SAINT JOSEPH – PROTECTOR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH (Novena will be available daily in left column above blue box on Spirit Daily’s front page; novena runs from Monday 11th – Wednesday 19th March
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On October 13, 1884 Pope Saint Leo XIII was granted such a disturbing vision of the future difficulties of the Catholic Church that he requested the prayer to St. Michael be said after Mass.+
However, many do not know that in his encyclical QuamQuam Pluries Pope Saint Leo XII also called upon St. Joseph to protect the Church using the following prayer.
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PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH IN TRIALS OF THE CHURCH
“To you, O Blessed Joseph, we come in our trials, and having asked the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently ask your patronage also. Through the Sacred bond of charity which united you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the fatherly love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you to look graciously upon the beloved inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood, and to aid us in our necessities with your power and strength.
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O most provident guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ. Most beloved Father, dispel the evil of falsehood and sin. Our most mighty protector, graciously assist us from Heaven in our struggle with the powers of darkness. And just as once you saved the Child Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity.
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Shield each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your help, we may be able to live a virtuous life, to die a holy death, and to obtain eternal happiness in Heaven. Amen.”
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A 16th-Century Prophecy concerning St Joseph.
Isidore of Isolanis, a pious Dominican of the 16th century, prophesied that “the sound of victory” will be heard “when the faithful recognize the sanctity of St. Joseph.”
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Every year St. Teresa of Avila made a novena to St. Joseph leading up to his Feast Day on the 19th March.
“I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant.” St Teresa of Avila
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Please pray a novena to St. Joseph to “defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity.”
Novena runs from Monday 11th – Wednesday 19th March
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[resources: The Book of Joseph]