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Prayer to St. Joseph

Ad te, beate Ioseph

Pope Leo XIII's great prayer to St. Joseph — 'To you, O blessed Joseph' — asking the Guardian of the Redeemer to protect the Church and our families.

To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also. Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by His Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities. O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be gracious to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness. As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.

History

Composed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical Quamquam Pluries, which asked the whole Church to add this prayer to the Rosary during October. It remains the most widely prayed prayer to St. Joseph and is traditionally prayed in his months of March and October.

When to Pray

In times of family trouble, when work or provision weighs on you, and on Wednesdays and the month of March, traditionally kept in his honor.