Detachment (St. Joseph's answer to my Prayer)

The Feast of St. Joseph..

Today is March 19th.  A red letter day for me. First because it is my own Dad's birthday as well as that of my "spiritual father," Joseph Leslie.  And second, it is because it is the feast day of our other father -- (Papa) St. Joseph, my favorite saint.

They say when one makes a novena, whatever you wished for at the onset becomes true by the time the novena is through.  So when I began the novena to St. Joseph eight days ago, I wished prayed for a positive favorable result when the bar exam is released.  True enough, on the ninth day, my prayer was answered, albeit contrary to what I initially wanted, through the reflections of this novena prayer.

I asked St. Joseph to help me embrace my state and yes, to let me pass the bar.  The results came out on March 17th (8th day of my novena) around 515pm. I did not make it.  But it did not occur to me that the answer will come on the final day of my novena.

Virtue in Focus:  DETACHMENT.  "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?"

Poignant line.   Very appropriate for my state of the moment.

Then it goes..

DETACHMENT meant for St. Joseph that he could center his thoughts and affections on things Divine.  Detachment for St. Joseph meant that he was not engulfed in worldly affairs, that after his work in the carpenter shop, he could have the rest of the time for thoughts and conversations on things Divine.  He was detached from riches because of his poverty which he loved; he was detached from honors because of his humility which saved him the agony and tribulation of those who aspire to hear the applause of men.  He was detached, because of his chastity from those more terrific temptations against purity.

REFLECTION (also from the novena)

What of your detachment from things of this earth?  Are you regulating your life so that you can truly say that your thoughts are centered upon things Divine?  Are you engulfed in pleasures that never satisfy?  Are you keen to hear your praises sung knowing that those flatteries cause, after all, more pain than joy?  Are you ambitious, knowing that ambition makes us uneasy, makes us dissatisfied with our present state and simply drives us from one condition to another as a storm might blow a small piece of paper from place to place?  Are you detached at least in the sense that you value heavenly treasures more than worldly awards?  Are you detached in that you can concentrate upon your eternal destiny using earthly things in proportion as you need them, yet never allowing yourself to become a slave of honors, of ambition, of vanity, of the more base sins that our nature is heir to?  Are you detached so that if God called you as He called the rich young man, "Come follow Me," you could as the apostles, "leave all things" and realize your vocation, if such were your good fortune? 

My Prayer:

Thank you St. Joseph for helping me see through this state.  I now understand.. 

Amen.