Prayer & Devotion

A Prayer for the Unemployed

God, our Father, I turn to you seeking your divine help and guidance as I look for suitable employment.

I need your wisdom to guide my footsteps along the right path, and lead me to find the proper things to say and do in this quest. I wish to use the gifts and talents you have given me, but I need the opportunity to do so with gainful employment.

Do not abandon me, dear Father, in this search, but rather grant me this favor I seek so that I may return to you with praise and thanksgiving for your gracious assistance.

“Bless, 0 Lord of the centuries and the millennia, the daily work by which men and women provide bread for themselves and their loved ones. We also offer to your fatherly hands the toil and sacrifices associated with work, in union with your Son Jesus Christ, who redeemed human work from the yoke of sin and restored it to its original dignity.”

— Pope John Paul II

The May issue of the Diocese of Joliet’s magazine, Christ Is Our Hope, gives us spiritual resources for when one loses their job.

A Prayer for Workers

This prayer was composed by Pope Blessed John XXIII (1958-63). It places all workers under the patronage of Saint Joseph the Worker, the foster father of Jesus and chaste spouse of Mary.

O glorious Joseph! Who concealed your incomparable and regal dignity of custodian of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary under the humble appearance of a craftsman and provided for them with your work, protect with loving power your sons, especially entrusted to you.

You know their anxieties and sufferings, because you yourself experienced them at the side of Jesus and of His Mother. Do not allow them, oppressed by so many worries, to forget the purpose for which they were created by God. Do not allow the seeds of distrust to take hold of their immortal souls. Remind all the workers that in the fields, in factories, in mines, and in scientific laboratories, they are not working, rejoicing, or suffering alone, but at their side is Jesus, with Mary, His Mother and ours, to sustain them, to dry the sweat of their brow, giving value to their toil. Teach them to turn work into a very high instrument of sanctification as you did. Amen.

30 Days’ Prayer to Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is a powerful intercessor. He is the patron saint of workers, as he was a humble carpenter, and he is the protector of the Church, as he led the Family of God in Mary and Jesus into safety as they took refuge in Egypt.

The 30 Days’ Prayer to Saint Joseph is a devotion that lasts thirty days, asking for Saint Joseph’s intercession and protection.