How do you imagine St Joseph?
When I close my eyes and pray with St Joseph there are no lilies or 2000-year-old tools hovering in my imagination. Okay sure, there is nothing wrong with lilies, but for me, I see him present with us today. I see him on a journey with us in spirit around the world; in different lands, languages and cultures. I have been especially aware of our Sisters in Peru this past year, and with this being the Year of St Joseph this led me to wonder...
How would our Saint Joseph look and act if he were in Peru today?
How would a Father's heart look and act in Peru in 2021?
Artwork can always lead to goodness, truth and beauty when it comes from the community. Therefore, I reached out to some of our Sisters in Peru - I am grateful for their help with the translation and information about life in Peru today. I learned a-lot, including the reality that potato farming is crucial for many families. I looked at many images of Fathers in Peru, but the various images of potato farming really stayed with me. I imagine Jose (Joseph) getting stuck in, dirty hands, on his knees, perhaps showing Jesus the importance of the land and the seasons.
Covid has really hit the country of Peru hard this past year. In many ways around the globe the catch phrase "we are in this together" plays on repeat. But, to be honest it seems that we are not all living this together in quite the same way. I can't really imagine a family potato farming in Iceland in the middle of winter! One thing we all need is food, from Icelandic fish to potatoes in Peru; we need physical nourishment for our health. In Peru, potato farming is essential for the physical health of its people. Historically the story of the potato began more than 10,000 years ago (more about the potato story).
Anyhoo, enough about potatoes - most importantly we also need spiritual nourishment. Our Jose helps me/us here in abundance. I hear and see Jose quietly and patiently tending to the harvest of our hearts.
His spirit, life and message remind me to have patience and to trust in God. To continue to work with the shovel of patience, dig into the ground with trust. Things will grow, but they will take time... all in God's time, I need to keep showing up, to keep listening, to keep trusting (yes, this is hard work, but it's worth it).
"Joseph found happiness not in mere self-sacrifice but in self-gift. In him, we never see frustration only trust. His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expression of trust." ~ Patris Corde 7
This has helped me tremendously as I have recently journeyed back to my homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand. It was bittersweet to leave Australia. The 5+ years in Australia, 3+ months wait for quarantine, flight cancellation, delays, and 2 weeks in hotel quarantine have all been gifts and all required patience and trust in abundance. With reflection, I can now see that returning to God in prayer with patience and trust guided me home - grateful and now transformed by it all.
I hope this image reminds us of "Ir con Jose" (Go to Joseph). I pray we show up together, have patience and as our St Mary MacKillop reminds us - above all “trust in God".
Happy Feast day all.
Much love and prayer...
~ Jane
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EXTRA EXTRA:
- St Joseph Resources: New page with resources just for this year of St Joseph
- New Website: Over the past 3 months I have been working on changing the back-end system for designjane.com - so you might notice a few changes on the site. There is a also a community section to the site, and i’m working on ideas to use that to create connection in the future.
- Shop: There are some new on-demand print options available. On-demand printing is eco-friendly and it means that there is no waste. It also means that we don’t need to have any stock on hand. Items are printed just for you when you order, these are printed as a community // through a third party.
- New on-demand Shop items: New Joseph prints and Cup of Joe available for purchase.
- Social Media: Due to policy and recent actions taken by facebook I have discerned my social media choices. Long story short - no social media platform is perfect, but we can now connect via Twitter, instagram, and Pinterest.
