Here are the many opportunities and ways throughout this Year of St. Joseph, from now until Dec. 8, 2021, for us to gain the plenary indulgence over and over. Fulfilling the conditions along with performing one of the particular works determined by the Penitentiary office can be done daily. One plenary indulgence per day. Remember, the only living person we can apply it to is our self. And we can apply it to any soul in purgatory. Think how many souls you get help — from relatives to unknowns by asking St. Joseph and Mary to pick out the souls for you.
Here we go:
First, because St. Joseph “invites us to rediscover the filial relationship with the Father,” renew faithfulness to prayer and listen intensely to God’s will, the plenary indulgence is granted if we meditate for at least 30 minutes on the Our Father, or be part of a “spiritual retreat of at least one day that includes a meditation on St. Joseph.”
Second, St. Joseph the just man “urges us to rediscover the value of silence, prudence and loyalty in fulfilling one’s duties.” Because St. Joseph practiced the virtue of justice in a perfectly model way “full adherence to the divine law, which is the law of mercy. So following St. Joseph’s example, we can obtain a plenary indulgence carrying out a corporal or spiritual work of mercy.
Third, St. Joseph’s main vocation was to be guardian of the Holy Family, husband of Mary, and legal father of Jesus. To inspire, enthuse and encourage all Christian families to live with the same “intimate communion, love and prayer” that the Holy Family lived, we can obtain a plenary indulgence for praying the Holy Rosary “in families and between engaged couples.” What a start this is for engaged couples’ upcoming marriage too.
Fourth, considering the feast of St. Joseph the Worker was instituted on May 1, 1955, those can gain a plenary indulgence “who daily entrust their activities to the protection of St. Joseph and all the faithful who invoke with prayer” the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker (or Craftsman) “so that who is looking for work can find a job and work [for] everyone is more dignified.”
Fifth, considering the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt “shows us that God is where man is in danger, where man suffers, where he escapes, where he experiences rejection and abandonment,” as Francis said, we can gain a plenary indulgence if we recite the Litany to St. Joseph (Latin tradition), or the Akathistos to St. Joseph, in whole or at least some of it (Byzantine tradition), or some other prayer to St. Joseph “proper to other liturgical traditions” for the Church persecuted ad intra [interior, from inside] and ad extra [exterior, from outside] and for the relief of all Christians who suffer every form of persecution.”
Sixth, “to reaffirm the universality of St. Joseph’s patronage on the Church,” we can gain a plenary indulgence if we recite any legitimately approved prayer or act of piety in honor of St. Joseph — for example, “To you, O Blessed Joseph”, especially on his feast days of March 19 and May 1, on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (this year on Sunday, Dec. 27), on the Byzantine Rite’s St. Joseph’s Sunday, on the 19th of each month and on every Wednesday, the day dedicated to St. Joseph.
“Wednesday is special to me,” Father Calloway said. “Just like we have the First Saturdays devotion, I think now we’re going to see an increase of attention to the First Wednesday of the month.” At the same time “we have the incentive to remember that every Wednesday” is dedicated to St. Joseph.
Father Calloway reminds that under these prayers to St. Joseph, we “can also do get the indulgence by doing the Consecration to St. Joseph.” Earlier this year the Apostolic Penitentiary gave him a letter granting that anyone who does the consecration can gain a plenary indulgence.