Prayer to St. Joseph

                Prayer to 

              St. Joseph

  Especially recommended to be said with

           the Rosary during October.

Ordered by Pope Leo XIII to be said as Part of the Devotions for the Month of October.

To thee, O blessed Joseph, do we fly in our tribulation, and having implored the help of thy most holy spouse, we confidently crave thy patronage also. Through that charity which bound thee to the immaculate virgin Mother of God, and through the paternal love with which thou didst embrace the child Jesus, we humbly beseech thee graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ hath purchased by His blood, and with thy power and strength to aid us in our necessities.

     O most watchful guardian of the Divine 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 propitious to us and from heaven assist us in this our struggle with the power of darkness; and, as once thou didst rescue 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 thy constant protection, so that, supported by thine example and thine aid, we may be able to live piously, to

die holily, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.

Indulgences: i. Seven years and seven quarantines, if said after the Rosary in October. ii. 300 days, once a day, at other times (and in this case the words in italics are omitted).

Leo XIII, Enc, August 15, 1889; Indul. September 21, 1889.