I noticed this sentence in the first post about St. Joseph:
" Except rather than buy the
> special Joseph figurine, she
just dug out the nativity set and buried
> that Joseph (I think she
knew it wasn't the same one but figured a
> Saint is a Saint.)"
By all means, it IS the same one -- the same saint Joseph anyway; the
ones sold by realtors are often the "worker" ones, while the manger scene
figurine would be just the "generic" one but still the same Joseph.
Back when I wrote my first book on sacramentals, I had sent out a query
asking about customs and mentioning I didn't want any superstitious
stuff. One of my respondents, a priest, jumped all over me -- and
rightly so. He pointed out that superstition and popular piety depended on the
faith and intent of the person involved so it was difficult to judge between
superstition and piety. In charity, it is best to reserve judgement on a
lot of things. Also, in 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a directory on popular piety and the
liturgy which you may want to read.
