Devotion of the Thirty Days to Saint Joseph

 

O most loving patriarch Saint Joseph, from the depths of my littleness and misery I contemplate you with emotion and joy in my soul, enthroned in Heaven as the glory and delight of the blessed. Yet I also see you as the father of the orphaned on Earth, consoler of the sorrowful, protector of the helpless, and intercessor for angels and saints before the throne of God, of your Jesus, and of your holy Spouse.

Therefore, I, poor, afflicted, sorrowful, and in need, turn to you today and always, bringing before you my tears and troubles, my supplications and cries of the soul, my repentance and my hopes. And today especially, I lay before your altar and your image a sorrow for you to console, an illness for you to heal, a disaster for you to avert, a need for you to relieve, a grace for you to obtain—for me and for those dear to me.

To move your heart and compel your help, I will implore you and call upon you for thirty consecutive days, in reverence for the thirty years you lived on Earth with Jesus and Mary. I will do so urgently and with confidence, invoking every title by which you are moved to compassion, and resting on every reason I have to hope that you will not delay in hearing my plea and relieving my need. Such is my faith in your goodness and power that, in feeling it, you will feel bound to grant me even more than I ask and desire.

I beg you by the divine goodness that led the Eternal Word to become incarnate and be born into poor human nature, as the Son of God, God made man, and God among men.
I beseech you by your overwhelming sorrow when you felt compelled to abandon your Holy Spouse.

I implore you by your most painful resignation in seeking a stable and a manger to serve as a palace and cradle for the God born among men.

I call upon you by the sorrowful and humiliating circumcision of your Jesus, and by the holy, glorious, and sweetest name you gave Him at the command of the Heavenly Father.

I entreat you by your fear upon hearing from the angel the decree of death against your Divine Son; by your obedient flight into Egypt, by the hardships and dangers of that journey, by the extreme poverty of exile, and by your anxiety upon returning to Nazareth.

I ask you by your three days of most painful anguish when you lost your Son, and by your sweetest consolation upon finding Him in the Temple; by the inexpressible happiness of the thirty years you lived in Nazareth with Jesus and Mary under your care and protection.

I implore you and place my hope in the heroic sacrifice with which you offered the Victim, your Jesus, to the Eternal God—for the cross and for death, for our sins and for our redemption.

I plead with you by the sorrowful vision that tormented your soul daily as you gazed upon those infant hands, one day to be pierced on the Cross; that head which once rested sweetly on your chest, one day to be crowned with thorns; that divine body which you held to your heart, one day to be stripped, bloodied, and stretched upon the arms of the Cross, where you would see Him breathe His last and die.

I ask you by your most blessed departure from this life in the arms of Jesus and Mary, by your entry into the abode of the Just, and finally, into Heaven.

I beseech you by your joy and glory when you beheld the Resurrection of your Jesus, His Ascension into Heaven, and His enthronement as immortal King of ages.

I implore you by your ineffable joy upon seeing your Most Holy Spouse rise from the tomb, assumed into Heaven by angels, crowned by the Eternal, and enthroned at your side.

I confidently ask and implore you, through your labors, hardships, and sacrifices on Earth, and through your triumphs, glories, and eternal blessedness in Heaven, with your Son Jesus and your Holy Spouse Mary.

O my good patriarch Saint Joseph, inspired by the teachings of the Holy Church, by her Doctors and Theologians, and by the universal sense of the Christian people, I feel within me a mysterious strength urging and compelling me to ask, to beg, and to hope that you will obtain for me from God the great and extraordinary grace which I now place before your image and your throne of kindness and power in Heaven:

(Here, mention your petition.)

Also obtain for my loved ones, and for those who have asked me to pray for them, all that they need and is fitting for them.~

 

–Pray for us, O glorious patriarch Saint Joseph.

–That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

 

Let us pray:O God, who in Your ineffable Providence chose Saint Joseph as the spouse of Mary, the Mother of Your Son, grant that we may venerate him on Earth as our protector and be found worthy to have him as our intercessor in Heaven. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.