A reader from Canada (my Mom’s Home and Native Land) writes:

May I ask a little favour, plese (but only if you approve, of course). It may have been a crazy idea, but it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to get people to pray for our next elections, here in Canada. And I took the initiative of looking up at the Web site of Montreal’s St-Joseph Oratory, since I learned not very long ago something I should have known all my life: St-Joseph has been chosen as the Saint Patron of Canada back at the beginnings of our country, in 1624. Thus I tried my hand, with many sentences borrowed from the Oratory’s Web site, at writing a little prayer with the intent of sending it floating on the Web. If you like it, could you put it, or some of it, on your blog, please? I assume that many other Canadians may be reading your excellent blog.
Thank you again

Here it is, with the text I also wrote to introduce it:

Prayer to Saint Joseph

Dear fellow Canadians,

So… we are having yet another Federal election on May 2nd, 2011, and I have a suggestion. I am not writing this on behalf of any organization, religious or not, I am just a concerned citizen of Canada who happens to be a Catholic.

So, I would suggest: Why not pray to ask God to guide the results? Even better, why not have a novena? And since I learned that St-Joseph has been designated Patron Saint of Canada several centuries ago, I thought that asking for his intercession would be most favorable.

Borrowing heavily from the Saint Joseph’s Oratory Web site (www.saint-joseph.org), I have put together the following prayer. I would suggest that you follow it with the Lord’s Prayer, and/or one decade or all of a Rosary. And I think it would be a good idea to try to say this prayer on each of the 9 days preceding the voting day, or to add it to whatever novena you are in the habit of doing before or after Easter.

Prayer to St-Joseph
For a blessing on this year’s Federal Elections

O Saint Joseph, loving father, faithful guardian of Jesus and spouse of the Mother of God, we pray you to remind God the Father of all the love He feels for us in offering up the death and resurrection of His Son to give us life.

Our beautiful country, Canada, has been consecrated to you from its very beginnings. Just as Mary and Jesus recognized in you the protector given to them by the Father, so too we are placing ourselves under your protection.

We humbly ask you to intercede through the power of Jesus, and obtain for us from the eternal Father the grace to choose the best possible team of men and women to lead our country, who will be wise stewards of its riches and concerned with the good of all its citizens, working to create a more just and equitable society in harmony with God’s design.

Saint Brother André, your loving friendship with Jesus, Mary and Joseph makes you a powerful intercessor. We ask you to join your prayers to those of Saint Joseph for the best possible outcome on voting day, May 2nd 2011.
Amen

I would also ask that you help circulate this prayer. Please consider sending it to 10 people, asking each of them to forward it to 10 more people. There would soon be thousands of Christians praying for the outcome of those elections.

And… please take the time to vote! Even if you are among those who think that it cannot make any difference. Just over 1/3 of the Canadians eligible to vote have not been voting in the last few elections. If most of them decided to express their opinions through their votes on May 2, change could eventually happen. YOU hold the balance of power. On May 2nd, go out and VOTE.