Testimony of faith. “Joseph, André and us”

ONE EVENING, in my Charismatic Renewal prayer group, the leader, returning from Montreal (Canada), suggested that we anoint our hands with “the oil of Saint Joseph”. I question him: “What is it? » The following Monday, she lent me a book recounting the life of André Bessette (1845-1937), an uneducated religious man, very well known in Quebec. To the sick who came to him, he recommended: “Pray to Saint Joseph and I will pray for you. Go and confess…” He also advised rubbing oneself with the oil from the lamps burning in front of the statue of the saint or with a medal representing him.

Some time later, in 2011, with my husband and my son, we spent two weeks in Quebec. In Montreal, we visit the Saint-Joseph Oratory, the construction of which was launched by Brother André. Monumental! Imagine the basilica of Montmartre with escalators inside! While passing through the store, I bought two medals of Saint Joseph, without a specific idea in mind, and had them blessed.

Back in France, I think of two people looking for work. I tell myself that Brother André, orphaned at 12, experienced precariousness and worked in many professions before becoming religious. That makes him close to me. So I send a medal to a friend in Brittany who is looking in vain for a job after being made redundant, then, at Christmas, I give the other to my nephew, unemployed after a fixed-term contract. And I entrust them in prayer to Saint Joseph and Brother André.

My friend and my nephew each found a job and started… the same day, Monday February 6, 2012! They have not experienced unemployment since.

To show my gratitude to Saint Joseph, I bought a medal representing him with the child Jesus and went to the Saint-Louis-d’Antin church in Paris, sure of finding a priest there to have her blessed. Seeing them all in the confessional, I take my place in a queue to confess – which is difficult for me. Once confessed, I have the medal blessed (I still wear it now) and go out. In the street, I burst out laughing: so, Brother André – canonized in 2010 – pushed me into the confessional as he did during his lifetime for certain people! With Saint Andrew and many others, I believe that the saints of heaven intervene in our lives, and I am touched.