Orações a São José – St Joseph’s prayers

St Joseph prayers - Jane Stewart

There cannot be many parties that start with prayers. There cannot be many parties that start with prayers in Portuguese, then in many, many languages.

Exactly one week ago today it was St Joseph’s Day. I was at a party in a Venetian medieval castle, guest of Paulo Coelho.

It was exactly one year, one week, one day to the devastating tsunami that hit Japan.

Very moving prayer from Yumi. She was in tears. I was holding hands with Mio. Mio was in tears. I was in tears.

Even now, watching one week later, I am in tears.

– Paulo Coelho’s St Joseph’s Day Party at Castello Superiore di Marostica

Dreams do come true

nostalgia by Eisblume

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream. — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

There are always two choices in life, either put up with the conditions as they are, or take the responsibility to change them. — Pooja Tripathi

I’m constantly blinking my eyes trying to stay awake
I feel like I’m fallen and I know I better awaken
I’m constantly reminiscing on what are the meanings of my dreams
My dreams are beyond an ordinary dream
In my dreams I have already been here and there
I feel like I’m trapped in a cage
Because it continues to leave me puzzled like a maze
I feel like in life it is meant for us to dream
Because dreams are what bring life to reality
All I know is I must awaken before life passes me by
Because I pray when I die I get to live in the sky

— sehar

A doctor by profession and a child by heart. A teacher by choice and a dreamer by soul who aspires for civils,A poet,a blogger who wants to be a writer,A dancer who is an optimistic and believes in enjoying every moment of life – good or bad because gift of life is life itself,An aquarian whose life’s motto has always been “LIFE IS FOR ONCE,MAKE IT LARGE”………….n thats ME

There are always two choices in life, either put up with the conditions as they are, or take the responsibility to change them.

Pooja reads and comments on Paulo Coelho’s blog. One day to her surprise, Pooja recieved an e-mail:

Dear Dr. Proja
I prefer to post your story as my “Reader’s story” later this week, that is why I did not approve the comment
I am copying to my good friend, also a warrior of the light, Priya, who will make the necessary corrections.
Thank you for sharing
Paulo

The e-mail was from Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, and true to his word he published her story on his blog.

There are always two choices in life, either put up with the conditions as they are, or take the responsibility to change them.

It happened one fine day when I was at my father’s clinic attending to his patients whilst he was out of town. A lady named Saraswati came with her one year old daughter. The baby was burning with fever, when I took her temperature I realized it was at 103. I scolded the lady for not bringing her baby in any earlier. The lady started crying, saying she did not have the money for the doctor’s fees and medication (I didn’t pay much attention to this since this is a very common occurrence at my father’s clinic).

Saraswati then told me her story. She had got married three years ago; her parents paid a dowry of 10,000 rupees. However, her husband ran away with the money and leaving her pregnant. Saraswati returned to her home and took on the job of a servant. Her husband’s family did not care about whether her daughter was sick or well since she was a girl.

After telling me her story, Saraswati left. I did not charge her, but I knew that this would not solve her problem. I thought about Saraswati all night and wondered what could be done to help these illiterate, cheated and downtrodden women.

Then the next day I received a call from my aunty who needed a housemaid for her daugher-in-law who had just had twins. I felt as if God had showed me a way to help Saraswati.

I recommended her to my aunty. My aunty gave Saraswati a good income and a good home to live in.

After a few days she came with her sister who was educated and was looking to become independent like her sister. I recommended her to one of my friends for a receptionist’s position. From this came the idea of NAARI, an organization for making women self-dependant.

Setting up NAARI was not an easy task, since there are so many legal formalities for female organizations. I was very young and all alone, so I dropped the idea. And then one sunny morning when I was having coffee a group of women came to my house (guided by the ever so dear Saraswati of course).

Everybody had a common story, cheated, exploited and dowry victims.

I recommended nine of these women to domestic maid jobs.

Now these ladies are independent and all eleven of them are working hard to live a respectable life. I may have not been successful in giving them an organization but when one day Saraswati came to my home with a box of sweets because she had got admission for her daughter at a nearby school, she fell to my feet and said : you have given my daughter and I a respectable living, may God give you much success.

I realized I had done nothing I just showed them a way – a way to self-respect and thereafter, all eleven of them continued this tough journey themselves.

She thanked Paulo and he replied: “Thank you for sharing the story. you are not only a beautiful soul, but a good writer too (went through your blog.”

And having been in communication with Pooja all evening, I can only say I agree with Paulo, she is a beautiful soul, who radiates an outer beauty, and she is a good writer. As my lovely friend Iva with who I was chatting later would say (and says of me), she is a typical Aquarian.

But it did not end there. She had e-mails following publication on Paulo’s blog, one of which she reproduced as it was yet another story, which was also posted as a comment on Paulo’s blog to the original story.

On the eve before fleeing my homeland in April 1975, I was struck with a mysterious infliction (some kind of severe, internal bleeding and clot). Some at the hospital announced I only had a few days to live. Others with my condition had already died. My father refused to believe in this fate for me, refused to give in to the despair swirling around him. He was not alone.

There was a young, female doctor who performed an immediate surgery on me to remove whatever it was that stood in the way of my breath and caused blood to pour from my mouth. I was four years old and one of the few memories I have from that time in the hospital was being in a room full of sick and dying children and thinking, “I am not going to die. Not today. Not here.”

Doctors like you make a difference. Hope makes a difference.

Thank you to you and to all the doctors out there saving lives. As we say in Vietnamese, cảm ơn bạn rất nhiều. Thank you so much.

We all have dreams, but how many follow our dreams? We make excuses, then we bemoan our fate and are envious of others who have all the luck.

We are all presented with the same opportunities in life, the difference is that some grasp the opportunities that life offers them, are like Santiago in The Alchemist prepared to take risks to fullfil their dreams.

For me it was as a dream come true when Paulo Coelho invited me to his St Joseph’s Day party in Istanbul. Meeting him was like meeting an old friend I had known forever. Being in Istanbul, was in itself like being in a dream.

Meeting my lovely friend Sian was like a dream come true. I often used to think when we met, would I wake up one day and find that was all it was, a dream.

When I came back from Istanbul I went to see my lovely friend Sian. I wanted to share with her the excitement of my trip to Istanbul. I told her of how meeting Paulo was like meeting an old friend who I had known forever. I or maybe she said it was like when we met, something clicked, as old as time itself we had known each other, two soul mates reunited

– The Road Not Taken
– Dreams Do Come True
– Two Choices in Life
– Reader’s story: two choices in life

Alchemist Stone

At his St Joseph’s Day Party at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Paulo Coelho sat patiently signing books and chatting with his friends into the early hours of the morning.

It must have been around 1am and those of us who were left Paulo asked us to sit around his table. He then asked Ken Crane to tell us the story of the Alchemist Stone. I did not fully follow what Ken was telling us and I asked would he post it on his blog which he kindly did a few days later.

——————————————————

I was asked by Paulo to attend St Joseph’s party on early November. The party was to take place at Istanbul on 2011 March. But I did not answer immediately, I wrote to Paulo let me think for a while. I was not sure if I could save a money to go to Istanbul. Of course, I did want to attend the party and meet with Paulo but I left this for a while to think.

alchemist stone

On one late November, my wife Yumi went to her friend’s exhibition at Tokyo. This Yumi’s friend, is a handicraft artist making necklaces with stones. She invited us to her exhibition, but I was away to do my job so Yumi went ahead to the exhibition, I decided to go to the exhibition after I finish my job. When Yumi entered the gallery, she saw more than a hundred beautiful necklaces hanged on the walls. All of those necklaces were using what they call power stone as a motif. After having a little conversation, the artist asked Yumi which necklace she likes the best. There were several kinds of necklaces hanged on the wall, all of them were using different kinds of stones. Yumi immediately pointed the necklace using a blue stone. “That’s interesting that you’ve chosen that stone” The artist said to Yumi.

After an hour or so, after I finished a job, I arrived the gallery. Yumi asked me a same question that she was asked. “Which necklace do you like the best?”

After looking at them for a while, I pointed the same necklace out of a hundred necklaces. It was the same necklace that Yumi have chosen. “The name of the stone on this necklace is Aqua Aura” the artist started describing to us. “Aqua Aura is very good for a creative people. The stone makes the people connect to universe. And it is related to throat chakra, so this stone is also very good for the people who sings (note: Yumi is a very good singer)”

To be very honest, I was reading many spiritual books, but I did not believe in stone power, but Yumi believed in it.

Ken, Paulo & Yumi

The artist continued: “the stone is a natural crystal but it wasn’t originally blue when it was mined from the ground. It is turned blue by an alchemical process using gold. So this Aqua Aura is also called Alchemist Stone”

Yumi screamed when she heard this (I didn’t scream, but I was very surprised). We were talking what to do about St Joseph’s party for many days. Yumi started explaining to the artist why she screamed. After hearing Yumi’s story, the artist told us that she is also a Paulo Coelho’s fan.

So this was the the day we’ve decided to go Istanbul. I felt like I have to give this stone to Paulo.

——————————————————

Alchemists turn base metal into gold. Here we have gold being used to change a crystal. In The Alchemist Santiago learns how to read the signs, to communicate with the Soul of the World.

Alchemists sought to turn base metals into gold. Aqua Aura is created through an alchemical process where molecules of pure gold are bonded to the quartz by the natural electric charge of the crystal, which amplifies the conductivity of the quartz. This produces a celestial shade of blue that reflects a spectrum of opalescent metallic colors (it is not a coating, but permanently permeates the quartz). Aqua Aura creates an immensely powerful protection combination, which fuses the White, Blue and Gold Rays into an iridescent display of Light.

I stayed in the old part of Istanbul. The receptionist at my hotel was called Elif. She was a Paulo Coelho fan. I met Işil who owned a spice shop. She too was a Paulo Coelho fan. I left as gifts for both of them signed copies of Elif which had just been published in Turkey.

I noticed at the party that Paulo Coelho was wearing an Alchemist Stone!

– Aqua Aura
– The Alchemist Himself

Paulo Coelho – St Joseph’s Day – Melk – 19 March 2010

It is a tradition of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho to hold a party on St Joseph’s Day to celebrate his good fortune. Last year the party was held at Melk Abbey in Austria, an important Benedictine Abbey in Austria. I had the honour of being invited but was very ill at the time and sadly was unable to attend.

This year Paulo Coelho and guests will celebrate St Joseph’s Day at Pera Palace Hotel in Beyoğlu in Istanbul.

For my lovely friend Suzanne in Lebanon who asked.

– St Joseph’s Day at Melk Abbey

No mosteiro de Melk

Paulo Coelho with Abbot Burkhard

Paulo Coelho

This year my Feast of St. Joseph was held at the Abbey of Melk, Austria (see community prayer at the end of page). There I again had the opportunity to meet one of my great spiritual mentors, Abbot Burkhard. We speak no common language, but his presence gives me not only peace, but a kind of special understanding of the meaning of life. In 2006, I gave an interview for the magazine News, which said that Burkhard was my silent mentor at the same time warned that he would not like to be called so. Of course I was right: in an article affectionate, he rejected the title, but once again shows his wisdom. The following are excerpts of his thoughts in that article

In search of meaning

In one of our meetings in the basement of the abbey, (Rabbit) asked what would be the correct steps to be given by a man. Of course there are many things wrong in the world, capable of bringing destruction and regret. There are other things that would be able to compensate for all that, but not always possible, and do not understand why.

Even people who have faith know the situation of the world. This recognition allows us to be able to move rocks, if we will, and turn back all the lights were extinguished.

When I entered the Benedictine Order, I had some small reasons for this decision. Gradually, I began to go my way, I identify with him, while he could not understand all of what was happening around me. Every time I made a suggestion about something that needed to be changed, he heard the answer:

“What do you want exactly? This monastery was raised to think in terms of centuries, not of immediate changes.”

This comment did not help me, and I felt distant from all the ideals that brought inside.

Finally, a conversation with an old monk has completely transformed my view of the subject. When I remarked my problem, I replied:

“You get upset that we here think in terms of centuries? Perfect, then forget it, and do what works best, as fast as it deems appropriate.”

At the same time I realized that all my major transformation was slow interiors, and His presence in my soul emerged gradually. Not in terms of my conscience, but in a place deeper, denser, where things do not leave so easily shaken.

Therefore, it is necessary that the person can experience the wrong paths, shortcuts that should not be crossed, little by little, through just these ups and downs of our lives is that we begin to realize what is right. And we feel tremendous freedom to move forward.

You must learn to live with the energy that comes from within us, and that keeps us passionate and enthusiastic about what we do. Instead of seeking the big things we need answers, just pay attention to small details that go unnoticed. Like any child, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to children. [Matthew 11:25]

This is how we realize our transformation. When the individual understands that small things can change, it takes the meaning of his life, no hurry because it is focused on the next step.

And the more the small change, the more great is process.

Google translation from post on blog of Paulo Coelho. With a little tidying up by me.

Also see

St Joseph’s Day at Melk Abbey
A Christmas Tale