An Old Joke, Revised.

A young Catholic woman desperately wanted to get a nice apartment, and thought that it would be beneficial to get God on her side. The idea came into her head that she would say a rosary for the apartment, but she wondered if that was a selfish idea. So, having many acquaintances in local religious orders (she must have lived in Hyde Park), she decided to ask their opinion. First, she went to the local Franciscan house, where she found Friar Anthony outside having a conversation with some pigeons.

"Friar Anthony," she asked, "would it be irreligious to pray a rosary for an apartment?"

"Well," he replied, "what, my dear, is an Apartment?"

"It's a bit like a monastic cell," she replied, "but it has its own bathroom and kitchen and several bedrooms, and really nice new appliances, high ceilings, and tall windows."

"Our Father Francis taught us to turn away from material possessions," said Friar Anthony, "and that holiness is found in the vow of poverty. You should trust God to find you housing sufficient to your needs, and not say the rosary for the apartment."

Our protagonist didn't much like this answer, so she went to the local Dominican House of Studies, where she had to wait fifteen minutes for Brother Carlos to be brought from the library.

"Brother," she asked, "would it be wrong to pray a rosary for a nice apartment?"

"Well," he replied, "the Bible tells us to turn to God with all our requests, and then the great Saint Thomas, in his Summa reminds us that...

"Yes yes yes," she replied. "Thank you, brother."

Finally, she decided to go to the local Jesuit house, where she found Father Damien outside having a pint.

"Father," she asked, "would it be wrong to pray a rosary for an apartment?"

He paused. "What's a rosary?"

So, yeah, if you could all find a few moments to say a decade/burn some candles/make a sacrifice to Mithras to ask that Lorie and I get the apartment we applied for this evening, we'd be greatly obliged. We had the following conversation:

Landlord: "Well, say, if one of the applicants were a motorcycle gang, we'd be less likely to rent to them."
Alice: "um...we like to bake."
Lori: "And knit."