This new museum, located at the Riverwalk Marketplace in New Orleans, has included a replica of a St. Joseph Altar.

More than just a collection of artifacts and photographs, SoFAB aims to become a resource center for serious study of the culinary arts, complete with an ever-expanding library and archives.

read the entire Times-Picayune article. . .

POOLESVILLE, Md. (CNS) -- For Deacon Dave Cahoon, working at his St. Joseph's Carpentry Shop on a quiet country road in Poolesville, this year's Holy Week was one like no other.

"How awesome is this? It's Holy Thursday, and I'm working on the altar for the Eucharist, for the papal Mass. How awesome is that?" he said, smiling.

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It's an edible tribute to the father of Jesus - not created by professionals - but instead, by everyday members of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Moss Point.

"We don't want them to say look how talented these ladies are, we want them to say look how good God is," church member Shirley Mullins said

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About this time of year 12 years ago, Nina Groppo’s mother in Sicily was diagnosed with breast cancer. Groppo, devastated with the news, promised St. Joseph she would hold a novena and a St. Joseph’s Day feast in her Bass Avenue home, as her mother did in Sicily.

Groppo and her family and friends prayed for her mother during the novena, with rosary beads and an altar set up in her living room. “I think the whole world was praying for her,” Groppo said. “To this day, you ask the doctor and he says it is a miracle. They removed it. No chemo, nothing.”
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Here is our 2008 home altar. Not as large as past altars, but very pretty. Much of the credit goes to my kids who had some new and different ideas this year.

This year was very special with 2 Feast Days for St. Joseph! The 15th of March was a busy day, but the 19th was the best. Thank you all for participating and helping to make this a worthy honor to St. Joseph.

The tradition of the St. Joseph's Altar goes back to the Middle Ages, when the people of Sicily placed food on an altar devoted to their patron saint on his feast day in gratitude at the end of a famine.
The tradition lives on today in Italian-American communities.
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It's time to honor a beloved saint with food and fun.

And we don't mean St. Patrick.

So put aside your celebration for the well-known saint - your shamrocks, green beer and corned beef and cabbage - and get the party started for St. Joseph.

To Italian-Americans, he's the saint to celebrate in March, and they do it with gusto.
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It started with a promise made 33 years ago. Al Noto, a West Tampa man of modest means, struck a deal with St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers. Help me out, and I will serve you. Something mystical transpired between the two.
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A happy and blessed feast day to all!

Viva San Giuseppe!

Refer to the side bar for the prayer to be said before each day's novena prayer.

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O good Saint Joseph, help us to be like you, gentle to those whose weakness leans on us; help us to give to those who seek our aid, succour that they may journey unafraid. Give us your faith, that we may see the right shining above the victories of might. Give us your hope that we may stand secure, untouched by doubting, steadfast to endure. Give us your love that as the years increase an understanding heart may bring us peace. Give us your purity that the hour of death finds us untouched by evil's breath. Give us your love of labour that we shirk no lot in life that calls us for honest work. Give us your love of poverty so that we live contented, let wealth come or go. Give us your courage that we may be strong; give us your meekness to confess our sins. Give us your patience that we may possess the kingdom of our souls without distress. Help us, dear Saint, to live that when life ends we pass with you to Jesus and His friends. O Glorious Saint Joseph, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions.
Amen. Saint Joseph, pray for us!
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Send a St. Joseph card from CatholicGreetings.org

It is interesting to see where visitors to the Virtual St. Joseph Altar come from. This screen shot of my SiteMeter map shows the last 100 visitors.

Refer to the side bar for the prayer to be said before each day's novena prayer.

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O Blessed Joseph, to whom it was given not only to see and to hear that God whom many kings longed to see and saw not; to hear and heard not; but also to carry Him in your arms, to embrace Him, to clothe Him, and to guard and defend Him, come to our assistance and intercede with Him to look favorably on our present petition. . .;
Amen. Saint Joseph, pray for us
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Refer to the side bar for the prayer to be said before each day's novena prayer.

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O faithful and prudent Saint Joseph, watch over our weakness and our inexperience; obtain for us that prudence which reminds us of our end, which directs our paths and which protects us from every danger. Pray for us, then, O great Saint, and by your love for Jesus and Mary, and by Their love for you, obtain for us the favour we ask in this novena . . . .
Amen. Saint Joseph, pray for us!
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