Mother, daughter promote dedication
to Holy Family through St. Joseph

Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 21, 2006

Lake Orion – Helen Foley, SFO, and her daughter Theresa Henderson, a parishioner at Christ the Redeemer Parish, have spent decades drawing closer to the Holy Family through their artwork.

Their portfolios are filled with paintings, murals and statue restoration projects – many featuring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary – at churches in southern Michigan, including some in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

And now, the sacred artists are using their God-given talents to promote something that has been encouraged by Church fathers for centuries – devotion to St. Joseph.

"There's such a concerted attack on manhood these days," says Henderson. "Almost every TV show makes men stupid or inept. Cartoons have children being disrespectful to their fathers.… St. Joseph is such a good example of manhood and fatherhood, and Mary and Joseph were so devoted to Christ. St. Joseph's been a very quiet entity in the Holy Family."

Photo by Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Helen Foley, S.F.O., (left) holds a print of her painting of the Compassionate Heart of St. Joseph. She and her daughter, Theresa Henderson, are trying to spread devotion to St. Joseph through their sacred art.

The mother-daughter artists, concerned with the warped perception of manhood in society, have discovered through art and prayer that St. Joseph can play an integral role in healing a culture saturated with promiscuity, in which half of marriages end in divorce. Now, through their sacred art, they're trying to spread devotion to St. Joseph in their parishes and the broader Catholic community.

Prayer through art

For both mother and daughter, art has always played an important role in life. Foley was a convert to Catholicism and, a lifetime artist, started restoring sacred statues when her parish, Our Lady Queen of Apostles in Sand Lake, was getting ready to throw out statues of the Holy Family because they were in disrepair. She lives in the Diocese of Grand Rapids.

Her art, often depicting the Holy Family or more modern inspirations such as Padre Pio, has become her personal diary of spiritual growth and inspiration.

"I've been painting all my life," Foley says. "It's a method of expression. Sometimes you find it difficult to reach down deep and say things you would like to say. Painting takes longer, and sometimes gives you time to say it."

Henderson-Foley Studio Who they are: Helen Foley, S.F.O., and her daughter, Theresa Henderson What they do: Paint and restore sacred art for churches and individuals. Currently, they're trying promoting through their art a devotion to St. Joseph that has been encouraged by popes for centuries. Studio: 3622 Joslyn Road, Lake Orion 48359 Web site: http://henderson-foleystudio.com/ Phone: (248) 391-3960

Fr. Edward Hankiewicz, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Grand Rapids, has seen several of Foley's paintings and restoration projects in Grand Rapids, and says her attention to the little details is impressive.

"She has tremendous talent, and she has used it to beautify many churches," Fr. Hankiewicz says. "The Church has always advocated the use of one's talents to be a light shining in the darkness, giving joy to the world, giving the world an expression of faith. Artists can do that. They give us hope. They make things that are supposed to express joy in our lives."

Henderson is one of Foley's six living children. She began her sacred artistic endeavors by repairing a statue of the Infant of Prague, and has done paintings and restoration work for individuals and several churches. For example, she repaired a crucifix which stands in front of St. Perpetua Church in Waterford, which had been vandalized with an explosive device.

Though they keep occupied with paintings and restoration projects – Henderson has a studio full of them at her home in Lake Orion – right now, their attention has turned to St. Joseph, a key figure to their art.

Compassionate heart

It was in the 1970s that Foley painted a charcoal picture of St. Joseph for a child who was to undergo a risky heart surgery. The painting was of St. Joseph's heart, the "Compassionate" heart of St. Joseph, Foley calls it.

"The painting was a prayer for Joseph Cusamano," Foley says.

Cusamano, now a 42-year-old parishioner at Assumption Grotto Parish in Detroit, has kept the original painting to this day. He has survived two major heart surgeries, is still close friends with Foley and Henderson, and credits St. Joseph for intercession in his life.

Photo by Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Theresa Henderson looks over a partially-restored statue of the Blessed Mother in her Lake Orion studio. Henderson has spent decades repairing sacred statues that have had broken fingers, chipped paint, missing parts or have been damaged by vandals.

"(Foley) prayed ardently to St. Joseph," Cusamano recalls. "She was inspired to draw a picture of the Compassionate Heart of St. Joseph."

It was just a few years ago that Cusamano submitted the picture and his own prayers to St. Joseph to Cardinal Adam Maida for an imprimatur, which he promptly received.

After Cusamano's surgery, Foley was commissioned to paint a full-color, full-size picture of the Compassionate Heart of Joseph for St. Joseph Church in Detroit. Though it was taken down recently to be given to Carmelite nuns, the painting spent years in the historic downtown Church. At one point, the church even sold copies of it as a fundraiser.

Cusamano, Foley and Henderson believe there's a lot more healing that St. Joseph can bring to the world, and not just of the physical sort, if they turn to him with intercession.

They're not the first ones to have the idea, either.

Long-time devotion

In her research, Henderson says she's found instances since the 12th century where popes have urged Catholics to pray for St. Joseph's intercession.

Perhaps the most prominent of such admonitions is an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, "Quamquam Pluries" ("On Devotion to St. Joseph"), promulgated Aug. 15, 1889.

In the letter, the pope mentions the dire state of society: "We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views … and the very foundations of religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity" (1).

Leo XIII, referring to his predecessors, focused in his letter on the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Speaking for the faithful, he concluded by saying it would be pleasing to the Blessed Mother and beneficial to the Church to give honor to St. Joseph.

Devotion to St. Joseph "Thus in giving St. Joseph the Blessed Virgin as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life's companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honor, but also, by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity. And Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His father among men… It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ." – Pope Leo XIII, QuamQuam Pluries, Aug. 15, 1889

"We judge it of deep utility for the Christian people, continually to invoke with great piety and trust, together with the Virgin-Mother of God, her chaste Spouse, the Blessed Joseph; and We regard it as most certain that this will be most pleasing to the Virgin herself" (2).

Though the text was written 117 years ago, Henderson and Foley see it as a devotion that can help today. They have prints of the Compassionate Heart of St. Joseph, and Foley has done a special painting of the Holy Family in which Christ clutches the cloak of his stepfather, who is looking to the Blessed Mother for her example of strength and faith.

"It's simply to put Joseph in the center of masculinity, as Mary is the center of femininity," Foley says.

The focus of St. Joseph, Henderson adds, is on St. Mary and Christ – which makes him an ideal example for men in the Church today.

"St. Joseph is saying 'This is about the family,'" she says. "And then you look at what is happening at this point in history – in our own time, we've seen the destruction of the family.… St. Joseph is really saying that it's time for you to stand up for your women and your children."