Superstitious Catholics

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While shopping yesterday, I saw a St Joseph home-selling kit. In it were a statue of Joseph, some kind of ribbon?, and a booklet. Using this kit will, apparently, help you sell your house.

I’ve never seen anything like this for sale at a Catholic Store. These were in a store that sells over-stocked items from other retailers. I’d bet dollars to donuts tha these kits came from a catalog or on-line dealer. Apparently, they weren’t a big hit. 😃

To the Catholics on the board - Do you believe in this kind of thing? Have you or anyone you know used one?

To the non-Catholics on the board - the same questions, I guess.

I knew one Italian who did something with a statue to sell her house. Everyone else (Italians included) hired a good realtor and priced their house correctly. 😉
 
kalt said:
While shopping yesterday, I saw a St Joseph home-selling kit. In it were a statue of Joseph, some kind of ribbon?, and a booklet. Using this kit will, apparently, help you sell your house.

I’ve never seen anything like this for sale at a Catholic Store. These were in a store that sells over-stocked items from other retailers. I’d bet dollars to donuts tha these kits came from a catalog or on-line dealer. Apparently, they weren’t a big hit. 😃

To the Catholics on the board - Do you believe in this kind of thing? Have you or anyone you know used one?

To the non-Catholics on the board - the same questions, I guess.

I knew one Italian who did something with a statue to sell her house. Everyone else (Italians included) hired a good realtor and priced their house correctly. 😉
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There are Catholics and non-Catholics who do this. There are lots of realtors who give these kits to their clients. I’ve seen these kits in Catholic bookstores (but they were more like “religious goods stores” that sold Catholic and non-Catholic items). I’ve seen them on the internet. I know friends of mine who have done this.

This is sacriligious and it is **not **in line with Catholic teaching. It is superstitious, which is a violation of the First Commandment. No matter how many Catholics or non-Catholics do this, they cannot claim it is in any way allowable under Church teaching.

We are free to pray with the Saints for intercession, that is not wrong. But, this burying the statue business is definitely wrong.
 
PattyPryor said:
Ya you put him upside down in the ground. I never sold a house so I never actually done it.

irregardless.net/degage/stj_ljs.htm

His is a interesting link about how it came about:thumbsup:
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Thanks for the link. It’s interesting that they’re being sold by non-Catholics to non-Catholics.

I can’t imagine wasting my money like that. If you want to bury something in your yard that will help sell your house, take the 8 bucks, buy 2 pots of mums and put those in the yard. Instant curb appeal. 😉
 
We saw them sold at the Cathedral Book Store in San Francisco and my husband got into an argument with the guy about whether they should be there (my husband saying no, most definitely not). I was surprised to see them being sold at the Cathedral though! What can you say… it’s S.F.?
 
It’s a funny thing. We did ask St Joseph to intercede in the selling of our home. It took 4 whole days to sell it after we began asking his prayers. But we did not bury him. He was prominent in our home so that whenever the family walked past his statue it reminded us to ask his prayers again. And of course every day the sale was prayed for. His same statue resides on our family altar/shrine now. We remember his intercession and think of him as a dear friend in our family.

Then there is this. Santaria practicers also use statues of Catholic saints. So you can find these in not so savory areas. They represent their Santaria spirits through the statues. They build shrines and altars as Catholics sometimes do but with much different prayers and offerings, ie. cigars, alcohol etc.

In these same places you may find candles invoking Catholic saints which we might use for a novena but they use to obtain luck.

When I ran my bookstore I had lovely statues of St Joseph for sale. A Presbyterian lady once came in to buy one because a “Catholic friend said all I had to do was bury it and my house will sell”. I believe I explained to her that was not how praying to saints worked. I also advised her to go speak with her pastor about how her church would regard such a thing. She didn’t get a statue from me. Perhaps if she had gotten one she might have converted…I don’t know. But it seemed the wrong thing for me to do to sell her one.
 
It is no different from the chain letters I receive every so often in my emails I think. They ask me to pass it around or else I 'll get blessings OR condemnations!:eek:

So what I do?.. DELETE! End of the line.:p:D
 
PattyPryor said:
Ya you put him upside down in the ground. I never sold a house so I never actually done it.

irregardless.net/degage/stj_ljs.htm

His is a interesting link about how it came about:thumbsup:
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From the link above:
To settle the confusion - and make a few bucks - a company out of Modesto, Calif., is marketing the saint in a kit, which contains a 3-1/2-inch-tall plastic statue, a bag to carry it in, instructions on how to bury it, and even a prayer:
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“Oh, St. Joseph, guardian of household needs, we know you don’t like to be upside down in the ground,** but the sooner escrow closes, the sooner we will dig you up and put you in a place of honor in our new home.** Please bring us an acceptable offer (or any offer!) and help sustain our faith in the real estate market.”
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:eek::eek::eek:

I sincerely hope no catholic, or any christian for that matter, would ever recite a ‘‘prayer’’ like that. :eek:

The whole thing smacks of occultism.

And must make it very hard for catholics to defend the criticism they worship statues!!!

(which, incidently, I know most don’t and the catholic church condemns such activity)
 
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CCC:
2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.

2110 The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.
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I think that superstition can creep into any situation, I know of family members that hold superstitious beliefs about valid sacramentals, like the scapular and rosary beads etc. I think this a source of a lot of misconceptions about the catholic faith by our non-catholic christian brothers and sisters. It’s the devils work, taking what is true and holy and using them to promote lies and deceit.
 
To the Catholics on the board - Do you believe in this kind of thing? Have you or anyone you know used one?
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No that is absolutely ridiculous… Only an act of God could get my house sold in this economy 😃

God bless
 
slyboots said:
It’s a funny thing. We did ask St Joseph to intercede in the selling of our home. It took 4 whole days to sell it after we began asking his prayers. But we did not bury him. He was prominent in our home so that whenever the family walked past his statue it reminded us to ask his prayers again. And of course every day the sale was prayed for. His same statue resides on our family altar/shrine now. We remember his intercession and think of him as a dear friend in our family.

Then there is this. Santaria practicers also use statues of Catholic saints. So you can find these in not so savory areas. They represent their Santaria spirits through the statues. They build shrines and altars as Catholics sometimes do but with much different prayers and offerings, ie. cigars, alcohol etc.

In these same places you may find candles invoking Catholic saints which we might use for a novena but they use to obtain luck.

When I ran my bookstore I had lovely statues of St Joseph for sale. A Presbyterian lady once came in to buy one because a “Catholic friend said all I had to do was bury it and my house will sell”. I believe I explained to her that was not how praying to saints worked. I also advised her to go speak with her pastor about how her church would regard such a thing. She didn’t get a statue from me. Perhaps if she had gotten one she might have converted…I don’t know. But it seemed the wrong thing for me to do to sell her one.
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You should have sold it to her. Maybe she would have converted. On the other hand since she could not get a St. Joseph she might have tried the Voodoo approach. :eek:
 
The best place for a St. Joseph statue is not deep in the dirt.
 
The most despicable superstition I experianced as a catholic were the novenas that had “never been known to fail”. You see them printed on holy cards sold in catholic bookstores.
 
Novenas, medals, st. joseph statues, lighting candles, the sign of the cross, blessing with holy water, etc. are all superstitious if you think they have power in and of themselves. The power comes from God and faith in Christ.
 
Religio71 said:
Novenas, medals, st. joseph statues, lighting candles, the sign of the cross, blessing with holy water, etc. are all superstitious if you think they have power in and of themselves. The power comes from God and faith in Christ.
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👍
 
RedSoxWife said:
We saw them sold at the Cathedral Book Store in San Francisco and my husband got into an argument with the guy about whether they should be there (my husband saying no, most definitely not). I was surprised to see them being sold at the Cathedral though! What can you say… it’s S.F.?
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Was it sold at the Assumption of Mary Cathedral?
 
maryshop.com/images/T/stjosephhomeseller.jpg

This St. Joseph Statue Homeseller Kit is a discount budget version

totallycatholic.com/catimages/judekit.JPG

***The Miraculous Double Novena St. Joseph/St. Jude House selling kit
I can’t imagine wasting my money like that. If you want to bury something in your yard that will help sell your house, take the 8 bucks, buy 2 pots of mums and put those in the yard. Instant curb appeal.
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Amen!

http://flowers.connecticut-weddings.net/pictures/fallflowersmums.jpg
 
slyboots said:
It’s a funny thing. We did ask St Joseph to intercede in the selling of our home. It took 4 whole days to sell it after we began asking his prayers. But we did not bury him. He was prominent in our home so that whenever the family walked past his statue it reminded us to ask his prayers again. And of course every day the sale was prayed for. His same statue resides on our family altar/shrine now. We remember his intercession and think of him as a dear friend in our family.

Then there is this. Santaria practicers also use statues of Catholic saints. So you can find these in not so savory areas. They represent their Santaria spirits through the statues. They build shrines and altars as Catholics sometimes do but with much different prayers and offerings, ie. cigars, alcohol etc.

In these same places you may find candles invoking Catholic saints which we might use for a novena but they use to obtain luck.

When I ran my bookstore I had lovely statues of St Joseph for sale. A Presbyterian lady once came in to buy one because a “Catholic friend said all I had to do was bury it and my house will sell”. I believe I explained to her that was not how praying to saints worked. I also advised her to go speak with her pastor about how her church would regard such a thing. She didn’t get a statue from me. Perhaps if she had gotten one she might have converted…I don’t know. But it seemed the wrong thing for me to do to sell her one.
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I think you did the right thing. To have sold her the statue on those grounds would have encouraged disrespect for St Joseph, superstition, and the mistaken notion of Catholic idolatry.

You can’t convert someone to the Truth with a lie.

Instead, you were a true witness to the Catholic Faith. 👍
 
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