ST. JOSEPH NOVENA - FIFTH DAY

     NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH

       March 10 - March 18

                 Fifth Day

 DEDICATION TO ST. JOSEPH

O Glorious descendant of the King of Juda! inheritor of the virtues of all the patriarchs! just and happy St. Joseph! listen to my prayer. Thou art my glorious protector, and shalt ever be, after Jesus and Mary, the object of my most profound veneration and tender confidence. Thou art the most hidden, though the greatest saint, and art peculiarly the patron of those who serve God with the greatest purity and fervor. In union with all those who have ever been most devoted to thee, I now dedicate myself to thy service, beseeching thee, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Who vouchsafed to love and obey thee as a son, to become a father to me, and to obtain for me the filial respect, confidence, and love of a child toward thee. O powerful advocate of all Christians! whose intercession, as St. Teresa assures us, has never been found to fail, deign to intercede for me now, and to obtain for me the particular object of this novena.

(Mention intentions here)

Present me, O great saint, to the Adorable Trinity, with Whom thou hadst so glorious and so intimate a correspondence. Obtain that I may never efface by sin the sacred image according to the likeness of which I was created. Beg for me that my divine Redeemer may enkindle in my heart, and in all hearts, the fire of His love, and infuse

therein the virtues of His adorable infancy, His purity, simplicity, obedience, and humility. Obtain for me likewise a lively devotion to thy virgin spouse, and protect me so powerfully in life and death that I may have the happiness of dying as thou didst, in the friendship of my Creator, and under the immediate protection of the Mother of God.

For making a novena in honor of St. Joseph, an indulgence of 300 days, on each day. And a plenary indulgence during the novena or on any one of the eight days following it.

      Pius IX.,

Nov. 28, 1876.

St. Joseph ora pro nobis!