Prayer to St. Joseph for Employment

With the economy the way it is, I was happy to see this beautiful video today showing a prayer to St. Joseph for employment.

Prayer for Healing the Family Tree

This beautiful pray for healing of the family tree was written by Rev. John Hampsch and comes from Catholic Warriors by way of Vivificat.


Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help; I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect, and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord. But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, behavior patterns, and defects in body, mind, and spirit. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.

With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, living or dead members of my family tree, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son Jesus, and in the power of his Holy Spirit, I ask you Father, to deliver me and my entire family tree from the influence of the evil one.

Free all living and dead members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in future generations of my family tree.

I symbolically place the cross of Jesus over the head of each person in my family tree, and between each generation; I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify the blood lines in my family lineage. Set protective angels to encamp around us, and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing, to administer your divine healing power to all of us, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members’ guardian angels to heal, protect, guide, and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.

In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage with a holy bonding in family love. And let there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to your Son Jesus. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships. All of our unknown needs we include with this petition that we pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady of the Smile

Gentle Mary, My Mother,
I place before you the worries,
hurts and hopes of my heart.
They shrink my soul and I feel heavy and hopeless.
Darkness closes in around me.
I reach out to you,
bright Lady of Hope.
Smile on me.
Smile on my loved ones
and the intentions 
I place before you.
Your tender smile works miracles and heals,
as you did with St. Thérèse,
the Little Flower.

You are my true Mother.
You show the tender mercy of God.
Smile on me, Blessed Mother,
and all will be well.

Hat tip to Crown of Thorns, Crown of Glory.

St. Joseph, Pray for Us!

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Joseph who is the patron saint of workers.  In this current economy, St. Joseph is one we can turn to in our difficulties finding employment and making ends meet.

This site has some beautiful prayers to St. Joseph.  A few are below. The second prayer, below, was written by Pope John XXIII.

Prayer to St. Joseph for Employment

Dear Saint Joseph, you were yourself once faced with the responsibility of providing the necessities of life for Jesus and Mary. Look down with fatherly compassion upon me in my anxiety over my present inability to support my family. Please help me to find gainful employment very soon, so that this heavy 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 us to guard against bitterness and discouragement, so that we may emerge from this trial spiritually enriched and with even greater blessings from God. Amen.

Prayer to St. Joseph, as Patron of Workers

Blessed St. Joseph, patron of all working people, obtain for me the grace to labor in a spirit of penance for the atonement of my many sins. Help me to be conscientious in my work so that I may give as full a measure as I have received.

May I labor in a spirit of thankfulness and joy, ever mindful of all the gifts I have received from God that enable me to perform these tasks. Permit me to work in peace, patience, and moderation, keeping in mind the account I must one day give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vanity of success, so fatal to the work of God. Glorious St. Joseph, may my labors be all for Jesus, all through Mary, and all after your holy example in life and in death. Amen.

St. Patrick's Breastplate

This prayer, The Lorica of St. Patrick, is a prayer attributed to St. Patrick. It is said that Patrick wrote this prayer to invoke God's protection when going to convert the King of Ireland. At any rate, it is an ancient Irish prayer of protection and very powerful.

Prayer Before Bed

I wanted to share this prayer before retiring from the 1966 movie, A Man For All Seasons.

Dear Lord,
give us rest tonight
or if we must be wakeful, cheerful;
careful only for our soul's salvation.
For Christ's sake,
~Amen.

A New Daily Prayer Resource

I wanted to let you all know about a wonderful new site I've come across:  DivineOffice.org. It has the entire Liturgy of the Hours; Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer, Office of Readings, Night Prayer, including music! When I pray morning prayer, it is frustrating to me as a musician, when I see a hymn printed out that I don't know the music to. This site solves that problem.

Another great thing about this site is that it is on podcast and you listen to a group praying, rather than feel as if you are praying alone.  It really highlights the fact that we are indeed praying with the entire Church.

They pray slowly and with much feeling.  No rote type praying here!

I've linked this site on my sidebar under the picture of the praying knight.

Hat Tip to Stumbling Back Home.

Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please come around.

I've lost my keys

and they cannot be found!

Pray for China!

Voice of the Martyrs, an organization raising awareness of modern persecution of Christians around the globe, has begun an initiative to pray for China during the upcoming Olympic games. They will send out a special prayer bracelet reminding wearers to pray for China during the upcoming Olympic Games to be held there. This bracelet is free for the asking.

The image on this post is of Chinese people praying at a Catholic church Xinghe village Shanxi Xian.

Note: I updated the link in this post to take readers to the FREE bracelet. Let me know if it still doesn't work.