Lord God, Master of every season, I thank You for the years of work You have given me. For the skills You entrusted to me, the people I worked beside, the provision for my family, and even the hard days that taught me patience, I give You thanks and praise…

Lord God, my Father, I come to You with a heavy heart. The work that gave shape to my days and support to my family has been taken from me, and I feel uncertain, discouraged, and afraid. You know all of this before I speak it. Receive my worry and my hurt, and hold me steady…

Almighty God, Lord of the harvest, I thank You for this new work and for the door You have opened before me. Every good gift comes from You, and I receive this one with gratitude…

Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations, and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance, that every prayer and work of ours may always begin from Thee, and through Thee be happily ended. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Feast day: August 7 (optional memorial) Patron of: Job seekers, the unemployed, and workers. About St. Cajetan St. Cajetan, in Italian Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene, was born in 1480 in Vicenza, in northern Italy. He earned a doctorate in law at Padua and served in the papal court in Rome, but he was drawn to a deeper life and was ordained a priest in 1516. He joined the Oratory of Divine Love, a brotherhood of priests and laypeople devoted to prayer and to serving the sick and

O glorious Saint Joseph, model of all who labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting devotion to duty before my own desires; to labor with thankfulness and joy, considering it an honor to use and develop by my labor the gifts I have received from God…

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth…