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Some say key to selling home is statue, prayer Web Posted: 10/14/2006 11:44 PM CDT Lisa Marie Gmez Express-News Staff San Antonio Realtor Mark Wood took a good look at the house he was about to list, let out a big sigh, and thought, "This is going to be hard to sell." The house was in a not-great location, and it had quirky upgrades that would probably not appeal to prospective buyers. Instead of running to Home Depot for quick makeover ideas, Wood decided to turn to a higher power, St. Someone told him about a practice that dates to 18th century Europe when a group of nuns prayed to a carpenter named St. Joseph, whom some Catholics regard as Jesus' earthly father, and asked for his help in finding land. Joseph in various ways -- sometimes facedown, other times up -- in front of houses they wish to sell. Joseph face the house, while others say he should look toward the street. Joseph's power to sell a house, but he was also desperate. So he went to a Christian store and bought the statue of the carpenter, buried it, and prayed for nine straight days. Joseph about six more times with clients whose houses wouldn't sell. One time, he admits, it didn't work, but he still thinks it's worth the effort. San Antonio's real estate market has been hot, hot, hot, and so have sales of the little St. "We sell a ton of them," said Danielle Gonzalez, owner of Christ the King Books and Gifts, with two locations in San Antonio and an online store. "I don't think it really matters so long as you pray," said Oswald John Nira, an instructor of religious studies at Our Lady of the Lake University. Joseph, not to mention burying him in your yard, as pure superstition. Nira believes the practice is more cultural than purely religious and seen more in areas with heavy Hispanic and Catholic populations. Catholicism, he said, is a material religion whose rituals, or sacraments, are a way of getting closer to God. Father David Garcia, rector of San Fernando Cathedral, said the Catholic Church doesn't condone or condemn the practice. "It's not the statue in the dirt that is selling the house, it's the prayer," he said. Joseph statue, but he's never tried to sell a house, either. But his sister, Teresa Nira, has tried it a few times and had success. She bought two statues in a downtown Christian store in 2003 and buried each one in the yards of two properties she was trying to sell in the Lost Pines section of Bastrop to help pay for her ailing father's medical bills. Each were 25 acres but one had a house and the other was just land. She sold the land for more than the asking price of $60,000 in a few weeks, but didn't have the same luck with the house, which eventually sold months after she put it on the market. "We prayed for a loving family to move in because my father loved that property," she said. Even though it took longer to sell the property with the house, she feels the prayers worked. As a Catholic and associate director of the Texas Conference of Churches in Austin, where she now resides, she takes her faith seriously. "It's not something to think, 'Oh, it's really cute, let's put a statue of St. Wood, the real estate agent, said whatever it is, it works for him.
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