Novena to Saint Cajetan for the Unemployed and Underemployed

Introductory prayer for every day:

(Begin with the sign of the cross)
Omnipotent and everlasting God, You wanted St. Cajetan to trust in your Providence and despise earthly things and You enriched him with abundant spiritual goods, grant that those who implore the graces of your Divine Providence are aided in their necessities by St. Cajetan’s intercession. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

O glorious St. Cajetan, you studied to be a lawyer, but when you felt that the Lord was calling you to his service, you abandoned everything and became a priest. You excelled in virtues, shunning all material rewards for your labor, helping the many unemployed people of your time. You provided loans without interest and you attracted many benefactors so that you could continue your activities. Look on us with mercy. We wish to find employment that could help us and our families live with dignity. Listen to our petitions, dear saint; you who could easily give up the food on your table for the needy, bring our petitions to Jesus. (here make your request). Amen.

FIRST DAY

You were a model of virtue among the priests of your time, O St. Cajetan. You sought not to receive payments from your ministry, and you taught people how to pray the rosary and develop devotions to saints. You were truly a spiritual shepherd, and your concern was always focused on the salvation of souls. But despite this, you were also aware that with hungry stomachs, the faithful would have difficulty in understanding God’s Word. You embarked to help them, not just by giving them bread buy helping them gain their living by work.Look on us with pity, O glorious saint. We have many unemployed people in our midst and their families go hungry. We ask you to guide the fathers and mothers who are looking for work. Glorious St. Cajetan, you appreciated the healthful practice of prayer so much that your life was a continuous prayer, and to this beneficial exercise you dedicated particularly up to eight hours daily; grant us that we should be totally convinced that everything is reached by means of prayer and nothing can be gained without it and that all our prayers will be alive, faithful, reverently attentive, deeply humble, confident, and perseveringly inexhaustible. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

SECOND DAY

Despite your busy schedule, dear saint, you spent eight hours a day in prayer. Your happiness consists in being united with Jesus, to savor his presence in the Eucharist. Guide us to be like you by giving priority to prayer in our life. Enable us to savor Jesus’ presence and help us become contemplatives like you. Inspire us to understand that prayer is not just asking Jesus for our needs, but being with him, delighting in his presence. We ask you, dear saint, to lead us in this direction that we may learn to delight in Jesus’ presence. Glorious Protector St. Cajetan, whose love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament made you raise beautiful temples to Him, adorning them with magnificence, and exhorting the faithful to receive frequently the Holy Eucharist, teach us reverence to the Holy Sacrament and to receive It modestly to merit eternal life. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

THIRD DAY

Since your death, dear St. Cajetan, the unemployed people of the world have sought your intercession. Work is important to a good life. Look with pity on the millions of people in our country who wake up each morning without certainty of finding food because they don’t have work. These people become victims of desperation and some even resort to crimes to survive. Help our government leaders formulate policies that will bring about employment. You who established a bank for the needy, inspire our leaders to extend loans for the poor so that they may provide for the needs of their families. My Glorious protector St. Cajetan, whose singular devotion to Mary made you deserve her protection, particularly in the hour of your death when she sweetly said “Cajetan, come with me, my son is calling you”, intercede with this kind Mother whom we invoke during all the moments of our lives and this way She will attend to us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

FOURTH DAY

O glorious St. Cajetan, like the society where you lived, we are also beset by the same economic conundrum where the poor fall further and further behind the rich. You fasted so that the money you saved could be used to buy food for the poor, you did not accept any payment for your ministries because you wanted people to help the needy. You lived very frugally because you wanted to teach the rich about the need to share. Look with pity on our society where resources are wasted in buying useless goods, while the poor and the needy among us have not received the basic necessities. Inspire us to share that nobody among us will go hungry, and that everyone may live with dignity. My Glorious protector St. Cajetan, staunch defender of the Faith against all attacks of heresy, discoverer of what was ailing the Church, grant that we appreciate the inestimable gift of faith, without which it is impossible to please God, and swiftly reject with firmness all errors. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

FIFTH DAY

O glorious St. Cajetan, you spent long hours helping the sick and worked yourself to exhaustion in helping victims of plagues which were frequent in your time. You cared for the sick not just to heal them, but to guide them to a happy death. You wanted their souls, not their bodies. Help us to understand that we have to prepare ourselves to a happy death. May we likewise see that the most terrible sickness is our sinfulness, and we always have to examine ourselves for the sins we commit daily. Inspire us to have repentant hearts that we may always be prepared to meet the Lord. O Glorious Saint, you took so much to heart the virtue of hope that you rejected what the world had to offer and gave all your trust to God’s Providence to sustain your communities. Grant that we might live with the unshakable hope that God, through the merits of His Divine Son, will give us Eternal Life together with the means of obtaining it, and that temporary earthly goods will never serve as an obstacle to us in gaining it. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

SIXTH DAY

O humble St. Cajetan, you spoke with rulers and kings, but you never gave them much importance. You know that prestige, honor, and positions in society could only be good if they are used to help the needy and the poor. For this reason, you also confronted tyrants and stood against armies that looted, killed, and raped. Your humility did not prevent you from becoming a prophet. You only feared Jesus. Help us to remain humble and self-effacing, knowing that before God, we remain nothing. We can only be someone if we stand close to Jesus. Inspire us to follow your footsteps so that we, too, may fight for justice and help stop corruption in our government. St. Cajetan my protector, I can see your chest bursting with the love of others and your heart coming out to save the poor and to fight sin. I beseech you, grant that we love God and our neighbor with all our hearts. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

SEVENTH DAY

O glorious St. Cajetan, your unceasing fasting and penance help people understand that God must be loved above all things and above all persons. You sacrificed anything or anyone that could block you from loving God with your whole soul, mind, heart, and body. By eating little, you showed to others that man does not live on bread alone. You renewed the faith of many people, touched their hearts, and helped much in the reformation of the Church. Inspire us to fast and do penance for our sins. Instill on us the spirit of sacrifice that we, too, may love God intensely as you did. O my Glorious Saint whose deepest humility made you give up all your worldly benefices from your priesthood, grant that God will not cease to look upon us because of our pride but that we will deserve His mercies through our sincere humility. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

EIGHTH DAY

O glorious St. Cajetan, it pained you to see the Catholic Church divided into hostile groups. You always prayed for unity in the Church, asking laypersons, priests, and bishops to support the Pope through preaching, prayer, and sacrifices. You see the Church as the bride of Christ, the sacrament by which men and women can become holy. You worked hard for the return of the Protestants to the Catholic Church, and you preached against Protestant reformers who were attacking the heart of Catholic teachings. Teach us then to work for unity in our Church and at the same time, to defend her from sects and religious movements that attack her. Inspire us to follow your path. My dearest St. Cajetan, you who were patient and suffered all your life especially during the sacking of Rome when the foreign soldiers tortured you, grant us the patience to undergo the adversities of this life thus gaining our glorious crown in Heaven. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

NINTH DAY

O glorious St. Cajetan, you received many special blessings from Jesus, visions and mystical experiences because of your union with him. While contemplating the mystery of incarnation, Mary appeared to you and put on your lap the baby Jesus. You held on to the baby and made your heart his dwelling place. Jesus truly loved you and his Mother trusted you. Listen then to our petitions on this last day of our novena and bring them to Jesus. Prove to us that now in heaven you are closer to Jesus and he listens to you. Glorious Protector St. Cajetan whose perfect chastity made you deserving Mary giving you Her Son Jesus to hold, grant that we will not stain our souls with sin and will guard our purity with Christian mortification. Amen.
(Conclude with the final prayer).

Final Prayer (daily):

Glorious Saint Cajetan acclaimed by all people as father of providence because you provide miraculous aid to all who come to you in need, I stand here before you today, asking that you present to the Lord the requests that I confidently deposit in your hands.

(Mention here the graces desired.)

May these graces that I now request help me to always seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, knowing that God – who dresses with beauty the flowers of the field and abundantly feeds the birds of the sky – will give me all other things. Amen.

(This final prayer was composed by St. Cajetan himself)
“Look down, O Lord, from Your sanctuary, from Your dwelling in heaven on high, and behold this sacred Victim which our great High Priest, Your Holy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, offers up to You for the sins of His brethren and be appeased despite the multitude of our transgressions. Behold, the voice of the Blood of Jesus, our Brother, cries to You from the cross. Give ear, O Lord. Be appeased, O Lord. Hearken and do not delay for Your own sake, O my God; for Your Name is invoked upon this city and upon Your people and deal with us according to Your mercy. That You would defend, pacify, keep, preserve, and bless this city, we beseech You, hear us. Amen.”

(End each day by saying 3 Our Father’s to the Blessed Trinity, 3 Hail Mary’s to the Blessed Virgin, 3 Glory Be’s, and 3 “St. Cajetan, pray for us.”)

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