Call on St. Joseph for all your needs, whether spiritual or materialFor centuries Christians have turned to St. Joseph as a powerful patron and faithful guardian, father and friend. Invoked as the Glory of home life, Patron of the Dying and Terror of Demons, Christians call upon St. Joseph for healing and conversion, help with their children, a new job or home, and for all their needs of body and soul.
Honored as the Patron of the Universal Church, St. Joseph’s paternal protection of the Lord Jesus continues even from heaven, as he watches over Christ’s Mystical Body on earth. The foster-father of the Son of God is also a father to those who have become God’s sons and daughters through the sacrament of baptism.
Saints and popes down the centuries have experienced and extolled St. Joseph’s great power to intercede. “Would that I could persuade all men to be devout to this glorious saint,” wrote St. Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, “for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God.”
“Men of every rank and country should fly to the trust and guard of the blessed Joseph,” especially fathers of families, Pope Leo XIII wrote in his encyclical on devotion to St. Joseph, Quamquam pluries.
Pope Benedict XVI especially encouraged married couples and parents to turn to St. Joseph, saying: “God alone could grant Joseph the strength to trust the Angel. God alone will give you, dear married couples, the strength to raise your family as he wants. Ask it of him! God loves to be asked for what he wishes to give. Ask him for the grace of a true and ever more faithful love patterned after his own. As the Psalm magnificently puts it: his ‘love is established for ever, his loyalty will stand as long as the heavens’ (Ps 88:3).”
And Pope St. John Paul II, with Pope Benedict and their predecessors, held up St. Joseph as a model of the interior life, pointing to the silence of St. Joseph which speaks louder than words. “The Gospels speak exclusively of what Joseph ‘did,’” Pope John Paul II said. “Still, they allow us to discover in his ‘actions’ — shrouded in silence as they are — an aura of deep contemplation. Joseph was in daily contact with the mystery ‘hidden from ages past,’ and which ‘dwelt’ under his roof.”
The Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Confessor of the Faith, is celebrated each year on March 19. Given that March 19 this year falls on a Sunday, its liturgical celebration has been transferred to Monday, March 20. As the Church celebrates this solemn feast, we once again offer our readers a powerful 30 Day Prayer to St. Joseph.
Why 30 days, you might wonder? According to tradition, St. Joseph died just before Jesus entered into his public ministry. The prayer therefore honors St. Joseph for each of the 30 years he spent with Jesus and Mary on earth.
This prayer can be said during any 30-day period, but with St. Joseph’s feast upon us, now is a particularly opportune time to turn to him asking his help and guidance for all your needs, the needs of your family, loved ones, friends, and all those in need of prayer.
THIRTY DAY PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH
IN HONOR OF THE 30 YEARS HE SPENT WITH JESUS AND MARY
Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and loving father, and helpful friend of all in sorrow! You are the good father and protector of orphans, the defender of the defenseless, the patron of those in need and sorrow.
Look kindly on my request. My sins have drawn down on me the just displeasure of my God, and so I am surrounded with unhappiness. To you, loving guardian of the Family of Nazareth, do I go for help and protection. Listen, then, I beg you, with fatherly concern, to my earnest prayers, and obtain for me the favors I ask.
I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God, which moved Him to take our nature and to be born into this world of sorrow.
I ask it by the weariness and suffering you endured when you found no shelter at the inn of Bethlehem for the Holy Virgin, nor a house where the Son of God could be born. Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world’s Redeemer in a cave.
I ask it by the loveliness and power of that sacred Name, Jesus, which you conferred on the adorable Infant.
I ask it by the painful torture you felt at the prophecy of holy Simeon, which declared the Child Jesus and His holy Mother future victims of our sins and of their great love for us.
I ask it through your sorrow and pain of soul when the angel declared to you that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies. From their evil plan, you had to flee with Him and His Blessed Mother to Egypt.
I ask it by all the suffering, weariness, and labors of that long and dangerous journey.
I ask it by all your care to protect the Sacred Child and His Immaculate Mother during your second journey, when you were ordered to return to your own country.
I ask it by your peaceful life in Nazareth where you met with so many joys and sorrows. I ask it by your great distress when the adorable Child was lost to you and His mother for three days.
I ask it by your joy at finding Him in the temple, and by the comfort you found at Nazareth, while living in the company of the Child Jesus.
I ask it by the wonderful submission He showed in His obedience to you.
I ask it by the perfect love and conformity you showed in accepting the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary.
I ask it by the joy which filled your soul, when the Redeemer of the world, triumphant over death and hell, entered into the possession of His kingdom and led you into it with special honors.
I ask it through Mary’s glorious Assumption, and through that endless happiness you have with her in the presence of God. O good father! I beg you, by all your sufferings, sorrows, and joys, to hear me and obtain for me what I ask.
(Here name your petitions or think of them.)
Obtain for all those who have asked my prayers everything that is useful to them in the plan of God. Finally, my dear patron and father, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of: JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH.
“A blameless life, St. Joseph, may we lead, by your kind patronage from danger freed.”
