The wonders of prayer

Reverend director Don Mario Carrera, I received thanks for the offer sent and best wishes for my name day; thank you very much for his attentions. In a previous letter of mine I gave you the news about the surgery my husband had undergone. After seven months of chemotherapy it was time for surgery. He entered the operating room at 8 in the morning and left at 17pm, having undergone surgery for a large colon tumor for which there was a 95% risk of a permanent stoma, which would affect him for the rest of his life. However, to the joy and amazement of the surgeons, this did not happen. This time too the great Saint placed his powerful hand and listened to my prayers. After a period of hospitalization he returned home, is well, and is under medical supervision. I have so much faith that Saint Joseph will continue to watch over us also because I ask the saint for another important grace: to reawaken in my husband the faith and frequency of the sacraments from which, I don't know why, he has distanced himself. This is also why I ask you to pray. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Signed letter –
Sirone (Lecco)

The joy of hosting an orphan

Reverend Don Mario, here I am to express all my gratitude to St. Joseph, I have been invoking his help for a long time with the prayer of the Sacred Mantle and, with his silence, he has granted me. In my last writing, which I saw published in "La Santa Crociata" in January, I spoke about my grandchildren waiting to adopt a child. After a long time they were called and left for Cambodia, just at Christmas 2010. They then returned to Italy on January 22nd with little Manit. Describing the emotion I felt that day is not easy. A truly beautiful child and from what we understand, intelligent too. I will continue to invoke St. Joseph for other intentions that I carry in my heart and for him to truly be the protector of adoptive parents, so that they know how to raise the children entrusted to them well. I continue to entrust all my intentions to Saint Joseph.
Rusconi Angelina, Erba (Como)

The art of accompanying

Reverend Director, I am the daughter of an old subscriber of yours (I think early 50s). Mother passed away at the age of 104, on December 5th. She always read your magazine with interest until a couple of years ago, when her eyesight became weak, but she was always clear-minded and listened attentively while I read to her. I received the December issue today and I will renew the subscription as soon as possible using one of the bulletins made out to my mother, asking you to address it to me in the future. I ask for a prayer of suffrage for my dear mother and one for me to overcome this sad moment.
Signed letter - Milan

Death does not break the bonds of solidarity

Dear Director, a few days ago I received the magazine "La Santa Crociata" in honor of Saint Joseph and I leafed through it. It was actually the first time, even though I had always seen her at my mother's house. I read that the people who were members of the Pious Union during their lifetime are transcribed in the registers of the Suffrages Union after their death.
The mother died on September 28, 2010 and, conscious until the end, she received the anointing with lively participation, thanking the priest at the end. In the previous days, how much he prayed! She recited the ejaculations that she had certainly learned from her grandmother and that she had also taught me when I was little... I dusted them off and now I too recite them in the evening before going to sleep.
I believe that Saint Joseph helped her face her passing... she was so serene and at peace; in fact, since she was a member of the Pious Union (and she was well) she prayed to him every evening and she told me: "It's for a good death". I kindly ask that the magazine be sent to my address. Cordially.
Augusta Bettiol, Vilorba (TV)

Tiredness while walking

Dear Director,
I am your faithful subscriber even if sometimes I have doubts. I have to confess that I'm a little desperate right now. I feel like my faith is failing me. For two years my daughter has been looking for work without finding it. Despite this anxiety she hears herself told that she can't find it because she doesn't look for it. This makes me suffer for her too and then I get discouraged because I feel that my prayer remains unheard.
I also hope to be able to write soon on the "Pages of gratitude" that I have received the grace.
Letter signed

Dear and dear Mrs Luisa,
I read your letter with great attention and participation and I doubled my prayer for you and your dear family with the hope that the wind can blow in the right direction, so that you can see the landing in a port where you can find serenity and joy.
Sometimes it happens that you walk along a dark path without ever seeing a flame on the horizon that indicates a presence; it is the desert of solitude in which we seem to have been forgotten by God.
In the psalms, this lament of those who have faith and prays, but feel God as if they were distracted, is frequent.
Jesus told us that "the Father knows what things you need even before you ask." God knows our needs, but we do not know the season in which he will make our desires flourish, as the prophet Isaiah says: "The thoughts of God are not your thoughts, and the ways of God are not always your ways." Within these paths, sometimes mysterious, sometimes dramatic and painful, God does not abandon us like castaways in the midst of the waves, but constantly watches over us and gives us that inner strength that makes us capable of overcoming difficulties, of staying anchored in his hand, until the moment in which the requested grace is given to us and becomes an instrument of our inner growth.
I know that there may be reasons for discouragement, but let's try to look at God in the very eyes of Jesus who became our traveling companion and let's look away sometimes, veiled in envy or jealousy towards people who seem to us to have more from life.
First of all we must pray to have a free heart and the generous and persevering will to pray and then also to act and get busy, so that our good will can "help God" to bring about a dawn of light that gives serenity to the our existence.
Don't be discouraged, you and I, along with the members of the Pious Union of Saint Joseph, continue to say: «Your will be done and give us the strength so that I can carry it out with serenity and joy».
A warm greeting and the assurance that you will not be alone in praying, but we will also help you to ensure that God can open a glimmer of light for this best wishes.
God bless you and your dear family.

Joy for October 23, 2011

Reverend Don Mario, I have wanted to write to you for a long time, but I got lazy because my right hand acts up so I don't write well. I received your letter of thanks for the offer sent but you shouldn't have bothered for so little, if I could give more I would. I rejoice with you and your congregation for the canonization of your Founder on October 23rd; I hope to be able to follow the function at least on TV. I always read the monthly magazine and I get a lot of good from it; I followed the conference that you organized some time ago and it really did me good, it took away my fear of death and I am preparing to face it with more confidence. I thank you for the much good received and for having remembered my deceased parents in your prayers and also for having highlighted the many problems of the world for which I feel driven to pray more knowing so many miseries, to educate myself more and more; you never learn enough even at 95 years old... I ask you for a prayer for my health. Saint Joseph was given to me as a protector in Holy Baptism, received on his feast day. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Bless me.
Sister Gilda Badoni,
Daughter of Charity