Novena for Financial Help: Catholic Prayer for Finances

A novena for financial help is nine days of prayer in which we bring our money troubles — debt, lost work, bills we cannot meet — to God through the intercession of the saints He has set over these needs. The surest of them is St Joseph, who fed the Son of God by the work of his hands, and beside him St Cajetan, the "father of Providence," St Jude and St Matthew. Below we give the complete nine-day novena to St Joseph, the short Catholic prayers for finances to each of these saints, and what the Church actually teaches about asking God for money.

The novena for financial help to St Joseph

St Joseph knew want. At the Presentation he and Mary offered "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24), the offering of the poor, and he carried the whole weight of providing for Jesus and Mary through a stable, an exile in Egypt and the long years of the workshop at Nazareth. If we are new to this form of prayer, our guide to what a novena is explains the nine days and their dispositions; the classic nine-day prayer Ever-blessed and glorious Joseph, with the thirty-day devotion, is in the novena to St Joseph. What follows is the same devotion shaped for a financial need.

Each day, in this order:

1. Sign of the Cross.
2. The reading of the day (below), read slowly as a short meditation.
3. The daily prayer, with your intention named.
4. The invocation, seven times.
5. The Memorare of St Joseph.
6. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

The prayers are those of the traditional prayer-books and the Raccolta; the choice of the nine Scripture readings, all on Providence and temporal goods, is our own arrangement for this intention.

The daily prayer

O glorious St Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, to thee do we raise our hearts and hands to implore thy powerful intercession in obtaining from the benign Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death and the special favour we now implore: (here name your need — the debt to be paid, the work to be found, the bills to be met).

O Guardian of the Word Incarnate, we feel animated with confidence that thy prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God.

The invocation (seven times)

O glorious St Joseph, through the love thou bearest to Jesus Christ, and for the glory of His name, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions.

The Memorare of St Joseph

This is the text of the Raccolta, where it stands indulgenced by a Brief of Pius IX of 26 June 1863. It may also be said alone, at any moment of urgent need:

Remember, O most pure spouse of Mary ever-Virgin, my loving protector, St Joseph, that never has it been heard that anyone ever invoked thy protection, or besought aid of thee, without being consoled. In this confidence I come before thee, I fervently recommend myself to thee. Despise not my prayer, foster-father of our Redeemer, but do thou in thy pity receive it. Amen.

Many add on each day the prayer of Leo XIII, To thee, O blessed Joseph, which begs the saint "with thy power and strength to aid us in our necessities"; its full text is given in our life of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.

The nine days

Day 1 — Go to Joseph. When famine struck Egypt, "the people cried to Pharao for food. And he said to them: Go to Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you" (Genesis 41:55). Pius IX opened his decree Quemadmodum Deus (1870) with this figure: as God set the patriarch Joseph over Egypt to store up grain for the people, so He set the second Joseph over His own household.

Day 2 — Your Father knoweth. "Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? … For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things" (Matthew 6:31-32).

Day 3 — Seek first the kingdom. "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). We put the state of our soul before the state of our account; a good confession is the best first step of this novena.

Day 4 — Daily bread. "Give us this day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3).

Day 5 — Cast thy care. "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever" (Psalm 54:23). We hand St Joseph the worry that keeps us awake at night.

Day 6 — Neither beggary nor riches. "Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life: lest perhaps being filled, I should be tempted to deny… or being compelled by poverty, I should steal" (Proverbs 30:8-9). This is the true prayer for financial stability: enough, and the grace to stay honest in plenty and in want.

Day 7 — Honest work. St Paul bids us, "working with silence," to "eat their own bread" (2 Thessalonians 3:12). We ask the carpenter of Nazareth for work, for the strength to do it well, and for fidelity to the duties of our state.

Day 8 — Alms in want. "Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person… if thou have a little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little" (Tobias 4:7, 9).

Day 9 — I will not leave thee. The angel woke Joseph by night: "Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt" (Matthew 2:13), and he went, not knowing how he would feed them in a foreign land. "Let your manners be without covetousness, contented with such things as you have; for he hath said: I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). We end in thanksgiving, whatever the outcome.

When the need is above all a lost job, the novena to St Joseph for a job carries that intention day by day.

The first prayer for finances: the Our Father

Before any saint, Our Lord Himself gave us a prayer for financial help: "Give us this day our supersubstantial bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:11-12). The Catechism of St Pius X teaches that in this fourth petition "we beg of God all that is daily necessary for soul and body." Every novena for finances is, in the end, a persevering saying of that one petition.

Prayer to St Cajetan for financial help

St Cajetan of Thiene (1480-1547), the "father of Providence," is the patron of the unemployed and of all in temporal want. Butler's Lives of the Saints tells how, when the Count of Oppido pressed him at Naples to accept an estate, warning that the Neapolitans were neither so rich nor so generous as the Venetians, Cajetan answered: "That may be true, but God is the same in both cities." In his last years, with Blessed John Marinoni, he established the benevolent pawnshops, the montes pietatis, which kept the poor out of the hands of usurers. On his feast, 7 August, the Roman Missal of 1962 prays:

O God, who didst give to blessed Cajetan, Thy Confessor, the grace to imitate the apostolic way of life: grant us, by his intercession and example, ever to trust in Thee and to desire heavenly things alone. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

The Latin says it in three words, in te semper confidere: ever to trust in God. The nine days, with the old petition for bread and work, are in the novena to St Cajetan.

Prayer to St Jude for financial help

When debts have piled up beyond any human remedy, many turn to St Jude Thaddeus, the Apostle of hopeless cases. His feast, with St Simon, falls on 28 October, so his novena runs from 19 to 27 October. The prayer-books' prayer, Most holy Apostle, St Jude, asks him "to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of"; name the financial need where it says particularly. Its full text and the nine-day form are in the St Jude novena, and the single prayer on its own in the prayer to St Jude, patron of hopeless causes.

St Matthew prayer for financial help

St Matthew was a publican, called by Our Lord from "the custom house" with two words: "Follow me" (Matthew 9:9). He is honoured as the patron of bankers, accountants and all who handle money, with his feast on 21 September. The Collect of his Mass in the Missal of 1962 fits a financial need exactly:

May we be helped, O Lord, by the prayers of the blessed Apostle and Evangelist Matthew: that what our own weakness cannot obtain may be given us by his intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

The nine days are in the novena to St Matthew.

Patron saints of money and finances

The Church names no single "patron saint of money," but long devotion has given our finances to several saints. Beside St Joseph, St Cajetan, St Matthew and St Jude, given above, the faithful turn to:

• St Homobonus (13 November) — a merchant of Cremona canonized by Innocent III in 1199, patron of businessmen; his novena to St Homobonus suits a failing business.
• St Anthony of Padua — patron of the poor, whose "St Anthony's Bread" is alms given for a favour, in the novena to St Anthony.
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help — the Mother to whom every need may be brought, in the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Prayer to get out of debt

A Catholic prayer for debt relief begins with justice. "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another" (Romans 13:8): the Baltimore Catechism, on the seventh commandment, tells us we are commanded "to pay our just debts," and warns that it is sinful to incur debts wilfully beyond our ability to pay. So we pray to be freed from debt, and we resolve to pay it, honestly and in order. Pray the novena with the debt named exactly, and take the steps of a sober steward: a budget, an honest word with creditors, help sought where it is offered.

Prayer for financial breakthrough: the Catholic view

Much that circulates as a "prayer for financial breakthrough" comes from the prosperity gospel, which holds that faith, said rightly, obliges God to make us rich. That is not Catholic. No prayer forces God's hand; chain prayers that "must" be copied to work, money spells and the cult of "Santa Muerte," which the Church's pastors have condemned, treat the sacred as a talisman, and the Catechism of St Pius X names superstition among the sins the First Commandment forbids. We ask as children ask a father: plainly, insistently, ready for something better than what we named.

The Church's view of temporal goods is summed up in the Sermon on the Mount: "Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? … Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:26, 34).

Three duties follow: trust in Providence, which forbids anxiety but not foresight; the duty of state, to work and provide for our own, since "you cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24); and almsgiving, the surest way to keep money from owning us. We gather the rest of Scripture's teaching on wealth in What Does God Say About Money?, and on fear for the future in What Does God Say About Anxiety?.

How to pray the novena, and when

The novena for financial help may be begun on any day of need, but the calendar gives it fitting seasons: 10 to 18 March, before the feast of St Joseph on 19 March; the nine days before 1 May, St Joseph the Worker; 29 July to 6 August, before St Cajetan; 19 to 27 October, before St Jude. Wednesday has long been St Joseph's day of the week, and the 1962 liturgical calendar shows each feast as it comes.

Pray at a fixed hour, join the novena where you can to Holy Mass and Communion, and give an alms, however small. If a day is missed, simply take it up again.

Novena for financial help PDF

The full text of the novena is on this page — the daily prayer, the invocation, the Memorare and the nine readings — and it prints as it stands. Better still, install Join early access here.: its novenas set each day's text before you, remind you at your chosen hour, and work offline, in Latin and English.

St Joseph, provider of the Holy Family

Butler's Lives of the Saints observes that the history of St Joseph's life "has not been written by men, but his principal actions, through the inspired evangelists, are recorded by the Holy Ghost Himself." Of royal descent yet poor, "a just man" (Matthew 1:19), he was charged with the support of the Holy Family: Joseph's wages bought the bread of Nazareth. Pius IX declared him Patron of the universal Church in 1870, and Leo XIII, in Quamquam pluries (1889), held him up to the poor and to working men as their model, a son of David's royal house who earned his living by his hands.

St Teresa of Avila wrote in her Life (ch. 6) that she could not recall ever having asked him for anything he failed to obtain, and that while other saints seem to help in one need, he helps in all. His other traditional prayers are gathered in the prayers to St Joseph, and his approved litany in the Litany of St Joseph.

Through the eyes of tradition

St Pio of Pietrelcina, widely invoked today for financial help, died on 23 September 1968, was beatified on 2 May 1999 and canonized on 16 June 2002. His feast is absent from the 1962 calendar, which keeps 23 September for St Linus, Pope and Martyr. We do not question his holiness; a traditional novena for financial help simply has older intercessors in the calendar of 1962: St Joseph (19 March), as above; St Cajetan (7 August), through the novena to St Cajetan; and St Jude (28 October), through the St Jude novena. The modern devotion itself is set out in the Padre Pio novena.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you pray for financial help?

Name the need exactly, choose one intercessor, and persevere with the same prayers at the same hour, ending with Thy will be done, while doing your own part by honest work.

How do I pray for immediate financial help?

For an urgent need — a bill due tomorrow, an eviction notice — say the Memorare of St Joseph at once, repeat through the day St Joseph, provide for us, and begin the novena that same day.

How do I pray to God for financial help?

Speak to Him as Father, in the words His Son gave us: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts. The saints pray with us and for us; every prayer to them is finally addressed, through them, to God.

Is it wrong to pray for financial help?

No. St Thomas Aquinas, following St Augustine, teaches that "it is lawful to pray for what it is lawful to desire" (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 6), and temporal goods may rightly be desired as helps to live well and save our souls. What is wrong is to want riches as an end, or money more than God.

What saint do I pray to for financial help?

If you can choose only one, choose St Joseph: he alone of the saints was charged by God with earning the bread of the Holy Family, and his novena above is built for this need.

Is there a miracle prayer for financial help?

The prayers most often called a miracle prayer for financial help are the Memorare of St Joseph and the St Jude prayer for "visible and speedy help"; both are given or linked above. What the saints obtain, they obtain by perseverance and trust, so say either one daily until the need is met.

The Iter Fidei app carries the novenas, litanies and prayers to St Joseph, St Cajetan and St Jude in Latin and English, with a reminder for each of the nine days. Join early access here.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner): Genesis 41:55; Tobias 4:7-9; Psalm 54:23; Proverbs 30:8-9; Matthew 1:19, 2:13, 6:11-12, 6:24-34, 9:9; Luke 2:24, 11:3; Romans 13:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:12; Hebrews 13:5. Butler's Lives of the Saints, St Cajetan (7 August) and St Joseph (19 March). Missale Romanum 1962, Collects of St Cajetan (7 August) and St Matthew (21 September). Leo XIII, encyclical Quamquam pluries (1889). Pius IX, decree Quemadmodum Deus (1870). The Raccolta, Memorare of St Joseph (Pius IX, Brief of 26 June 1863) and prayer To thee, O blessed Joseph (Leo XIII, 1889). The prayer O glorious St Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ and the prayer Most holy Apostle, St Jude, as carried in traditional prayer-books. Catechism of St Pius X, on the Lord's Prayer and on the First Commandment; Baltimore Catechism, on the seventh commandment. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 6. St Teresa of Avila, Life, ch. 6.