Year of Saint Joseph
December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021
On the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church
Catholics around the world rejoice over the Holy Father’s proclamation of the Holy Year of St. Joseph, which began on December 8, 2020 and ends December 8, 2021. The entire Archdiocese of Philadelphia is encouraged to spend this year growing closer to St. Joseph by honoring him, imitating his virtues and asking for his intercession. May this be a year of great grace for all of us as we more deeply entrust ourselves to the care of our spiritual father.
To you, O blessed Joseph
(Ad te, beate Ioseph)
To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our afflictions, 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 kind 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.
This prayer was composed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical, Quamquam pluries. It especially recommended to be prayed at the end of the Rosary.
