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Prayer to St. Joseph Patron and Protector of the Universal Church

Blessed be the Divine Providence of God, who in this age of trials has appointed the great St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. Infinite praise, honor, glory and thanksgiving, at every moment, from every creature, and for all eternity, be to Jesus, who is ever with His Church, and protects her in every trial and in every necessity.
Foster-father Joseph, our guide, protect us and holy Church.
O most holy Patriarch St. Joseph, ever protect the holy Church of Jesus; humble her enemies, confound their wisdom, and defeat their plots. O great St. Joseph! obtain from Jesus, for His Church, holy Popes, holy prelates, holy priests, and holy religious. Amen. Very Rev. Archdeacon Thomas Kinane

• May 1, 1955 Pope Pius XII : "Yes, beloved workers, the Pope and the Church cannot withdraw from the divine mission of guiding, protecting, and loving especially the suffering, who are all the more dear the more they are in need of defence and help, whether they be workers or other children of the people.This duty and obligation We, the Vicar of Christ, desire to declare again clearly here on this first day of May, which the world of labor has claimed for itself as its own proper feast day. We intend that all may recognize the dignity of labor, and that this dignity may be the motive in founding the social order and the law founded on the equitable distribution of rights and duties. Acclaimed in this way by Christian workers and having received, as it were, Christian baptism, the first of May - far from being an incitation to discord, hate, and violence - is and will be a recurring invitation to modern society to accomplish what is still lacking for social peace; a Christian feast, therefore, that is a day of rejoicing for the concrete and progressive triumph of the Christian ideals of the great family of all who labor.

  In order that this meaning may remain in your minds and that in some way We may make an immediate return for the many and precious gifts brought to Us from all parts  of Italy, We are happy to announce to you Our determination to institute-as We in fact do now institute the liturgical feast of St. Joseph the Worker, assigning it to the first day of May. Are you pleased with this Our gift, beloved workers? We are certain that you are, because the humble workman of Nazareth not only personifies before God and the Church the dignity of the man who works with his hands, but he is always the provident guardian of you and your families." 

  
  

"From the very Beginning, for great work, the Almighty has usually selected weak instruments to carry out His designs; and hence the candid observer must attribute the success, not to human wisdom or power, but to God alone. In this spirit the Redeemer chose for the first preachers of His Gospel twelve fishermen, without leaning, power, eloquence, or wealth; and their mission was to storm the citadel of paganism, to refute the most learned, eloquent, and subtle philosophers, and to proclaim to a sensual, selfish, and proud world the hard doctrines of chastity, self-denial, and humility. To set the world on fire with the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, God chose Margaret Mary, a weak, timid nun, hidden and buried in her cloister at Paray-le-Monial. To give examples would be to write the history of the Church; to narrate the spread of the Gospel in every country, to describe the origin and progress of every new Devotion; and to record the battles and victories of the Church in every age, over heresy, sin, and schism. In all great works, as St. Paul says, "the foolish things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the wise, and the weak things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the strong. And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible hath God chosen, and things that are not, that He might bring to nought things that are. That no flesh should glory in His sight." (1 Cor. i.27).

Signal and speedy, no doubt, will be the victories of the Church in these her days of sore and bitter trials and persecutions; since God in His infinite wisdom has given her St. Joseph as a Protector and Patron.

As St. Joseph guarded Jesus in His Divine Infancy, from the hands of His enemies, so will our great Saint protect the Church, the Spouse of Jesus, from her adversaries.
To an age in revolt against lawful authority, and puffed up with a spirit of independence and inquiry, the Church holds up St. Joseph as a model of perfect obedience and resignation, without murmur or hesitation, to God's holy will. To an age devoured by love of wealth and riches, St. Joseph is a model of holy poverty, ministering with joy and happiness to the wants of Jesus and Mary, by the labour of his hands. To an age corrupt and wallowing in sensual pleasures, the Church presents St. Joseph as a model of perfect continency and holy purity. To an age enslaved by ambition for honours, applause, glory, and high station, the Church presents St. Joseph, the noble descendant of the royal house of David, hidden and unknown, as well as happy and contented, in his workshop at Nazareth. To all Christians St. Joseph is a perfect model of simple faith in the most sublime mysteries; of prompt obedience to the calls of Divine Providence; of perfect resignation in all things to God's holy will; of immaculate purity of souls and body; of a laborious and holy life; and of a happy death in the arms of Jesus and Mary. "Foster-father Joseph, our guide, protect us and the holy Church."  Source: St. Joseph : his life, his virtues, his privileges, his power : a month of March in his honour by Very Rev. Archdeacon Thomas Kinane, 1884.