A Prayer for Workers

A Prayer of Pope John XXIII, Entrusting Workers to Saint Joseph

'Childhood of Christ', c. 1620. Detail. Found in the collection of The Hermitage, St Petersburg.

The Art Collector/Print Collector / Getty Images

By ThoughtCo
Updated on August 24, 2018

This beautiful prayer was composed by Pope Saint John XXIII (1958-63). It places all workers under the patronage of Saint Joseph the Worker and asks for his intercession so that we may regard our work as a means of growing in holiness.

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.
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ThoughtCo. "A Prayer for Workers." Learn Religions, Aug. 27, 2020, learnreligions.com/prayer-for-workers-542735. ThoughtCo. (2020, August 27). A Prayer for Workers. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/prayer-for-workers-542735 ThoughtCo. "A Prayer for Workers." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/prayer-for-workers-542735 (accessed March 28, 2023).