Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

Thinking of and praying for St. Joseph's assistance is a great way to start the month of May, especially with the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope beginning on May 7th. St. Joseph served the little domestic Church of the Holy Family as its head. He guards the universal Church. 

St. Joseph's patronage stretches far and wide:

Patron: Against doubt; against hesitation; Americas; Austria; diocese of Baton Rouge, California; Belgium; diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi; Bohemia; diocese of Buffalo, New York; bursars; cabinetmakers; Canada; Carinthia; carpenters; China; Church; confectioners; craftsmen; Croatian people (in 1687 by decree of the Croatian parliament) dying people; emigrants; engineers; expectant mothers; families; fathers; Florence, Italy; happy death; holy death; house hunters; immigrants; interior souls; Korea; laborers; diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin; archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky; diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire; married people; Mexico; diocese of Nashville, Tennessee; New France; New World; Oblates of Saint Joseph; people in doubt; people who fight Communism; Peru; pioneers; pregnant women; protection of the Church; diocese of San Jose, California; Sicily; diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; social justice; Styria, Austria; travellers; Turin, Italy; Tyrol, Austria; unborn children; Universal Church; Vatican II; Vietnam; diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia; wheelwrights; workers; working people.

St. Teresa of Avila had a deep devotion to St. Joseph she said, “I have never known anyone who … honored him by particular services who did not advance greatly in virtue, for he helps in a special way those souls who recommend themselves to him." In her autobiography, the saint wrote:

Would that I could persuade all men to be devout to this glorious saint, for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God....

It is now very many years since I began asking him for something on his feast, and I always received it. “If the petition was in any way amiss, he rectified it for my greater good.

We can have no greater partner (except Jesus and the Blessed Mother) as we pray for the cardinals to listen and embrace the will of God through the light of the Holy Spirit. Please, Lord, give us a pope who truly merits the title "Holy Father."