Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/423

 as their special advocate at the throne of grace , holding - with that most modern of the beatified, whose cause has been introduced at Rome, Father Eymard, Apostle of the Blessed Eucharist - that St. Joseph is the helper of all Christians. "Happy the soul," says he, "who is devout to St. Joseph. It is a certain pledge of a good death, of salvation, and of eternal happiness. St. Joseph is also the patron of afflicted souls; for he had many trials and troubles. In your griefs, therefore, always have recourse to St. Joseph."

But no tribute was ever stronger to the power of the Patriarch of Bethlehem than that of the Virgin of Avila. Says St. Teresa:

" To render the Lord propitious to my prayers, X took glorious St. Joseph for my advocate and protector, and recommended myself most earnestly to him. His help was shown . forth in the most striking manner. That tender father of my soul, that beloved protector, hastened to draw me from the condition in which my body languished, as he had snatched me from the greater perils of another kind which threatened my eternal salvation. ... I do not remember ever to have asked anything of him which he did not grant me. What a picture I should place before your eyes, were it given me to trace out the signal favors which God has bestowed upon me, and the dangers both of soul and body from which I have been delivered, through the mediation of that blessed saint! The Most High gives grace to the other saints to help us in such or such a want, but glorious St. Joseph, as I know from experience, extends his power to all. Our Divine Lord wishes in this way to make us understand that, as He Himself was