Year of Saint Joseph

Dec. 8, 2020 – Dec. 8, 2021

Ite ad Joseph (Go to Joseph)

During this Year of Saint Joseph, Pope Francis, writes in his Apostolic letter, “With a Father’s Heart,” to encourage us to keep Wednesdays and the 19^th of each month as a day dedicated to Joseph. 

While Joseph never speaks in the Gospels, he is a man of action. Caring for Mary and the child Jesus, protecting them from Herod, and working in his carpenter shop in Nazareth. An opportunity of grace awaits us by putting in action the Corporal Works of Mercy, offering your daily work and prayer. The church offers a plenary indulgence to those who do one of these approved acts by the Apostolic Penitentiary. These acts must be accompanied by sacramental confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Holy Father intentions, and detachment from sin.

Ways to Prayerfully and Devoutly Keep the 19th of the Month Focused on the Life of Saint Joseph

Here are some of the approved ways of honoring St. Joseph during this year of favor:

• Pray for St. Joseph’s intercession for the unemployed that they might find dignifying work.
• Recite the Litany of St. Joseph for persecuted Christians.
• Entrust ones daily work and activity to the protection of St. Joseph the Worker.
• Follow St. Joseph’s example in performing a corporal work of mercy. These include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the imprisoned, visiting the sick, and burying the dead.
• Perform one of the spiritual works of mercy, such as comforting the sorrowful, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing the sinner, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries, and praying for the living and the dead.
• Pray an approved prayer to St. Joseph on the 19^th of any month.
• Honor Joseph with an act of piety or approved prayer on a Wednesday, the day traditionally dedicated to St. Joseph.

The Decree permits the elderly, the sick, and the dying who are unable to leave their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic to have special permission to receive an indulgence by “offering with trust in God the pains and discomforts” of their lives with a prayer to St. Joseph, hope of the sick and patron of a happy death.