Novena to St. Joseph

 

Illustrious Saint! inheritor of the virtues of all the patriarchs! Good and faithful guardian of the Holy Family! Thou art my glorious protector, and shalt ever be, after Jesus and Mary, the object of my most profound veneration and tender confidence. Thou art the most hidden saint and particularly the patron of those who serve God with the greatest purity of intention and fervor of devotion. O thou model and guardian of pure souls, who hast given us so illustrious an example of purity, unselfish devotedness to duty, fidelity, humility, patience, obedience, and trust in divine Providence, be moved with the confidence I place in thy intercession, and obtain for me the grace to practice every virtue which will make me pleasing to God.

I thank God for the signal favors He has bestowed upon thee, and I beg through thy intercession grace to imitate thy virtues. In union with all those who have ever been most devoted to thee, I now dedicate myself to thy service, beseeching thee, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Who vouchsafed to love and obey thee as a son, to become a father to me, and to obtain for me the filial respect, confidence, and love of a child toward thee.

O powerful advocate of all Christians! whose intercession, as St. Teresa assures us, has never been found to fail, deign to intercede for me now, and to obtain for me the particular object of this novena. [Specify it.] Present me, O great saint, to the adorable Trinity, with Whom thou hadst so glorious and so intimate a correspondence. Obtain that I may never efface by sin the sacred image according to the likeness of which I was created. Beg for me that my divine Redeemer may enkindle in my heart, and in all hearts, the fire of His love, and infuse therein the virtues of His adorable infancy, His purity, simplicity, obedience, and humility. Obtain for me likewise a lively devotion to thy virgin spouse, and protect me so powerfully in life and death that I may have the happiness of dying as thou didst, in the friendship of my Creator, and under the immediate protection of the Mother of God.

(Indulgence 5 years is granted to all the faithful who, with contrite heart, devoutly make at any time during the year a novena in honor of St. Joseph, spouse of Mary most holy.--Pius IX.)