A Prayer for Workers

O glorious Joseph!

Who concealed your incomparable

and regal dignity

of custodian of Jesus

and of the Virgin Mary

under the humble appearance of a craftsman

and provided for them with your work,

protect with loving power your sons,

especially entrusted to you.

You know their anxieties and sufferings,

because you yourself experienced them

at the side of Jesus and of His Mother.

Do not allow them,

oppressed by so many worries,

to forget the purpose

for which they were created by God.

Do not allow the seeds of distrust

to take hold of their immortal souls.

Remind all the workers that in the fields,

in factories, in mines,

and in scientific laboratories,

they are not working, rejoicing,

or suffering alone,

but at their side is Jesus, with Mary,

His Mother and ours,

to sustain them,

to dry the sweat of their brow,

giving value to their toil.

Teach them to turn work

into a very high instrument of sanctification

as you did.

Amen.

- by Blessed John Paul II