Why pray to Saint Joseph? Because he is “the greatest saint and the most powerful intercessor we have in heaven, after the Virgin Mary,” as Pius IX stated when proclaiming Saint Joseph Patron of the Church. Through his intercession, we have the best help to become true Christians and an authentic ecclesial community.
Saint John Paul II, in the document Redemptoris custos, which presents the figure of Saint Joseph in the mystery of Christ and the Church, emphasizes that we have “enduring reasons” to entrust ourselves to the Patron of the Church in our time. Saint Joseph received the task of protecting and guarding first of all Jesus and Mary, and then the Church, the mystical body of Christ. Benedict XVI states clearly: “This remains his mission forever: to guard the Church and Our Lord.”
That child Jesus whom we see in Joseph’s arms represents each one of us and the entire Church. It is therefore important that we see ourselves as his children, understanding that he was chosen by God to care for us, protect us, and help us grow through his fatherly concern.
Therefore, daily prayer to Saint Joseph is necessary and especially fitting today for the whole Church. For centuries, Christians have turned to Saint Joseph as a powerful patron and faithful guardian, father, and friend. Saints and popes have experienced and praised his great power of intercession.

The experience of the saints
Saint Teresa of Jesus is perhaps the saint best known for her devotion to Saint Joseph. She herself recounts: “I invoke Saint Joseph as my patron and protector and never cease to commend myself to him: his help is manifested in a most visible way. This tender protector of my soul, this most loving father, deigned to draw me out of the state in which my body languished and to free me from dangers far more serious that threatened my honor and eternal salvation. Moreover, he has always answered me, more than I hoped for and more than I asked. I do not remember ever asking him for anything that he did not grant me.”
Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, says: “Make friends with Joseph and you will find Jesus. Frequent Joseph and you will find Mary, who always filled the sweet workshop of Nazareth with peace.” And again: “If you want some advice, which I have repeated tirelessly for many years: go to Joseph (Gen 41:55). He will show you practical paths as well as human and divine ways to draw closer to Jesus. By frequenting him, one discovers that the holy patriarch is a master of the interior life, because he teaches us to know Jesus, live with Him, and recognize ourselves as part of the family of God.”
Saint Teresa of Calcutta also turns confidently to Saint Joseph, whom she considers the co-patron of the Congregation, and help promptly arrives.
Blessed James Alberione had great devotion to Saint Joseph; he turned to him especially when he intended to undertake a work whose scope exceeded his financial means.

The teaching of the popes
Leo XIII recommends: “It is most fitting that the Christian people become accustomed to praying with singular devotion and trusting hearts, together with the Virgin Mother of God, to her most chaste spouse Saint Joseph.” Through the prayer “To you, O blessed Joseph,” with which we invoke Saint Joseph’s patronage, he has us say: “By that sacred bond of charity which united you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by the paternal love with which you embraced the child Jesus, look kindly, we pray, upon the dear inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased with his blood, and with your power and help assist us in our needs.”
John Paul II, in the encyclical Redemptoris Custos, writes: “By commending ourselves, then, to the protection of the one to whom God himself entrusted the guardianship of his most precious and greatest treasures, let us at the same time learn from him how to serve the plan of salvation.”
Pope Francis confided: “I love Saint Joseph very much because he is a strong and silent man. On my desk I have an image of Saint Joseph sleeping, and when I have a problem or difficulty, I write a note on a piece of paper and put it under the statue of Saint Joseph so that he can dream about it. This gesture means: pray for this problem!” (Meeting with families in Manila, January 16, 2015).
On the day of his feast, March 19, 2020, during the pandemic crisis, Pope Francis said: “Let us pray together, entrusting ourselves to the intercession of Saint Joseph, guardian of the Holy Family, guardian of each of our families.”
In the apostolic letter Patris corde, he emphasizes that Joseph teaches us “that having faith in God also includes believing that He can work through our fears, our frailties, and our weakness. And he teaches us that, amid the storms of life, we must not be afraid to let God take the helm of our boat. At times we would like to control everything, but He always has a broader view.”

Listening to God’s will
This, then, is why we pray to Saint Joseph: not only to seek the protection of the “most powerful” Saint in order to obtain a grace, but so that our devotion may be translated into imitation of his virtues, which transformed his life into a total self-sacrifice in the service of the Messiah.
He was a “father in tenderness,” a “father in acceptance,” a “father with creative courage,” a “working father,” a “father in the shadows,” and a “father in obedience” because he fully embraced God’s will; these aspects, emphasized by Pope Francis in Patris corde, should also be reflected in our daily lives.
Let us therefore pray to Saint Joseph so that we may listen to God’s will, pray to Saint Joseph to ask for the grace to understand it, and pray to Saint Joseph so that we may embrace it with all that we are.

“O Saint Joseph,
patron of the interior life,
who made your wondrous silence
an ongoing conversation with God
and a listening to his will,
grant that we too may learn to live
in constant and joyful prayer
and may always be available
to the divine voice and presence.”