Greetings in Christ!
On December 8, 1870, Pope Pius IX declared St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of that declaration. After much prayer and consultation, I have discerned the need to declare a special year of prayer in honor of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph has proven himself a miracle worker throughout the history of the church and also today. He answers prayers simply, humbly and thoroughly. It is with great excitement and confidence that I invite you to celebrate this year in honor of St. Joseph with me.
My hope is that this will be an invitation for families and all people in our diocese to seek out St. Joseph’s intercession, and I thank you in advance for your participation in and encouragement of this special year. Active promotion of this to your families and parishioners will not only foster devotion to St. Joseph but also help form missionary disciples and raise up vocations from within our families, schools, religious education programs and parishes. May the Son of God and son of St. Joseph watch over and protect you in a special way throughout this special year devoted to St. Joseph.
View Bishop Ricken's full invitation letter
Pastoral Letter
Year of St. Joseph Pastoral Letter: English | Spanish
Overview Video
To download this video for local viewing and projection, visit the Vimeo page for it at and click the DOWNLOAD button on the page.
Proclamation of the Gospel for the Solemnity of Saint Joseph & Homily by Bishop David L. Ricken - March 19, 2020
To download this video for local viewing and projection, visit the Vimeo page for it at and click the DOWNLOAD button on the page.
Prayer and Litany Card
This folded prayer card includes an image of St. Joseph, prayers to St. Joseph and other helpful information for families and individuals to use in their homes to help foster daily prayer. These cards will be delivered to all parishes in early March for distribution around the feast of St. Joseph (March 19) and will include copies for your parish, Catholic school and/or religious education programs. You can access a PDF version below.
Prayer to St. Joseph
Easy access to the text of the St. Joseph prayer, as well as additional formats. If you would like to include the prayer in your parish worship aid or bulletins, simply open the Microsoft Word document and copy and paste the text. If you would like to print copies of just the prayer or of just the prayer and the image, check out the PDFs below in English and Spanish.
- Microsoft Word Version
- Prayer 4-up
English | Spanish
Image
The image chosen for the Year of St. Joseph is “St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus" (1861, Pontifical University of Salamanca) by Ricardo Balaca. Below you can find a high-resolution file of the original, as well as additional versions in standard sizes to download and print for your parish, school, ministry, or home.
Shrine of St. Joseph and Partial Indulgence
It is a tremendous gift to have such a long-standing tradition of devotion to St. Joseph right in our own neighborhood, in our own diocese. Bishop Ricken will declare the Shrine of St. Joseph at Old St. Joseph Church on the St. Norbert College campus as a pilgrimage location to obtain a partial indulgence throughout the Year of St. Joseph (March 19, 2020, through March 19, 2021). He will make this announcement, along with the details pertaining to the partial indulgence on March, 10 2020. To learn more about the Shrine of St. Joseph and to arrange a pilgrimage for larger groups, please visit,
Novena
One way to kick off this Holy Year is to promote and participate in the Solemn Nine Day Novena to St. Joseph which will take place March 10-19, 2020, at the Shrine of St. Joseph at Old St. JosephChurch on the St. Norbert College campus. Confessions will be offered the hour before each Mass, and Bishop Ricken will celebrate the opening Mass with Novena Prayers on March 10. For the full list of dates and times, as well as additional information about this novena, please visit: