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What You Can Do When
You Have Lost Your Job

 
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Prayers for the Unemployed

 

The Lord's Prayer

In difficult circumstances the familiar words of the Lord's Prayer -- "your will be done" ... "our daily bread" ... "deliver us from evil" -- often take on a new sense of meaning.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
May your Kingdom come,
   and your will be done,
   on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses,
    as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
    now and forever.  Amen.

Prayer for Employment

God, our Father, I turn to you seeking your divine help and guidance as I
    look for suitable employment.
I need your wisdom to guide my footsteps along the right path,
    and to lead me to find the proper things to say and do in this quest.
I wish to use the gifts and talents you have given me,
    but I need the opportunity to do so with gainful employment.
Do not abandon me, dear Father, in this search,
    but rather grant me the grace I seek so that I may return to you with
    praise and
thanksgiving for your gracious assistance.
Grant this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from: Catholic Online

•   •   •

Prayer of the Unemployed

Gracious and loving God, you know our need for meaningful work. Send your Holy Spirit to guide my search for employment.
Help me to recognize the gifts and talents you have given me.
Deepen my desire to follow your will.
Inspire me as I contact potential employers.
Give me patience as I wait for responses.
Shelter me from feelings of rejection.
Protect me from discouragement.
Give me courage to overcome fear.
Shower on me the graces I need to persevere.
Let this time of searching become an opportunity to grow in faith, to cultivate the virtue of hope, and to experience your healing love.
I
ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from Lorene Hanley Duquin in "When Someone Is Unemployed"

•   •   •

Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of Workers

O Saint Joseph,
    we pray to you for those who are out of work,
    and for all who want to earn their living or support their families.
You who are the patron of workers,
    grant that unemployment may vanish from our ranks;
    that all those who are ready to work may put their strength and abilities
    in serving their fellowmen and earn a just salary.
You are the patron of families;
    do not let those who have children to support and raise lack the
    necessary means to do so.
Have pity on our brothers and sisters held down in unemployment and
    poverty because of sickness, social disorder, greed or injustice.
Guide our political leaders and captains of industry to find new and just
    solutions.
May each and every one of your children on Earth have the joy of
    contributing, according to their abilities, to the common prosperity by an
    honorable livelihood.
Grant that we may all share together in the abundant goods God has
    given us and that we may never forget those even more disadvantaged
    than we are. Amen.
Adapted from: Catholic Prayerbook

•   •   •

Closing Prayer from the Employment Rosary

Lord Jesus, help me to remember that a thousand ages in your sight are as an evening past — no more than a “watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). Days begin and days end, and no situation goes on forever.
Help me to endure hardships in the trust that these difficult days, too, will pass.
In you we find infinite understanding, infinite consolation, infinite hope.
Your angels say, “Be not afraid.”
Help me to remember that your time of trial ended with the tearing of the Temple veil and the rolling back of the stone; our time of trial, too, will end in hope.
Through you, with you, in you there is nothing to be afraid of.  Amen.
Adapted from Elizabeth Scalia in the "Employment Rosary."

•   •   •

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Posted 07.11.09   Last Update: 11.03.11

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