In honor of the Year of St, Joseph, the WOW Prayer Group would like to encourage fellow parishioners to join us in a novena leading up to the May 1st Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The novena is prayed for nine days, Thursday, April 22 - Friday, April 30. Then, on May 1st, be sure to enjoy the Feast Day and pray this prayer again in celebration!

  It is such a joy that the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker is celebrated on May 1st, since the month of May is traditionally dedicated to Our Lady. It is also a First Saturday in the devotions of Our Lady of Fatima. The prayer was written by Pope Leo XIII to include it in the daily Rosary. What a blessing it is to have Joseph and Mary as intercessors and models to lead us in our daily lives and draw us closer to God! The novena prayer is below:

PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH  (written by Pope Leo XIII)
  To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, 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.