To you, O blessed Joseph
To you, O blessed Joseph, we come for refuge in our trouble,
and having asked the help of your most holy Spouse,
we ask with confidence for your protection too.
By the love that bound you to the immaculate Virgin, the Mother of God,
and by the fatherly love with which you held the Child Jesus in your arms,
we humbly pray you to look kindly on the inheritance
that Jesus Christ won by his blood,
and by your power and help to come to our aid in our needs.
Most watchful guardian of the holy Family, protect the chosen children of Jesus Christ.
Most loving father, keep far from us every plague of error and corruption.
Our strong defender, be with us from heaven in this struggle with the powers of darkness;
and as once you rescued the Child Jesus when his life was in great danger,
so now defend God's holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all harm.
Keep each one of us always in your care,
so that, following your example and upheld by your help,
we may live a holy life, die a holy death,
and come to everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.
Text: our own text or translation, written for Verso.
In Latin
Ad te, beate Ioseph, in tribulatione nostra confugimus,
atque, implorato Sponsae tuae sanctissimae auxilio,
patrocinium quoque tuum fidenter exposcimus.
Per eam, quaesumus, quae te cum immaculata Virgine Dei Genitrice coniunxit, caritatem,
perque paternum, quo Puerum Iesum amplexus es, amorem,
supplices deprecamur, ut ad hereditatem, quam Iesus Christus acquisivit Sanguine suo,
benignus respicias,
ac necessitatibus nostris tua virtute et ope succurras.
Tuere, o Custos providentissime divinae Familiae, Iesu Christi sobolem electam;
prohibe a nobis, amantissime Pater, omnem errorum ac corruptelarum luem;
propitius nobis, sospitator noster fortissime, in hoc cum potestate tenebrarum certamine e caelo adesto;
et sicut olim Puerum Iesum e summo eripuisti vitae discrimine,
ita nunc Ecclesiam sanctam Dei ab hostilibus insidiis atque ab omni adversitate defende.
Nosque singulos perpetuo tege patrocinio,
ut ad tui exemplar et ope tua suffulti,
sancte vivere, pie emori, sempiternamque in caelis beatitudinem assequi possimus. Amen.
About this prayer
Pope Leo XIII wrote this prayer for his encyclical Quamquam pluries (1889), asking Catholics to add it to the Rosary through October during a troubled time for the Church. It is still prayed after the Rosary in October, on Wednesdays, which are dedicated to St Joseph, and through March, his month. Our English and Spanish follow the Latin.