Dear St. Joseph, you were yourself once faced with the responsibility of providing necessities of life for Jesus and Mary. Look down with fatherly compassion upon me in my anxiety with my present inability to support my family. Please help me find gainful employment very soon, so that this great burden of concern will be lifted from my heart and that I am soon able to provide for those whom God has entrusted to my care. Help me guard against discouragement, so that I may emerge from this trial spiritually enriched and with even greater blessings from God. Amen.

Why do we pray to saints?

When we pray to saints we are asking them to pray to God on our behalf, to join us in prayer. In 1 Corinthians 12 St Paul explains that we are all united as one body in Christ and that it’s not right to tell another that we don’t need them. We all need the prayers of everyone, including from the saints in heaven. In James 5:16, St James says that the prayer of righteous people are powerful in their effect. Those in heaven are the most righteous and their prayers are the most fruitful.