purity and fervor. In union with all those who have ever been most devoted to thee, I now dedicate myself to thy service, beseeching thee, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Who vouchsafed to love and obey thee as a son, to become a father to me, and to obtain for me the filial respect, confidence, and love of a child toward thee. O powerful advocate of all Christians! whose intercession, as St. Teresa assures us, has never been found to fail, deign to intercede for me now, and to obtain for me the particular object of this novena. [Specify it.] Present me, O great saint, to the Adorable Trinity, with Whom thou hadst so glorious and so intimate a correspondence. Obtain that I may never efface by sin the sacred image according to the likeness of which I was created. Beg for me that my divine Redeemer may enkindle in my heart, and in all hearts, the fire of His love, and infuse therein the virtues of His adorable infancy, His purity, simplicity, obedience, and humility. Obtain for me likewise a lively devotion to thy virgin spouse, and protect me so powerfully in life and death that I may have the happiness of dying as thou didst, in the friendship of my Creator, and under the immediate protection of the Mother of God.
For making a novena in honor of St. Joseph, an indulgence of 300 days, -on each day, and a plenary indulgence during the novena or on any one of the eight days following it. — Pius IX., Nov. 28, 1876.
AN OFFERING TO ST. JOSEPH.
GREAT St. Joseph, thou generous depositary and dispenser of immortal riches, behold us prostrate at thy feet, conjuring thee to receive us as thy servants and as thy children. Next to the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary, of which thou art the faithful copy, we acknowledge that there is no heart more tender, more compassionate, than thine. What, then, have we to fear, or, rather, for what should we not hope, if thou dost deign to be our benefactor, our master, our model, our father, and our intercessor!
Refuse not, then, the favor we ask of thee, O powerful protector! We ask it of thee by the love thou hast for
