We found this jewel of a blog by Barb, a Catholic teacher in Nebraska — and *loved* the party they threw for St. Joseph!! Here’s a quick summary:
Jo, a good friend of Barb’s, is a Religious Education coordinator for three separate parishes in Nebraska. When The Sisters of the Good Shepherd closed up their convent 21 years ago, they held an auction and she became the proud owner of a 5foot statue of St. Joseph. She had a special devotion to St. Joseph and and made the statue a center piece in her home.
Recently, Jo learned that the Immaculate Conception Church was in need of St. Joseph statue — and thought it would make a nice gift to the church and the perfect place to pass on the special piece to. She held a special send off party at her home, along with special blessings from a group of her 11 closest friends. They prayed the rosary and reflected on the life of St. Joseph and on the different ways St. Joseph had touched their lives.
After St. Joe takes a quick visit to a local Religious restoration shop he will be moved to his new home at Immaculate Conception. We’ll check back in with Barb in Nebraska to see how it goes!! (Image Source, credit to Barb’s Flickr stream) Make sure you visit her great blog!
Don’t miss details of our upcoming party to celebrate EcoJoe’s FIRST BIRTHDAY in August!! Join our Facebook page to make sure you get your invite!
Superstition Friday ~ Do You Know Why You Knock on Wood?.
Photo by opacityFew people know why they do it, but still today when we mention something good that is supposed to happen in the future, many of us “knock on wood” twice to keep from jinxing the expected good fortune.
Once upon a time, it was thought that trees were the homes of the gods. When in need of a favor or some good luck, one politely mentioned this wish to a tree and then touched the bark, representing the first “knock.” The second “knock” was to say “thank you.” Photo by fatboyke (Luc)
Read more about Popular Superstitions like breaking a mirror and walking under a ladder and their origins here!
Here is an interesting legend about St Joseph and the spiral staircase:
The Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878. When it was finished, there was no way to access the choir loft approximately 22 feet above. Several carpenters were called in to resolve the problem, but the best solution was a ladder leading up to the choir loft. There simply was not enough space in the interior of the small chapel for a staircase.
Legend says that in order to find a solution to the problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Several months later, the elaborate staircase was finished. The carpenter disappeared — the nuns did not have a chance to pay him or even thank him. After searching for him for weeks and not finding any trace of him, many concluded that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself that came to answer the sisters’ prayers.
The structure was innovative for the time and many of the design considerations still perplex experts today. The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. It’s also been noted the the staircase was built without nails — only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft and about the types of wood and other materials used in the stairway’s construction.
Source: PlanetWare
The legend has been the subject of many articles articles, TV specials, and movies, including “Unsolved Mysteries” and a television movie entitled “The Staircase.”
Do you have any interesting legends or stories about St Joseph? We would love to know! Send them to us.
Who’s the Patron Saint of Irony? How about a Chinese Saint?.
An odd thing about saints? They sometimes become the patron saint of things that either maimed or killed them in life. Scary, huh? That’s why in paintings, the saints are generally painted with the weapons that caused their death.
Here are a few out of the box stories about sainthood and how these interesting characters become patron saints: (Thanks to source religournal.com for this great story)
Saint Apollonia is the patron saint of dentists. Why? An anti-Christian mob pulled all her teeth out in Alexandria in the early years of the A.D. Ouch.
Women were often tortured by their breasts (creative, huh?) and for most female saints, there were not only tortured and murdered, they also had their breasts cut off. A partial list of those subjected to this awful fate includes St. Anastasia, St. Christina, St. Agatha, St. Febronia, St. Tatiana, St. Guilia, St. Juliana, and St. Barbara. The most common theme amongst the women is that they were beautiful young virgins who were lusted after by all the local pagan men and when they refused to submit to their marriage proposals were persecuted as Christians. A good-looking hottie can scoff at false idols and worship Christ all she wants until she refuses to put out. Then you guys get touchy.
Around the World Wednesdays with EcoJoe, Next Stop: Santiago, Chile.
SANTIAGO, CHILE
Our friends, Rosmary and Carlos Gantz, from Los Angeles Chile, shared this link and pics from a Seminary in Santiago, Chile. Below are photos from the garden and a painting — illustrating the Holy Family.
Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata, Seminary of Philosophy, Santiago Chile
St. Joseph is honored around the world, not only as the patron Saint of carpenters, real estate, and protector of the home — but as the human father figure in the Holy Family. This painting, housed in the chapel of the Sacred Stigmata, in Santiago, depicts the three divine figures together.
Wondering where the practice of burying a St. Joe to sell your home originated?
One legend says that European nuns in the Middle Ages buried a St. Joseph medal when asking the saint to intercede on their quest for a convent. Others claim that it started when German carpenters buried small statues in the foundations of houses they built and then said a prayer to St. Joseph. There are many who trace he connection to a chapel building effort in Montreal in the late 1800s. A monk named Brother Andre Bessette wanted to buy land on Mount Royal to build an oratory. When the landowners refused to sell Bessette began to plan St. Joseph medals on the property. In 1896, the owners suddenly relented and sold. Brother Andre was then able to build the small chapel.
The practice dates back at least to 1984 in the United States. In 1990, it was very popular as realtors started to buy St. Joseph statues in bulk. The standard practice is for the statue to be dug up once the property has sold and placed on the grateful seller’s mantle, or in another place of honor. Some may have trouble remembering where their statue is buried, choose to leave them behind to protect the property for the new owners.
The beauty of EcoJoe: He’s a fine little statue that you won’t mind digging up and cleaning off, giving him his rightful place in your new home. And if you happen to leave him behind — well he’s nice charm for the happy new owners and you can feel good about his not harming the earth.
Read more here from Snope’s article called “Property Rites.”
Superstition Fridays ~ Guest Blogging by Our Very Own Facebook Fan!.
Photo by Editor BDo you avoid walking under ladders? Do you believe breaking a mirror will bring bad luck? How many times have spilled salt and thrown a bit over your left shoulder without thinking twice? Do jump over sidewalk cracks? Life your legs up over railroad tracks? Do you know why?
Superstition is a part of a daily life ~ sometimes we don’t even realize it. This is the first in a series of fun guest posts about different superstitions, where we will ask for posts from guest bloggers once a month on EcoJoe.
An interesting thing about superstition, is that it’s present everywhere. It’s even more interesting when bits and pieces of one culture’s superstitions spill over into another. I was raised in the United States, with very superstitious Filipino parents. When I left for college — this always provided interesting dinner conversation for my American friends.
Did you know that whistling at night is forbidden, as we believe it calls (and welcomes) ghosts? I was once berated as a child, for whistling a catchy little tune while sitting in my yard with friends. Can you say traumatic? Did you know if you clear your plates from the dinner table before everyone is finished eating then any single people still seated will likely stay single? Explain that to a table full of American friends when you politiely ask the waiter to leave the plates until everyone is done. When visiting a strange place for the first time, I subconsciously chant “Bari bari bari”. This chanting scares me a bit, and makes people I’m with severely uncomfortable. I simply can’t help myself, and have learned to ignore the funny looks. I honestly have no idea what the origins of these superstitions are. I’m happy to share them with EcoJoe, and hope that some of your readers can share some idea on where and how they started.
~ Jason Emperador (Jason is an EcoJoe fan. He loves monkeys, long walks on the beach, and makes regular visits to Thai cashew factories.)
If you would like to guest author a blog post on an interesting superstition for next month’s Superstition Friday guest blog, email it to EcoJoe here!
The centuries-old practice of burying a statue of St. Joseph in the yard of a house for sale is supposed to enlist the Saint’s aid in finding a buyer. Before Joseph became the patron saint of real estate, he was Jesus’ foster father on earth and taught Jesus the trade of carpentry. He made sure that Jesus was protected and well-housed.
Today, thousands of home sellers and real estate agents continue the tradition of calling upon St. Joseph to help sell their property with successful results. This tradition is about trust, belief and sincerity, not a desire to make more money in a real estate transaction.
Our goal at EcoJoe ™ is to provide a greener alternative to existing plastic St. Joseph products on the real estate market. EcoJoe™ is made with 100% eco-friendly materials. Unlike the plastic St. Joseph products on the market, EcoJoe™ will not poison the earth if left buried. A real Saint would never do that!
How EcoJoe™ was Born — Part III, The Path to Neon Green?.
Photo by mary hodderGreening a product was way easier said than done. WAY EASIER.
So in Part II, you already read about how much I just want to pull all my hair out finding the perfect and most green packaging under budget.
Well, as you may notice already, green products generally cost more. Why? Because green products are more expensive to produce in this country, which in itself, is a great curse to green vendors who want to offer affordable pricing and an ongoing mystery for me.
I was born and raised in Taiwan, and when I left 10+ years ago (sorry, age is a woman’s mystery), we already had recycled paper pad being sold in corner stores side by side with non-recycled paper pad at similar prices. I frankly think being foreign plays to my advantage this time since I decided to outsource the productions to Asia where I was comfortable with the language and knowing that there are already technology in place to do recycled paper packaging easily.
In general, when we consider cradle-t0-cradle, our weakest link is the outsourcing part, because of the additional pollution transportation can cause vs. making a product locally. Unfortunately we did not have the luxury of cheap domestic production nor a bank account like Paris Hilton’s. So I decided to use locally produced recycled paper and just concentrated the production in one geographical area then ship everything over in one sitting. This way, we can minimize the carbon footprint. Additionally, we also purchased certified carbon credit to offset our carbon footprint.
Photo by Eduardo AmorimMe and the Motto ladies (our fab packaging designers) actually fought tooth and nail about where we will produce the packaging. Originally designers wanted to use Mohawk papers, which I loved the idea since I letterpress as a hobby and I use Mohawk paper frequently. They are high quality paper not to mention that the paper were made ethically and FSC certified. The paper was also made 100% using wind power. How cool is that? Unfortunately as I found out from our producer that the only way to get Mohawk paper in Asia was via Hong Kong and because its low demand (since locally made recycled paper were easily available and much cheaper), we actually have to export the Mohawk paper from U.S., produce the packaging in China, then ship everything back here. Hmm. Yeah we are going to carbon footprint hell for that one. So I opted for locally produced recycled paper.
The ink used for the production also took a little education. The problem with most ink for printing is that they contain high concentration of VOC, (think the paint smell and the toxic part of household paint) which is harmful to the production crew and also continue to produce off-gassing even after the product is finished. They are also petroleum based, meaning crude oil was involved in its production. Soy based ink are made from soy beans, so it is much much more environmental friendly. So we decided on soy based inks, duh, it was a no brainer.
The vendor kept asking: “Are you sure you want green materials? The paper quality will print a little bit yellower.” “Yep, proceed. And make sure they are not bleached please.” (The reason why we can get these shiny white paper is usually because they are chemically bleached, which produces large amount of VOC and all the bad stuff.)
“Are you sure you want to do soy based ink? They are more expensive.” “[Clenching my checkbook] Yeah mmm hmm. Soy based ink please.”
Photo by youngrobv (Rob & Ale)Overall, we had a lot of reservation and struggle of using green materials. As a marketer, you know that how a product looks on the shelves often determines how well it sells. So of course if we use bleached paper the colors on the packaging will pop much more and become more attention grabbing on the shelves. However, you also know that if you use bleached paper while you can use the non-bleached, recycled paper, even if they print slightly darker and yellower, you are not being a socially responsible merchant. It is constantly a fine line between design aesthetics and practicality.
Frankly, the whole process of making a product green taught me A LOT what my green trainings did not teach me. It is all very fine and dandy in theory and on paper when you are not thinking about budget and the consequence of having a failed business (to have tens and thousands of EcoJoes sitting in my warehouse is really not an ideal way for me to spend my Christmas this year). I really came face to face with the day-t0-day struggles green entrepreneurs face when they choose to be green (sorry to say this, but it usually has to do with $), as well as being very conscious about not greenwashing the consumer. Moreover, I learned about compromise, which we hate to do in the green industry, but it’s a definite must.
There are certainly extremists in the green community where everything has to be the perfect shade of green, but most of us don’t have the luxury to. We do the best we can. This may sounds like a total cop-out “Oh you are just saying that because you outsourced,” but it is the perfect truth.
Photo by Shedd AquariumOverall the process certainly has brought up a lot of questions and philosophical debates for me about being a green business owner. I also feel that sometimes our ego gets in our own way.
Green certainly has become trendy and the must-do life style.
I once sat at a round table discussion, where this green real estate professional raised her perfectly manicured hands and said: “Oh my god, why can’t every seller just go green? It’s just sooo easy to do.” Yes, when you wear 300-dollar-a-pair high heels and drive $55,000 cars, it’s very easy for you to go green. But for your starter home seller who is facing the possibilities of two mortgages, it’s probably much harder to walk in their shoes.
It is also easy to look down on people because they are not buying green products. But if you are a single mother struggling to put food on the table for your kids, I think that $3 you will save by not using green toilet paper will look real good to put toward buying real food for your kids.
People do what they can, it is impossible to cut out plastic use completely. However, we do what we can to reduce the usage. By not buying bottled water, that’s a start. It’s important to at least plant the seeds and raise awareness on the issues. This journey certainly has taught me that.
EcoJoe™ would never happen if I didn’t have the support of family and a few special friends:
Ann O’Connell, an inspiring friend, gracious legal counsel and a terrific blogger/writer (and former stager) who can spell and practice grammar much better than I do
Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger, Motto Agency. EcoJoe™ could not look so stylish without their creative genius!
As the life of EcoJoe™ progresses, I feel incredibly lucky, blessed and grateful to have great company and incredible support from freinds and fmaily. I cannot thank everyone enough!
In every entrepreneur’s life, the evil B word — Budget, comes into play constantly. Budget definitely limits the scope of the project and your freedom to take on risks. For me, during the production planning really was about walking the tightrope made up by the fine line between budget and design impacts.
The packaging design process was a very difficult battle. I feel like I was running a marathon that I was not trained for, and the moment before I started running, I just scarfed down a giant box of cupcakes. There were times after conference calls I just wanted to collapse and hide under my desk, or throw things at the wall just to let the steam out. I felt like I was grasping for air constantly. The search for the perfect materials was also excruciating. Pulped paper was the first choice because the texture of it and the quality can really heighten the feel of the product, but the limited budget simply would not allow it. To use the paper pulp for packaging, we will have to spend at least $10,000 in producing the mold, in additions to place initial opening order of 250,000 units. And that’s just the packaging, that doesn’t even include actual production costs of statues!
Photo by Leo ReynoldsAfter wasting 1.5 months on paper pulp, we settled on the recycled kraft paper. After the material is chosen, the box style was quickly settled on match box. Now, the graphics.
Graphics were not easy either. To make sure your product sells, you really need to have a nice packaging that sell your product for you. Something like color schemes or the styling can easily sway consumers one way or another. Well, luckily I was not overtly fussy about it (or I will drive everyone crazy crazier). One thing was certain, I want to make a product that I will be 1000% behind it. I simply cannot sell something that I don’t love myself. Lots of emails were shooting back and forth. We went through drafts and drafts and actually changed illustrator to make sure the vision was going to happen.
And graphics were just the easy part (yeah only took us like 4 months to do). The real struggle was making sure everything is as green as possible while being cash strapped.
since I decided to outsource the productions to Asia where I was comfortable with the language and knowing that there are already technology in place to do recycled paper packaging easily.
