These notes are from Fr. Ripperger’s talk:
Devotion to St. Joseph is among the most powerful of all the devotions. If for no other reason because he is called St. Joseph most powerful.
Christ, who, seeing His mother, in fulfilling the 4th commandment will deny her nothing. So also with St. Joseph, but to a lesser degree, He will deny him nothing.
What this means is that St. Joseph is clearly aware that he is as not as great a mediator with God as Our Lady is. But, he also knows, that should a person fulfill the requirements and it be a holy intention that if he, St. Joseph, go to Christ, Christ will deny him nothing. This devotion therefore is very powerful because if we cultivate a strong devotion to St. Joseph, and if we become dear to him because of that, then he will often grant to us things which other people may not receive.
This is a powerful devotion for fathers. It teaches a man how to be a man, in seeing the strong and yet silence of St. Joseph, who always acted properly and with prudence. In having a strong devotion to St. Joseph, St. Joseph bestows an increase in virtues to a man. He becomes more chaste, and prudent, and faithful and patient, just as St. Joseph is called the most chaste, the most prudent, faithful and patient.
It is a good devotion for the intercession for all of the virtues to be particularly in relation to being a man. Things like fortitude and courage, which we see St. Joseph manifesting when he would flee at the proper times, knowing the proper discretion and following the angel he did what he was told. When he turned to Nazareth, he had actually done so at the command of the angel, not fearing the fact that before his life and the life of our lady and the life of the child could be taken, but rather, he did so because that it was the right thing to do and he did it.
It is also a powerful intercession for fathers to beg St. Joseph to supply the needs for his own family. St. Joseph was the head of a family so he recognizes the actual need that people have to fulfill the temporal and the spiritual requirements of life. And so if a father fosters a devotion to St. Joseph, St. Joseph will help him fulfill those needs. He will help him fulfill the need for getting a job if he’s looking for a job, or that he finds that his job doesn’t fulfill the requirements, the financial requirements for his family he can pray to St. Joseph to help him to find a better job.
He can also pray to St. Joseph that in the execution of his daily duties in relation to his work that all goes well. This is why we call St. Joseph the model of artisans.
He can also pray to St. Joseph for the sake of his wife and his children.
Selling or buying a home
It is also good if we are looking to sell a home or for buying a home.
They should have a miraculous medal placed on the property that they want to acquire.
If you want to sell your home, purchase a statue of St. Joseph, put it in a prominent place and pray a novena to him, so that he will help you to sell your home.
Women
Devotion to St. Joseph is also very important to women. St. Joseph is the chaste guardian of the Virgin.
The unmarried
For those who are unmarried they should foster devotion to St. Joseph so that he will protect them, and protect their honor. After all he is not only the guardian of the Virgin but he is also called the guardian of virgins.
Marriageable women
Marriageable women should also pray for anybody they should be dating, pray to St. Joseph so that the person that they are dating will have the fortitude and the chastity in order to protect the honor of the woman he is marrying. I find it quite sad that one of the principle manifestations of a marriageable man – that is someone who is capable of being married is self discipline in relationship to chastity as well as a willingness to fall into battle to protect the honor of the woman that he is to marry. And yet, guys aren’t looking to protect the honor of their possible upcoming spouse, they’re looking to in fact degradate their honor by committing acts of unchastity with her. So she should pray that she will find a chaste man, that is a man who has self discipline and self control. They should pray just simply to find a good spouse.
Married women
St. Joseph was the spouse of the mother of God. Married women should pray to St. Joseph to help their husbands to be men, to be a good father and to be a good provider.
How to increase devotion to St. Joseph
There are different ways of increasing this devotion. There are the standard ones which we can use in increasing any devotion to any saint – for example, obtain a picture of St. Joseph or a statue of St. Joseph and place it in a place of prominence in our home. We can pray for him frequently and ask for his intercession, and ask for his intercession with faithfulness – with faith – that is, knowing that he can provide these things if our devotion is sufficient. We can light votive candles in front of his statue and ask him to pray for us. We can entrust ourselves to his care like the Blessed Virgin Mary did. We can pray the litany of St. Joseph and the prayers that are offered to St. Joseph, and the prayers that are offered in his honor. And for priests, they can offer votive Masses of St. Joseph, which will actually benefit the faithful because of the graces that St. Joseph is able to bestow.
Again, this is a most powerful devotion, because St. Joseph is a most powerful intercessor.