This Most Powerful Prayer to Sleeping St. Joseph is no doubt the St. Joseph devotion Catholics need for these modern times. The little known Sleeping Saint Joseph devotion, ever so popular among South American and Filipino Catholics, is known and practiced more now than ever worldwide. The faithful are placing their personal intentions (even under small statues of a sleeping Saint Joseph), trusting that he will present their requests to the Lord in his dreams — and, as we’re sure you can imagine, miracles abound.

Just as God communicated to Saint Joseph in his dreams over 2,000 years ago, this popular devotion allows us to ask him to sleep on our petitions, to dream of them, and to offer them up to Christ for us. In turn, we pray for discernment in following God’s will as Saint Joseph did. God entrusted the paramount role of the earthly guardian to the Holy Family of Nazareth to Saint Joseph, and his dreams allowed him to discern God’s will and act accordingly in faith and courage.

It was a special form of prayer that allowed Saint Joseph to turn to God in times of peril and surrender wholeheartedly to God’s Divine Plan. This first occurred when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Saint Joseph in a dream after he discovered that his betrothed wife, the Virgin Mary, was pregnant. The angel told Saint Joseph not to be afraid to take the Virgin as his wife, for the child conceived in her womb was from the Holy Spirit above (Matthew 1:20).

The Angel of the Lord appeared another time to Saint Joseph in a dream, warning him to take Jesus and the Virgin Mary to Egypt in order to escape King Herod (Matthew 2:13). On another occasion, he instructed Joseph to take the Holy Family back to Nazareth (Matthew 2:19-23). Saint Joseph obeyed the Word of God on all occasions in silence and with prompt action.

Oh Saint Joseph,You are a man greatly favored by the Most High.The angel of the Lord appeared to you in dreams,while you slept, to warn you and guide youas you cared for the Holy Family.You were both silent and strong, a loyal andcourageous protector.

Dear Saint Joseph,as you rest in the Lord, confident of His absolutepower and goodness, look upon me. Please takemy need… (mention your request here) …into your heart, dream of it, and present it toyour Son. Help me then, good Saint Joseph,to hear the voice of God, to arise, and actwith love. I praise and thank God with joy.Saint Joseph, I love you. Amen.

St. Joseph was of the royal family of David by birth, but was living in humble obscurity as a carpenter when God raised him to the highest sanctity, and chose him to be the spouse of His Virgin Mother, and foster-father and guardian to Jesus. Joseph, says Holy Scripture, was a just man; he was innocent and pure, and became the husband of Mary, he was gentle and tender, as one worthy to be named the father of Jesus. When he learned that Mary carried within her womb the Lord of Heaven, he feared to take her as his wife, but an angel told him not to fear, and all doubts vanished.

When Herod sought the life of the divine infant, an angel told Joseph in a dream to flee with the Child and His Mother into Egypt. Joseph at once arose and obeyed.

Being directed by God in another vision he returned to the land of Herod Antipas, in Galilee, to his former home in Nazareth. When Jesus was a little older Joseph and Mary found him in the temple after being missing for three days. When Mary asked him why He had done this to them Jesus replied, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business”? Even though he stayed in the temple unknown to His parents, in the end He was still obedient to them.

There is no further mention of St. Joseph in Scripture after this and he is presumed to have died before the marriage of Cana and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We can imagine the happiness of Jesus and Mary attending to his death praying by him and comforting him in his last moments.

Feast Day: March 19thName Meaning: “He Shall Add”Patron Saint of: Families, Carpenters, Married Couples, Laborers, House Seekers, The Universal Church, A Happy Death