all the same!”
St.
Joseph: “Pray again, do not forget me. I will bring
your requests to my Son.”
Marie-Julie:
“You do well, good Saint! There is no dishonesty in it, there is
only love, the desire to pray.” (i.e. she meant no malice, only
love and the desire to pray.)
“Enough,”
says Our Lord.
Marie-Julie:
“Saint Joseph approaches Him. Oh! if I saw him saying what the
request is, I would be happy!”
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Observations: These
two ecstasies are a source of puzzlement: how could
Marie-Julie Jahenny be so rude to St. Joseph, threatening to put another saint's statue in its place, turn his statue
to the wall, or take it out if they don't get the request they prayed
for? We have to look at the situation in order to find an
explanation:
Marie-Julie
may have been putting into practise what Our Lord said, “Unless you
become as little children..." and therefore felt confident to pester
St. Joseph like a child, and not any child, but a grandchild like she
said, that knows an indulgent grandparent will not say 'no' to a
favourite of theirs!
However,
how could Marie-Julie threaten St. Joseph, saying she would turn his
statue to the wall or remove it entirely? Note how she was reminding
him he was receiving all the honour they usually give to Our Lord and
Our Lady's statues, they were going without their crown and flowers,
getting all the honour during his month, and he wasn't granting their
request yet! And now was going to be 'punished' for taking their
honours and giving nothing back!
Also, poor St. Joseph's statue has
traditionally been 'mistreated' for the sake of getting a request.
It started when St. Theresa of Avila buried medals of St. Joseph in
the ground she wished to purchase for a convent, and by this, have
St. Joseph intercede for her. Over time, this devotional practise
has gone to the extreme: it is believed if you want to sell a house
and are having trouble finding a buyer, burying a statue of St.
Joseph in the garden with the promise you will remove it and treat it
better once a buyer is found has become commonplace. Apparently,
Marie-Julie was trying a similar extreme tactic to have her great
requests answered.
St.
Joseph tells her to pray again, at last brings her requests to his
Son, showing again how prayer works: depending
on the nature of the request, perseverance is required.
Recall the Gospel parables where the judge decided to answer the
widow's request because she became a nuisance. Also, the man who got
up in the middle of the night and gave his neighbour some bread to
keep him quiet and not have him wake up the rest of the house. Our
Lord used these parables to show sometimes we need to pester Heaven
unceasingly to the point of importunity and not give up!
Eventually
Our Lord came and put a stop to her wheedling and rescued His foster
father! St. Joseph brought her requests to Him, but whether they
were answered, it was not included in the text, but can Our Lord ever
refuse His foster father if a request is holy and good? No doubt
they received a favourable reply.
Also, if you still question Marie-Julie Jahenny on her treatment of St. Joseph, the saints also acted this 'badly'! Note how St. Padre Pio treated his Guardian Angel on one occasion and see how similar this is to Marie-Julie's banter with St. Joseph.
St. Padre Pio wrote the following to his spiritual director on November 5,
1912: "I cannot tell you the way these scoundrels [the demons] beat me.
Sometimes I feel I am about to die. On Saturday, it seemed to me that
they intended to put an end to me and I did not know what saint to
invoke. I turned to my angel and after he had kept me waiting a while,
there he was hovering close to me, singing hymns to the divine Majesty
in his angelic voice. . . I rebuked him
bitterly for having kept me waiting so long when I had not failed to
call him to my assistance. To punish him, I did not want to look him in
the face; I wanted to get away, to escape from him. But he, poor
creature, caught up with me almost in tears and held me until I raised
my eyes to his face and found him all upset. Then he said: "I am always
close to you, my beloved young man . . ."
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